Career Development for Students

Whether you are coming straight from college, changing professions or seeking to redirect or accelerate your journalism career, the Office of Career Development will help you plan your job hunt. 

Career Development Resources

To access our resources and make appointments with a member of the team, please log in to 12twenty.

Career Expo for Students

Columbia Journalism School's annual Career Expo takes place every spring and is open exclusively to graduating students of Columbia Journalism School.

The Career Development team helps students prepare for the Expo all year long. 

Career-Related Events and Workshops

Throughout the year, the Office of Career Development presents dozens of career events so students can learn job-hunting skills, become informed about the structure and types of positions that exist in various newsrooms and network with industry professionals. These sessions are an important part of your journalism education. The more you know about a company, its verticals, its style, its competition and its people, the better prepared you will be when you approach that company for jobs, internships and freelance assignments. The Office of Career Development offers several types of programming, including:

  • Meet the Media: Information sessions with editors and producers from news organizations.
  • Workshops: Get trained on how to strengthen your digital presence on LinkedIn, write journalism resumes and cover letters, and appear in mock interviews.
    View from the Trenches: Alumni return to campus to talk about their careers and give the inside scoop on their companies.
  • On-Campus/Virtual Recruiting: Throughout the academic year, news organizations come to campus to meet and recruit students for internships, fellowships and jobs. 
  • Career Expo: This networking event takes place every spring.
  • Events are publicized on 12twenty and via email.


Internships and Fellowships

Internships and fellowships are often our students' first position after graduation regardless of one's level of experience. We define internships and fellowships as paid positions of limited duration. For our students, unpaid post-graduate internships are uncommon, and we don't encourage you to pursue them.

Internships are often excellent first steps or transitions. They’re a chance to break into a company, launch in a new medium or beat, and often serve as tryouts for full-time jobs. Internships get you on the inside, where you’re more likely to hear about job openings and, as a known entity to editors, you’ll have a competitive edge. We urge you to explore 12twenty, LinkedIn and companies’ career pages for internship resources.

In addition to the hundreds of established internship programs that exist across the country and internationally, Columbia Journalism School offers a number of Exclusive Fellowship and Internship opportunities in newsrooms at Columbia and in the wider journalism industry. These opportunities are available exclusively to our graduating students. 

Academic Year Internships - Policy and Guidance

Columbia Journalism School students work across multiple platforms and are highly competitive in the journalism job market, both nationally and internationally. For a closer look at last year’s class at the time of graduation, see where the class of 2023 landed. The data reported in the chart above is self-reported by students in the annual end-of-year Graduation Survey. 
 

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Membership Organizations

Many of these organizations host events, post job listings and offer resources and access to mentors. They are excellent starting points for networking. Several of the national associations have student chapters at the Journalism School

Find Us

Office of Career Development
The Fiona and Alex Kirk Suite
Mezzanine Level, Toni Stabile Student Center
2950 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10027

Each member of the Careers Team hosts weekly drop-in office hours in person and/or on Zoom, or is available by appointment.

Please note: Office hours are subject to change, so consult the Sunday evening This Week at the J-School email for confirmation of this week's office hours.

For questions about 12twenty, exclusive fellowships and internships, Career Expo and more, please contact Shumaisa Rehman-Nabi, assistant director.