A fortunate fall-back for most journalism graduates looking for a job is being able to say you're freelance rather than unemployed.
But choosing to go freelance as a career choice can, however, be extremely difficult (particularly in the current climate) for new journalists who are building contacts as well as a portfolio of work.
There is at least one element of being a freelancer that all new graduates — and indeed working journalists — could learn from: being entrepreneurial.
This could be interpreted simply as looking at what opportunities are out there for you in the workplace and looking beyond traditional journalistic job-types for example as reporter, or features writer. Few of these roles actually exist and, as many freelancers will tell you, unless you're lucky enough to secure one of these as a staff job, it's rarely possible to pull in a living from commissions from just these areas.
What many freelance journalists are good at is diversifying — looking for gaps in the market and filling them; and looking at what skills they have and how they can use them for work.
There have been a couple of interesting articles about how new journalists should also be seizing the moment as entrepreneurs.
Recent graduate from Cardiff's journalism school, Hannah Waldram discusses on her blog what the new skills for journalists are and what more could be done by universities and training schools to encourage these entrepreneurial aspects.
While leading media commentator Jeff Jarvis clearly sets out his stall in the post: 'The future of news is entrepreneurial'.
This might all seem like just a nice idea, but there is evidence too — just look at The Berlin Project, the work of a group of recent graduates from London's City University who are bringing together their journalism skills with those of web development, social media knowledge and design to showcase their work.
Taking this approach could give journalism students (traditionally creative, arts-based degrees) more insight into the business side of the industry. A digital executive at the Telegraph told me last year that commercial understanding/interest would be taken into consideration when interviewing new recruits, alongside their journalistic ability.
And why not? As an industry, we're searching for new business models and sources of money to support future journalism. Any graduate who can build their understanding of this and how editorial can work with commercial will be a more rounded job candidate and professional in my opinion.
Jobs for life and seemingly unlimited pots of money being poured into publications were part of a previous era of journalism. Journalists-in-training should arguably be taught about the commercial side to gain a better understanding of their role as journalists in a business and a more realistic view of the industry they're entering.
Interestingly enough, I know that Newcastle University and Birmingham City University are making steps in this direction by adding 'entrepreneurship' modules and pairing up media courses with business departments. Long may this continue.
