Like me about a year ago, you are probably yearning for some sort of journalist career that would look good on your CV in later life. I am in my final year of A-level and I am now writing for several companies, mostly as a hobby for free but some of it comes around as paid work. Here are some tips that could kickstart your small time career as an article writer.

1:TWITTER

I am an avid twitter user. I found it is often a lot more fast paced than Facebook and also you an approach random strangers with ease. Networking and waiting for the right opportunity is what landed me some writing in my local newspaper and online, as people often recruit for a last minute job and send out an appeal on twitter, which you could pick up on.

2: TAKE ANY OPPORTUNITY

This is very important. Often you will have to go out of your comfort zone to land some minor writing jobs, but you must appreciate that it will all be worth it when you can use even the smallest job as a reference that could springboard you into more respective jobs. You can’t afford to wait around hoping that writing about a topic you like will come along, just take what you can get!

3: Money? Don’t make me laugh.

Understand that if you are getting paid a decent wage for writing, you are probably a writer for a high end newspaper with masses of circulation. You are not at that stage yet. Working for free is typically the way you start in Journalism but you should not see this as a problem. People would be more likely to give you a task if it is for free, and you can use the opportunities to showcase how well you actually write and use them as references to future employers.

4: The waiting game

Be patient.corresponding by Email takes a complete age. I often get emails back MONTHS after I had sent it it to a company with a ‘sorry we were swamped’ tagline. Don’t let on that you are too keen by sending multiple emails, because they will find you too keen and annoying and could easily drop you.

5:Try the Internet

The internet is a great tool so why aren’t you using it? As a younger writer it is often easier to start online because you don’t need to ever reveal your face to the employers. This allows them to be impartial and only base what they they think of you solely on the quality of your work. Also in the real world there are often less opportunities that mainly require some form of extensive qualification. Doing odd-jobs on the internet for people is often how you pick up your first job and build your portfolio.

6:Never be rude to your employer

You are new, not respected. They tell you what to write, you write it. When you are starting it doesn’t pay to try and manipulate your employer because they could just drop you easily. Just try and keep on top of what your employer demands of you, stick to deadlines and don’t screw up that dramatically.

and finally….

7: Never give up

The writing world can be a difficult one. You will often get refused or stuck in something you don’t enjoy. Just know that you have to endure rejection or a long wait because it will all help in the end when you end up landing a top job after years writing menial pieces.

I hope you take my advice to heart, as doing small jobs will often lead to greater things, which with all of the pieces you do combined could snowball into success.