Getting Hired @ Magazines

Most staff writers would indeed have degrees these days. A stable writing gig at a big magazine is obviously a sought-after job, so most people do tend to stay put once they land something like that. When magazines are hiring, they might do so in a number of ways - through regular job websites, industry sites/newsletters, and a lot of the time someone will come recommended or they might give a regular freelancer a staff position.

Just to add a bit more info on degrees and such - I work in magazines (as an editor moreso, but I write as well) and my degree is in creative writing and editing, which is not quite the same as journalism. However, I have worked with writers with degrees in journalism, and also those with degrees in communication, and a few with degrees in English lit. I think as long as you can show some sort of tertiary qualification at least somewhat related to writing, it's almost a formality that magazines will want to see and then they wont care as long as your writing is up to scratch and you have a decent publication record. Plus some skills that are perhaps specific to the magazine in question and the kind of stories they publish - interviewing skills for one, as IME most magazines will give their interviews to their staff writers rather than freelancers.

With most, if not all Journalism/Mass Communications programs, you have to pass a writing exam for acceptance into the school. Therefore, the bulk of your studies aren't about learning how to write, but rather how to gather information, formulate it into a story, emphasizing the important stuff and cutting out the extraneous. You'll also learn valuable interviewing and research skills. As a matter of fact, my junior year in college, the CIA came recruiting Jay/Mac students for their research skills.

IMO a journalism degree is more useful due to its versatility than a degree in creative writing when it comes to entering the workforce. I have worked as a newspaper reporter, as a grant writer, in public relations, in marketing communications and in publications. I don't know that a creative writing degree would have garnered an interview for some of those.

If you want to pursue a job in magazines, especially the high profile/national publications you are listing above, be prepared to work for almost nothing to get a foot in the door. You have to intern every summer (many start between the freshman and sophomore years) and most internships are unpaid. If you don't happen to live where the job is, be prepared to foot that bill as well. And it's a deathmatch to get one of the few internships that are paid.

Of course, there are some really cool gigs out there aside from magazine publications. The best internship notice I ever saw was working for CBS Sports prior to the Nagano Olympics. The position required living in the Olympic dormitories in Colorado Springs, CO for six months and writing bios on all the athletes that could be potential competitors in the games the following winter.

As a person who never went to college (or not for long, anyway), but has managed to land her dream job anyway -- a job in which MOST people have degrees -- let me give you some advice. Experience, experience, experience, experience. And then, networking, networking, networking, networking. After that, learn how to write the best resume and cover letter ever. And after that, give the world's greatest interview.

Even if you do end up going to school and pursuing a degree that will help you, staff writing is probably a lot like zoo keeping in that there are only a small number of jobs offered every year, and a LOT of people who want those jobs. When you apply for any given position, you may be competing against hundreds of other applicants. Really. Hundreds.

With that in mind, you'll need more than a degree to be a top candidate. You need experience, you need to know people who matter in the industry and who can give you a great referral, and you need to write a seriously kickass cover letter. Then you need to knock their socks off in the interview phase, so you need to really do your research on the specific magazine you're applying with, and know what they want in a new staff writer.

Making yourself the #1 candidate is a ton of work. In my opinion, the best place to start the process is with an internship. Along the way, though, don't stop writing. Write as many articles as you can, and submit, submit, submit, all the time. The more experience you can have on your resume when you've finished school, the better you'll look against the hundreds of others who want your job.