Getting a job in journalism code

All your fears and worries are not one bit strange or unusual.

The subtitle of this article is “Two recent grads want to calm your job search fears.”

Q: Whenever I see someone write code, it’s like they’ve got everything memorized. Do I have to memorize everything?

A: You do not need to memorize everything. Programmers know what to write next (like exact phrasing of CSS or Javascript functions) because of repetition, familiarity, and having looked it up time and time again. Trying to intentionally memorize programming language syntax is probably less productive than learning to Google what you need and passively memorizing the things you have to look up repeatedly.

There’s lots more good stuff in the post. Go read it.

Code for journalism students

There’s a movement afoot that says everyone should learn to code. Programming should be taught in the elementary schools and high schools as a regular required subject. Why do people think this? Because learning to code is a process that makes you a better problem-solver in all kinds of situations.

Learning to code does not mean you want to become a computer programmer. I know you signed up for a major in the College of Journalism and Communications because you were good at writing, or maybe good at visual storytelling, and probably you did not like your math classes. Guess what? Neither did I.

Check out the About page and the Course Schedule and see whether you think you’re up to the challenge. Learn to code.