Posted by In a recent article on the FOLIO: website, Greg Dool discusses New Roles in Magazine Media and the melding of old and new job functions required by the digital media revolution. Part left brain, part right brain, the combination of creating writing and web development (“coding”) required in these positions can appear more than a little schizophrenic!
Greg uses a great quote to describe this phenomenon. “We’re bringing in people who sit astride the intersection of journalism, coding, and design,” says The Atlantic president Bob Cohn. “Maybe not all three of those skillsets in equal parts, but people who know something about all three: the editor who can code, the designer who can write, or the coder who has an idea about what makes a good story. The blend of those skills has turned into a new type of interdisciplinary journalist.”
Being one of those interdisciplinary journalists myself – with an undergraduate degree in English, a graduate degree in computer science, and 10+ years of jobs that incorporate both sides of the brain – I have come to realize that when you’re selling all of those skills to an employer, it can be difficult to wrap yourself into a nice neat little package.
For example, how do you label or tag yourself in a way that hiring managers will find you in a search? Have you checked the list of industry terms available on job sites lately? And usually you can only choose ONE! One can only hope that as the era of the interdisciplinary journalist continues, the search engines will be able to catch up to the new job functions of digital media!
All of the Above 