Multimedia Journalist Matthew Gonzalez

A new gig and thoughts on getting a sweet job after graduation

Posted: October 03, 2008

Oct. 2 was my last day at the University of Florida Office of Web Administration.

I have accepted a position in the UF Levin College of Law communications department. I am now the online communications coordinator - a fancy title for webmaster.

The position is an interesting one. It is a true mix between the communications field and the Web.

When I saw the job listing about three weeks ago, it was hard to pass over. The skills needed for the job seemed to be the culmination of everything I'd learned in the College of Journalism and Communications and refined at WebAdmin - a perfect fit for any recently graduated online media journalist, like myself.

There are plenty of plans for the law school concerning the Web and accompanying blog posts, but what I want to focus on is how I - again, a recent graduate - got a full-time, well paying job with benefits in a time when other recent grads are struggling to find anything.

I attribute my success to a couple of things:

• I learned a trade, not a philosophy: I am constantly explaining to people why I received a Bachelor's of Science in journalism and not a Bachelor's of Art; journalism, and Web design for that matter, are skills more than ways of thinking or an amalgamation of theoretical principles. In other words, I learned how to do journalism and Web design, which meant that when I graduated I was plenty qualified to be a journalist or a Web designer. It's like I went to trade school.
• I already had a job and didn't move back "home": When I graduated from UF, I had been working for WebAdmin for more than 10 months and had been doing a lot of good work. I asked my director if I could start working 40 hours a week and she could see they needed the help, so WebAdmin was nice enough to allow me this opportunity. Because I was relatively financially stable and independent, I was able to search for a job at a leisurely pace while already employed. If I'd up and moved from Gainesville right after graduation, I would have had to move back in with my parents in Miami and frantically look for a job in order to move back out of my parents' house.

So my advice to those soon to graduate:

• Make sure you know what you can do with your degree before you graduate. The time to think about this is in school, not after.
• You don't have to leave your college town immediately upon graduation.
• Find a good part-time job before you graduate so you can look for a job while already employed. That way you're not pressed for money and, therefore, time. It removes a lot of the pressure from the situation.

• Categories:
• Job Market, University of Florida

• Delicious
• Digg
• Reddit
• Facebook
• Stumbleupon