They say jobs do not go looking for you and when it does, it must be The Philippine Daily Inquirer. However, can all the aspiring graduates avail of it?

Last January 17, the aforementioned publication conducted a seminar titled Career Opportunities in the Media Industry at the Alfredo M. Velayo building of the University of Santo Tomas. It was in part with the publication’s promotion of the job market section in their broadsheet.

The seminar proper was graced by John Nery, Rolly Suarez, and Chito San Mateo, whom are all The Philippine Daily Inquirer’s (PDI) staff of status. However, the supposed seminar on the vast array of opportunities open for future media practitioners boiled down to choosing which among the opportunities presented was the best. And that of course is as you guessed it, PDI. It was their job market tour after all.

Rolly Suarez, AVP- admin. And Human Relations officer and second among the speakers, kiddingly said that he had prepared 2008 reasons why their publication is the best but due to time constraint he cut it down to eight. The said reasons covered all the gratifications a journalist could get like the good salary, the numerous benefits, the chance to rub elbows with big people, the being in the latest events, and most of all the glory of the byline in a national newspaper.

After sharing to the audience the luxuries and privileges of working for the said broadsheet, PDI’s marketing officer San Mateo started talking about the realities of getting in the field.

In our world today, everything comes with a price. And to be in the Journalism profession does entails sacrifices. San Mateo said that the publication staff is only allowed of two day-offs. The sick leave and the birthday leave. Anyway it’s not that hard to picture out considering the fact that newspapers are produced on a daily basis. And articles from yesterday don’t go published again the other day, that is of certain.

Tons of legwork, crunch time work, stress, and lots of writing and thinking are all part of the world that Journalism students want to step into. These are already anticipated but the big question is everyone can do enter it.

San Mateo himself, admitted that vacant positions are quite limited with two slots as the average. To think that annually several colleges and universities that offer the Journalism program bring out at most a hundred graduates each.

Apart from it all, one thing was assured by the speaker for one to be able to make it through. The degree is of course a major factor plus the writing skill but it is always the attitude, work attitude that gets it done. The ability of a journalist to become outstanding among the sea of aspirants and remain that way throughout.