‘You need a lot of patience to make a career as a journalist’

When it comes to journalism, you cannot expect to work fixed hours, says Anushka Vats, who recently began her professional career as a journalist with Jagran New Media (English). A sub-editor, Anushka completed her post-graduate diploma in Television and Radio Journalism from Apeejay Institute of Mass Communication (AIMC). In an interview, she tells us more about her journey so far. Read:

What was your experience at AIMC like?

My course mainly comprised practical classes. The hands-on experience that my college provided is really helping me now in my professional career. We had practical classes for news anchoring while we also wrote news. We had a studio in our college where we practised anchoring and reporting. In a nutshell, I had a wonderful experience at Apeejay. I enjoyed my college life as I learned a lot.

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How did the college prepare you for the industry? Did you have campus placement?

In our field, which is journalism, there isn’t really any campus placement. However, the college would help schedule interviews with news organisations. More importantly, Apeejay helped me work on myself. All the assignments and projects I worked on during my college days have proved to be really useful. They helped me boost my confidence, which is why I can face the camera today without any inhibitions. The college also prepared me well for reading and writing news, which is still helping me.

What does your work at Jagran involve?

My work involves tracking and writing news articles and then publishing them on the Jagran English website. Working on how we present the news with appropriate images is also part of the job.

Now that you have started your professional journey, what are your key learnings so far?

I am learning every day and working on myself. The most important thing that I learned is that you need to be patient when you want to make a career as a journalist. You have to work hard every day without worrying about how many hours you are working. You need to put in that extra effort. I have been taught throughout my college days that a true journalist is never really on a holiday.

Can you share some tips for aspirants who want to join journalism?

I am still learning. All I can say is, read the newspaper daily and stay updated with current affairs. Even when you are online or browsing social media, look for news pieces and read them. This is extremely important if you want to become a journalist.