Aspiring journalists had a front-row seat to the media world at Brighton’s Journalism Recruitment Day, with exclusive access to editors from Channel 4, Sky Sports, LinkedIn, and the Daily Mail.
Approximately 100 undergraduate and postgraduate journalism students had a taste of employability issues and the challenges of getting into the industry thanks to insights from Elliot Cook (Sky Sports News), Solange Uwimana (LinkedIn), Jordan Jarrett-Bryan (Channel 4), Jem Collins (Journo Resources), Anthony Hay (Daily Mail) and Arron Hendy (The Argus).
Panellists offered insights on breaking into competitive media roles, the influence of AI on job hunting and networked directly with students. They were joined by a range of other industry insiders from companies such as The Telegraph, Sussex World, Surrey World, Guerilla Cricket, Worthing FC and Shoreham FC, among others.
Course leader for the Journalism MA and Sports Journalism MA courses, Owen Evans, said “It was brilliant to see a packed house and everyone networking, especially as it was the first ever edition. Nothing beats meeting people face-to-face in our industry, so it was an invaluable experience for our students. A huge thank you to all the industry guests who gave up their time.”
One of these industry guests was Brighton’s own Journalism graduate, Anthony Hay. Anthony now works as a Sports Editor for the Daily Mail and advised students that, “networking is very important. Especially in Journalism because its all about who you know, so coming to these events lets you meet industry leaders and creatives who will help you in the industry going forward.”
Arron Hendy, Editor for The Argus, stressed the importance of networking, as events like this “allow you to see employers face-to-face. So if you get the chance to do that, you should do so. If you impress someone you could get a placement or a job there and then. So put yourself out there and meet people. There might be opportunities you don’t even know about.”
We also caught up with Journalism MA students Isabel Meszaros and Lily Wells to hear their thoughts on the day. Isabel said that “it’s been really good to network, meet people and realise its not actually that scary. That you can talk to these people and to see how they feel. Speaking to someone over email you’re not going to understand how they actually feel about their jobs and how they got into it, but joining networking events like this really helps to get to know them better.”
Lily added that “everyone was very approachable and I found the face-to-face aspect really good to ask questions and immediately get answers back rather than waiting on an email response for weeks”.
If you’d like to get involved, find out more about studying Journalism at Brighton.
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