What I tell my J-students (and others)

6 min readNov 25, 2020

My students look depressed and it worries me. At SciencesPo’s journalism school in Paris, cohorts are rather small, which allows instructors and the school management to remain in touch with students, currently by email or video calls. We try our best. In Zoom sessions, we struggle to retain their attention, and in what was once close-knit groups, people now barely know each other.

These times are hard for students of all disciplines in most countries, except maybe, in South Korea or New Zealand.

A JAMA survey published on October 23 titled Factors Associated With Mental Health Disorders Among University Students in France Confined During the COVID-19 Pandemic draws an alarming picture: out of 69,000 students who completed the survey (average age 20; 73% women), 11% mentioned having suicidal thoughts (3 pts above a non-pandemic context), 25 percent a high level of perceived stress (+9 points), 16 percent a severe depression (+1 point), and 27% a high level of anxiety, a staggering 18-point increase vs. a non-pandemic period!

This is actually consistent with search queries on Google in France that doubled in September 2020 compared to a year earlier (read this piece in French by Marie Dollé about the subsequent “Anxiety Economy” — the text in English will be posted tomorrow here).

. . .

Coming back to teaching journalism and media — my preferred occupation at the moment — here is what I tell my J-students, or for that matter each time any student who reaches out to me with the idea of embracing a journalism career.

Five takes:

1 . Go for it. No second thoughts.

Do not listen to the pessimists or the defeatists. In this career, your future is what you make of it. If you were working for McKinsey or at the marketing department of a sub-brand of L’Oreal, at the age of 25, you could map out, with great accuracy, what you will be ten, twenty years from now, the kind of skills/strategies you will have to devise to climb the corporate ladder, etc. That I find terribly depressing. In our trade, careers that wind between risks and opportunities are the norm. You need to learn to deal with constant uncertainty. Yes, you will have several jobs. Many might not even exist today. Some will be good, some not exactly what you hoped. But this is what you signed up for.

Keep in mind that journalism remains one of the most exciting professions. Even today. Regardless of your current position, you will always have the possibility of doing enthralling side work, a long-form piece, a video project, a podcast, or even a book that you will work on regularly, like a sculptor with their clay.

2 . Start publishing. Now.

You are more than students. From now on, consider yourself as young professionals in the field of journalism. Start to put together your portfolio. Find something you particularly care about, a topic you want to explore further, and start writing, filming, podcasting about it. The palette of tools to showcase your idea is vast and rather fun to use.

Your future employer will definitely appreciate the effort. They will retain the fact that you tried, and they will be forgiving if your work ends up just so-so. Above all, they will be curious about what matters to you, how you see the world. (Don’t work for people who are blasé, dismissive, or negative. They don’t deserve your talent and energy.)

Producing something on a regular basis will be your “Sheepskin Effect” (an economic theory that correlates academic achievement and an individual’s value on the job market). More prosaically, by publishing regularly, you will demonstrate your level of raw energy, conscientiousness, and industriousness. Everyone will (or should) notice. Yes, it is quite a bit of work to publish regularly (trust me, this is the 606th Monday Note). But Lavoisier is our common master. The 18th-century chemist once said, “Nothing is lost, everything changes [of state].” In other words, do the research once, recycle the material in new and interesting forms as many times as you can: a class assignment, a year-end essay, your secret project… For the Monday Note, I have, on an ongoing basis, five or ten topics I’m researching on, putting aside a series of links here, downloading an academic paper or a lecture there. Sometimes, I write a quick outline to see if I can create something that makes sense.

You have no excuse not to do it. Pick a medium that fits your taste and aspirations: it could be a blog, a newsletter, a podcast, or a YouTube channel. Don’t do it alone; it’s great to have a pal with whom you can bounce ideas, polish your work, get a boost when you are down, and vice-versa.

3 . Master all publishing techniques & digital tools.

You must master not only most publishing platforms (newsletters systems such as Substack, Mailchimp, TinyLetter, Revue, of course, WordPress and Medium) but also editing tools for video and audio production. You must be organized to the point of obsession, grabbing all the tools that can save you some precious time. There is no room for someone not to be proficient with G-Suite. If you can add a good level on Excel, Airtable, or Notion, that’s even better. There are literally thousands of resources that can help you in that field. Having said that, pick the tools that best fit the needs of the moment. You will have time to refine your skillset later.

4 . Become good at something.

I will stop short of endorsing the old “follow your passion” adage, which is a misleading oversimplification. Passion comes after you throw hard work to become super good at something by developing rare and valuable know-how. While I’m not expecting this from busy J-students or the ones I teach media studies to, this must be the North Star for all of them. Rather than holding forth on my own, here are two videos about a great book titled “So Good They Can’t Ignore You” by Cal Newport, a computer science professor at Georgetown University: this short segment frames the issue, and this longer one is a 40-minute lecture by the author. If you want to delve further, take a look at the work of the Yale professor of organizational psychology, Amy Wrzesniewski, Ph.D., or listen to her podcast.

5 . Embrace entrepreneurship.

Once out of school (and preferably before), have your small business structure ready. You will be in a better position to perhaps expand and monetize the small stuff you started while a student, but you also will be able to invoice people and organizations. Be prepared to tell your putative employer reluctant to grant you the full-fledged contract you are craving for: “OK, I understand… But what if, instead of being your salaried employee, I actually invoice you for a start? We draft a small contract stating this and that [have an idea what you will ask for] and let’s see where it goes…” All of a sudden, you will pique the interest of your interlocutor. French journalism guilds always go ballistic when I say this publicly to a group of aspiring journalists; they see my stance as condoning precariousness. That is not true. But, for me and many others, when given no choice, I have always preferred a precarious status in a great job than a safe and secure occupation griping as a counter teller.

Life is a risk. But it’s worth it. Especially in the news business.