Start your career planning here.
We are a team of experienced journalists guiding students to be competitive in the job market. We offer one‐on‐one advising, a full calendar of career workshops and events, an annual Career Expo and extensive professional development resources.
Career Events
Our Commitment
The Office of Career Development trains, supports and advocates for every student regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, geography, religion, disability, academic and extracurricular interest, family circumstance, sexual orientation, gender-identity or socio-economic background.
We believe that every Columbia student is unique and uniquely talented, and we are committed to helping each student launch and achieve their individual goals. Our personalized career guidance covers all facets of the job hunt, from writing resumes and cover letters, to developing interview skills, finding mentors and negotiating equitable salaries, to understanding news media companies and what they’re looking for in job and internship candidates.
We encourage all efforts to end discrimination of any kind in hiring practices, promotions, beat assignments and other areas of newsroom management in the media. We promise to uphold principles of anti-racism, inclusion and equal treatment in our offices and to communicate these values to employers.
Career Development
Editors, producers and hiring managers consistently seek out J-School students and graduates to find the reporting and cutting-edge skills they need in their newsrooms. Advisors meet one-on-one and guide students through every stage of the job-hunting process so they can find jobs and internships that make the best use of their skills and interests. Students learn valuable career-building strategies including:
- How to write journalism-specific resumes and cover letters that best highlight skills and prior experience
- An understanding of the profile, structure and kinds of positions available in multimedia newsrooms
- Ways to showcase selected work through social media and online portfolios
- Strategies to mine job opportunities, develop contacts and network
- How to prepare for and succeed in a job interview
- Negotiating offers
- How to pitch freelance work to editors
Career Expo
The annual spring Career Expo is open exclusively to graduating students at Columbia Journalism School. The Career Expo showcases the wide range of news organizations operating today, from legacy media to digital startups and international, national, regional and hyperlocal outlets, general news, single issue/topic-focused and investigative websites producing content in a variety of media, including text, video, photo, audio and data visualizations.
The Career Expo takes place every spring and is limited to the graduating students of Columbia Journalism School.
Following each year’s Expo, our advisors guide students as they build on their new contacts, manage follow‐up interviews, weigh offers and negotiate terms. The Expo is a once‐in‐a‐lifetime networking opportunity where professional relationships start and continue for years to come.
Columbia-Exclusive Opportunities
Every year J-School students have the opportunity to compete for a range of exclusive paid post‐graduate fellowships. These include reporting and editing fellowships based at the Journalism School and a number of shorter‐term fellowships at some of the most prestigious news organizations in the U.S. and overseas.
Currently, Columbia sponsors several fellowships at Columbia Journalism Review and Columbia Journalism Investigations. Within the industry, students can apply for exclusive internships at ABC News, BBC, FRONTLINE and other companies. Opportunities evolve every year.
For Employers
The Office of Career Development works throughout the year to connect employers with our students and alumni for paid internships, freelance opportunities and jobs. We offer several resources for employers including:
- Free accounts on JobNews: our password‐protected job listing database
- MEET THE MEDIA: brown bag sessions with students
- Interview days on campus and virtually
- Promoting jobs and internships to students and alumni
- Career Expo: the largest journalism job fair in the country
Employers who would like to connect with the Office of Career Development or meet J-School students are encouraged to email Shumaisa Rehman-Nabi, Assistant Director, Career Development.
For Alumni
Columbia students benefit from a vast and loyal alumni network like no other in journalism. J-school alumni occupy many top jobs in newsrooms and frequently “pay it forward” by reaching out to their alma mater to fill positions. More recent alumni are also generous in offering guidance and connections. Throughout your time at Columbia, you’ll develop career-building skills and networks that will help you for years to come.
Alumni have access to a variety of career resources, which are listed here. The J-school's Office of Alumni Relations offers access to an alumni directory, events, and more. Additional benefits and resources are offered by the Columbia Alumni Association.
If you are a hiring editor or producer and want to interview students of the Journalism School for jobs and paid internships, we welcome you to contact Career Development or see Information for Employers.
Meet the Team
Anusha Shrivastava ‘02 is a higher education professional with over two decades of newsroom experience in broadcast, print and digital content across three countries. She's overseen connections with the J-School's 15,000+ global alumni as its Director of Alumni Relations, and for six years led career development and alumni relations at Columbia's Statistics department. She also taught a course on professional development, covering topics including digital presence, negotiation and mentoring. In her prior stint with career services, Anusha helped organize the Career Expo, edited resumes and cover letters and ran mock interview sessions and employer meetings. For over 20 years, she was a business reporter in the U.S., Canada and India. Most recently, she was at The Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones in New York. Previously, she was an on-air reporter for BBC World's 'India Business Report' in New Delhi and the web editor at The Globe and Mail in Toronto. She also worked at The Associated Press in NYC, the Hartford Business Journal in Hartford and The Republican American in Waterbury.
Anusha Shrivastava
Associate Dean
Gina Boubion was a newspaper reporter and editor at the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Philadelphia Daily News and San Jose Mercury News, and has written stories, essays and fiction for Latina, Brides, The Antioch Review, 580 Split and others. She advises students on writing and reporting across platforms, including magazines, newspapers and online publications. B.A. Pomona College, M.S.J. Northwestern University, M.F.A. Bennington College. Member, National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
Gina Boubion
Director
Shumaisa Rehman-Nabi
Assistant Director
Contact Us
Office of Career Development, Columbia Journalism School
Email: [email protected]
Need help with JobNews, recruiting or registering for the Career Expo? Contact Shumaisa Rehman-Nabi, Assistant Director.