Tag: My Future

Why this college graduate is choosing to stay in Philadelphia: should a graduate move on?

Standing on the famed steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in October 2005.
Standing on the famed steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in October 2005.

I was given an open invitation for an entry level job writing copy for CNN.com in Atlanta. The pay was bad, and the reporting probably rudimentary, but it was a good name, a position with a clear line of succession and a straight path to New York or Los Angeles – the media markets in which professors and professionals tell young journalists we want to be. There the money is good and the reporting is top-level.

Instead, I am trying to get a job in Philadelphia – a city that has hated itself for at least the last half-century. Let me tell you why.

Continue reading Why this college graduate is choosing to stay in Philadelphia: should a graduate move on?

Philadelphia, I need a place to live

My former home in Philadelphia on the 3300-block of North Park Avenue.
My former home in Philadelphia on the 3300-block of North Park Avenue.

I am moving to Philadelphia.

Back to Philadelphia. So, I am looking for a home. Another home.

For two years, I lived on the bottom floor of a row home in the 3300-block of North Park Avenue in the Lower Tioga neighborhood of North Philadelphia.

I walked to the Allegheny stop on the Broad Street line. I had a 15-minute bicycle ride to Center City. I had a big bed, a tall ceiling and a full kitchen. I never paid more than $400, utilities included. I didn’t pay for water.

That’s not happening again. I’m just trying to remind myself I was spoiled and now that I am a big, old, adult what I need in a home has changed somewhat.

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Young, new media writer and journalist looking for Philadelphia accommodations: a cover letter

Somebody hire me.

I have returned from more than a month of backpacking Europe and travel podcasting at WeDontSpeaktheLanguage.com.

Now I am excited to put all I have learned to work in one of the world’s great cities. So, here’s my idealistic plea.

I want challenging work in Philadelphia; work that requires me to write about, learn and explore this city and the people living in it. I want to live in it too, riding my bicycle and SEPTA and eating water ice the whole while. Oh, and let’s get one of those 44 million uninsured Americans on the right path.

See my resume here; check my portfolio.

If you know of something, contact me. Even if you just have a suggestion or some advice, or if your grandmother’s neighbor once freelanced for TV Guide. While I have applied for a few opportunities, believe me, I am open to others.

Want to know more read on.

Continue reading Young, new media writer and journalist looking for Philadelphia accommodations: a cover letter

What I want to do

Last month I posted about how damn TV shows affect how I feel about where I am destined professionally.

I am not someone who is very good at living in the moment, at enjoying what I have without worrying what will come next. Currently, I am taking a stab at fighting that instinct, backpacking through Europe without much in the way of plans or professional opportunities waiting.

Still, I think it’s worth making it clear to myself what it is I want.

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The Wire: Should I learn something from Season 5

I’ve been told relentlessly that The Wire is the best show that has been on TV in years. Aside from Slate magazine, I got that message no less than a dozen times from friend and journalist Chris Reber.

I watched the first episode for the first time yesterday and, instead, got caught up in reading about the background from creator and writer David Simon, a former reporter for the Baltimore Sun. He wrote a fascinating piece in a February issue of Esquire, focusing on his time and learning with the Sun – whose then editor, Bill Marrimow, now leads the ship at the Inquirer – to whom I recently offered advice.

Continue reading The Wire: Should I learn something from Season 5

Harvard University rejected me

Got an e-mail from Harvard University yesterday:

Thank you for your application to the following position at Harvard University. Although we are unable to further your candidacy for this specific position at this time, we appreciate your interest in Harvard.

I applied Aug. 15 for a full-time position I saw on Journalism Jobs, called the assistant editor of the Digital Journalism Project, part of the school’s Nieman Foundation.

The position appears to have been taken down from J-Jobs, so I’ll post the description here. Sounded like fun.

Continue reading Harvard University rejected me

I am the future of journalism (Publish2: 12/30/08)

By Christopher Wink | Dec. 30, 2008 | Publish2

It is 11:55 p.m. on Dec. 30, 2008: minutes before deadline. Perfect.

I am very young and very green. Sometimes I spend entire hours thinking about everything I don’t know. Then I go ask a journalist.

My name is Christopher Wink, and I am the future of journalism because I don’t know anyone who loves the history of journalism and is excited by the future of journalism as much as I am. New media punditry is mostly filled with those who say print is dead and seem downright gleeful about it, and those who are still wondering, hey, why don’t all the newspapers get together and not put any content online?

I want to do both.

Continue reading I am the future of journalism (Publish2: 12/30/08)

UWire 100: I'm on it

UWIRE REALIZED PEOPLE LOVE lists.

The 14-year-old college journalism association spent the past few months compiling their inaugural list of what they’re calling the UWire 100 – the 100 top, most promising college journalists in the country. It’s a first go of it, so it is surely not comprehensive, but an honor nonetheless. See the list here.

It also seems strange to be called a top college journalist even though I graduated on Thursday.

Here’s my page.

I am also happy to report that my good friend and fellow Temple alumnus Sean Blanda made the list. See his page here.

Check out coverage of the list by CBS News here, by CNN here, by Editor and Publisher here, by the Chronicle of Higher Education here, and by Gawker here.

Also, one of the other young journalists with whom I will be working this summer in Harrisburg made the list, David Spett of Northeastern Northwestern’s celebrated Medill School of Journalism.

Why I am everywhere online and you should be, too

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Understand, I take relish in few things as much as I do in being an old head, knowing little about technology, what is new and fresh.

The trouble is that I am modestly pursuing a career in media. I graduate from Temple University in less than three months, with no job, little direction, and few goals. My chances for success just got smaller.

So, it was in early December 2007, with my fears and worries just beginning to rumble, that I launched this Web site. It was, as I first described it, a modest foot print in what, I assumed, would someday require a great deal more structure. The world’s dependent on the Internet is not lessening. This is the best, most effective way to market oneself.

I wasn’t going to blog. I promised myself I wasn’t going to blog. But then, there wasn’t much chance I could keep steady readership to develop a community (hello!) but also to increase my searchability on Google, (currently tops for “christopher wink” and second for “chris wink“) -It doesn’t help that someone of quasi-fame shares my name, as Chris Wink is the founder of the Blue Man Group.

Continue reading Why I am everywhere online and you should be, too

My Harrisburg Internship

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Well, I am taking another swing at this whole ‘getting a job’ upon graduating in May.

Today, I am submitting my name for an internship in capital city Harrisburg, Pa., with the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents Association, associated with the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, the group that awarded me, among others, a Keystone Press Award earlier this month Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents’ Association.

It is a 12-week program paying $500 a week. Interns spend two- or three-week rotations writing for The Philadelphia Inquirer (350,000 circulation) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (214,000 circulation) Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa., 109,000 circulation)) and The Patriot-News in Harrisburg.

So, I just packaged my resume, an academic transcript and five clips, including my recent-most byline on accountants serving abroad for the Philadelphia Business Journal, a story I wrote for the Inquirer on a portrait of Pope John Paul II in April 2006, and my well-received profile of a Temple alumnus who fought in World War II, and a story I wrote for the Inqy on accidentally acquiring hepatitis in March 2006. I also submitted the initial story I wrote on Temple University seeking a new dean for its Japan campus.

Wish me luck!