For What it's Worth
Working for free is worth more than its weight in pocket lint
By Genevieve DeBellis
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Illustraion by Rebekah Williams. Photo by Genevieve DeBellis. |
Working for free may seem like an absurd thing to do but for most budding journalists, it’s a reality.
Veteran journalists have been there, done that as a way of reaching their goal of one day getting paid to write.
Edward Keenan, city editor for Eye Weekly, found himself in that predicament when he was starting out. He dropped out of Ryerson’s School of Journalism just one year short of graduation, figuring some lessons could only be learned through being thrust into a real newsroom with real scenarios. After a short-lived position at an environmental waste management magazine and dabbling in the restaurant business, he participated in Eye Weekly’s three-month full-time internship and eventually climbed the ladder to become the magazine’s city editor, his current job.
In five years, Keenan has advanced from intern to staff writer (a position created especially for him) to associate editor and finally to city editor.
He now tries to prepare interns for what awaits them, just as Eye Weekly’s staff did for him.
“The things that impress me about an intern are the things that impress me about anyone,” says Keenan. “You don’t have to be perfect overnight. Like I said, there is a lot of learning that takes place on the job and I think I and the other editors are very open, willing and eager to help somebody develop their skills.”
Hard work combined with drive, says Keenan, is what impresses editors most.
Jackie Davis spent her summers interning at Explore magazine. The summer after she graduated, she signed a contract with Explore and is now an associate editor. She understands the summer is usually the time when students work to make their money for the year, but Davis thinks working for free is worth it, if you can afford it. For her, it was a priceless opportunity.
Tamara Hanson, a freelance writer from Calgary, Alberta, started off not knowing writing was in her future. She graduated from the University of Regina in 1995 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. All the while, she kept writing as a hobby. When she realized she wanted to write for a living, she dove into it full time. She built her portfolio and produced a variety of different writing pieces. One of her first gigs was for the website, Askmen.com. She was paid next to nothing for her work, but it got her foot in the door.
Once Hanson had built up her portfolio, she discovered that Calgary Living magazine was looking for freelancers. She sent in her resume and they employed her to write an article on Jaguars, the car not the animal. It was something she knew little about, but it was her first paying gig, so she put her heart and soul into it.
Hanson knows the frustration when it comes to writing for free. “You’re doing all this work, and you know you’re just putting everything you have into doing these projects. You feel kind of bitter because you know you should be getting paid more,” she says. “In the same breath, you want to build up that portfolio so that you can write for more money and get what you deserve for what you’re worth.”
Writing for free may not produce cold, hard cash but it does provide other benefits. Sipping champagne with the stars of the hit television show Gossip Girl was only one of the rewards editorial intern Paul Aguirre received while working for Wish magazine. These benefits seem to be enough payment for Aguirre while he finishes up his journalism degree at York University.
Motivation can be difficult to muster when you’re working so hard and not getting paid. However, attending VIP parties and receiving lots of free swag gives Wish’sinterns incentive.
Aguirre says a good attitude is also important. “Even if you’re not the greatest writer, you need to pretend you’re the greatest writer,” he says. ”It all comes down to ‘Can you put words together? Can you edit?’ You have to have skills to back it up.”