Responses via Google form:
\nI asked colleagues to talk about their first journalism jobs to help recent graduates as they begin their careers in the journalism. Here is a collection<\/p>\n

Metro reporter, the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch. I covered education, but also sometimes cops and courts. I also covered a public execution at this job. <\/p>\n

I wrote 5-7 stories a week about a rural part of Kansas City. It paid about 25,000 a year. After a year, they gave us a “raise” to 28K. No one stayed there past 1.5 years, even though it was a 2-year fellowship. I got a great backbone, but I almost burned out. Plus, I ate way tooo much spaghetti.<\/p>\n

Working for a five day a week newspaper, The Angleton Times, with a circulation of 5,000. I made $200 a week in 1987. I worked as a bartender at night to make enough to pay the rent, for groceries and car repair bills. I did everything from taking photos to laying out the paper. I gained so many skills and I made so many mistakes at that small paper. But I tell aspiring journalists to start small and make your big mistakes in small places. If you make big mistakes in big places, it’s a lot more painful. <\/p>\n

Page designer – straight out of college. Worked there for two years. No copy editing or headline writing. That was done by a different department. That has all changed and designers now edit copy\/write headlines, proof pages, etc. And sometimes a lot more than that, too. We used to also have specialties, like sports or features. It’s a one-size-fits-all now.<\/p>\n

I produced podcasts for The New Yorker.<\/p>\n

Entry level online producer at the Hartford Courant. (Assistant Online Producer) <\/p>\n

I started working at the paper I’m at now as a news assistant. It was a lot of grunt work but I made it very clear to the editors I wanted to be a writer. Two days after I started I was given an assignment and now I’m an education reporter.<\/p>\n

State copydesk, taking the adjectives out of school lunch menus (“fresh green salad” = “salad”). <\/p>\n

My first professional, paid journalism job after graduating college was a 5-month contract position doing research for a well-known business trade magazine. I got the position because of a professor that I did an assistantship with in graduate school who happened to be a former executive editor at another publication for the company. She knew they were looking for someone and she recommended me. That job led directly to a full-time position within the same company at another business trade mag that was the no. 1 publication worldwide covering that business trade.<\/p>\n

Capital News 9 in Albany. One man band station. (I think they now are called Your News Now).<\/p>\n

I talked my way into a job as an assignment editor at the Telemundo station in Miami.<\/p>\n

I was taken on as a contractor doing web production for DenverPost.com while a junior in college. After graduation, I was hired full time. It has actually been my only paid work as a journalist, though I have done several paid and unpaid internships and some freelance work.<\/p>\n

Town hall and health reporter for the Beaufort Gazette in Beaufort, South Carolina (circ. 12,000).<\/p>\n

Contributor to the now folded Georgia Guardian writing pieces on urban affairs and revitalization efforts.<\/p>\n

My first “real” newspaper job was copy editing and designing pages at the Sun Herald in Biloxi, Mississippi. After three months, I became a producer\/developer\/designer\/fixer-of-things for the paper’s website. <\/p>\n

Reporter copy editor at Lexington Herald-Leader. John Carroll era. <\/p>\n

General assignment\/night cops reporter for 12K-circulation local newspaper<\/p>\n

Staff writer for Midwest Real Estate News, a trade magazine in Chicago. Also, I never had an internship, for what it’s worth. Went straight into the job market in 2004. Was unemployed for 7 months before landing my first gig, though.<\/p>\n

Copy editing and design at a smallish newspaper.<\/p>\n

Staff reporter covering education\/courts\/cops\/features and monthly columnist (outdoor adventure themed) at the Jackson Hole News&Guide in Jackson, Wyoming.<\/p>\n

I started out as a casual reporter on a weekly community newspaper. I mostly wrote arts & lifestyle pieces. I landed the paid gig after completing an internship at the publication.<\/p>\n

Writing for the technology section of a major newspaper<\/p>\n

newspaper reporter at a small daily<\/p>\n

I was an editor with the weekly community sections published by The Dallas Morning News. It was kind of life being in a small town paper, having to do everything for my sections \u2014 write, edit, blog, tweet, photograph, proof, content development, etc.<\/p>\n

Freelance stories for a regional biz newsweekly.<\/p>\n

copy editor at a small daily paper<\/p>\n

Just got it! I’m the mobile\/search\/social producer for azcentral.com. I work 6a-3p M-F, managing the Facebook and Twitter accounts and helping our journalists with personal branding and social media education.<\/p>\n

It was while I was in school. Clerk job at local paper.<\/p>\n

editorial assistant for data and research at The Chronicle of Philanthropy<\/p>\n

Job at The St. Ignace News. General assignment reporter. <\/p>\n

I was a reporter at the Employment & Training Reporter, a weekly newsletter published by BNA in Washington, D.C. ETR covered employment and training programs for disadvantaged, chronically unemployed and laid-off workers.<\/p>\n

copy editing on the Universal Desk at the Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n

Well, it’s happening right now. I work for Sun Newspapers (@sunnewspapers) – a chain of 11 weekly community newspapers around Cleveland. I scored this gig (in my hometown, no less) five months out of college (Ohio University).<\/p>\n

The job I have now. Associate producer for MassLive.com.<\/p>\n

Neighborhood reporter, St. Petersburg Times<\/p>\n

Reporter\/Photojournalist at a 150th market TV station in North Carolina.<\/p>\n

Research librarian at The Palm Beach Post<\/p>\n

Responses via Twitter:<\/p>\n