| Five pieces of career advice: ZOE WALKER. |
| Written by Zoe Walker | |
| Wednesday, 14 December 2011 16:41 | |
Noted fashion writer - for the NZ Herald's Viva - ZOE WALKER shares her five pieces of career advice for aspiring journalists... One / Be a writer before you are a fashion writer. Obviously you need an interest in fashion, but I think the best fashion writers are those that didn't set out to work 'in fashion'. Two / Study. Do a journalism/communications/English/media degree. Essentially to be a writer you simply need to write - and having a blog is a good way to develop your style and voice - but if you're young and after a paid writing job at a magazine or newspaper, a degree tends to appeal to editors. Three / Read! Read as much as you can and as widely as you can - a pile of old British Vogues, a list of literary classics, the business section of the newspaper, the online archive of your favourite newspaper/magazine writer… anything! Four / Be prepared to write for free for a while - a sad reality, because people should be paid for their talent. Writing for independent publications is a good way to grow your portfolio of work, but in NZ especially, they often don't have a lot of budget. Five / Respect your elders. The Internet may be changing the face of traditional media, but the old school still know a lot more than you and I! Respect that, and learn from them. Follow Zoe on Twitter @iamzoewalker - HERE. |
