Note to future journalists: Don’t get your parents to do it
Posted: January 1, 2013 Filed under: J-school, Newsroom | Tags: journalism, Journalism school, LinkedIn, Toronto Star 4 Comments »I got a lot of reaction after a mom reached out to me via LinkedIn looking to get her son, a journalism student, a summer job in our newsroom. (A few people suggested I hire the mom for her social media savvy.)
Sadly, it appears this isn’t the only student with parents more than keen to help.
Exhibit B: from the Toronto Star’s log of calls to its City Desk in 2012:
I’ve always thought the worst insult for a journalist is to be labelled lazy.
Great reporters, great journalists are tenacious. They are dogged. They are driven, sometimes to the point of obsession.
They don’t ask mom and dad for help.
Hmm. Sometimes determined kids come from determined families. Two of the best young reporters I ever hired had parents who contacted me at one time or another.
I see a huge difference between parents passing on a spirit of determination and parents that are representing their adult children to the world. If I am recruiting a new staff member and their mom calls on their behalf…um…no. Good parenting (imo) is about helping your children make their way in the world, not doing it on their behalf – especially when they are adults!
Depends on how you do it. I’ve regularly got in touch with reputable sources through parents.
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