Short Hand Notes

Trying to do 100 words per-minute shorthand under exam conditions is like trying to blow smoke rings in a wind tunnel.

I had the right pen of course, but for me, when it came to writing under pressure, I might as well have been jotting things down with a big twig dipped in treacle. My tutor had advised me that a pencil was best but I found the end kept snapping when I tried to get anything with more than one syllable down. 'Short-hand', for instance, would be a sure-fire lead breaker. And the paper I was using was hand picked too. Not the recycled grainy stuff, where the pencil scratches across the page like a spider possessed, but the smooth top-quality variety that I had made a special trip to buy from WH Smiths.

Personally, however, I blame adrenaline and mankind's flawed design. Created to aide Neanderthal man, to give him that extra kick when a slobbering lion or some similar beast suddenly appears, adrenaline is simply not helpful to a bloke trying to sit rigidly at a desk trying to get 400 words down correctly in 4 minutes. And then there’s trying to transcribe it back. Under the stress of exam conditions, with time ticking away and panic setting in, trying to get all your words to make sense with so much at stake is like trying to do The Times crossword with a large opera singer shrieking the wrong answers in your ear. Of course, as soon as the time was up and the red mist had vanished, I could see what I had written as clear as day.

The intricacies of shorthand were just one of the many things that hadn’t even crossed my mind when I started off towards a career in journalism. After I left university and even back to my school days, I had a vague idea that I wanted to 'do journalism', combined with the odd bit of photography, it was something I thought I could be happy making a living from. Knowing what you will be doing every day of the week, with little variations for the rest of your working life, never appealed to me. There really isn't another job I can think of which provides the excitement and variety news reporting does. Although many graduates ultimately aim for a career on a national paper, you’ll meet as wide a variety of challenges working for a regional title. But trying to get a job in journalism in the first place can make something like shorthand seem a breeze.

Having left university I was up for the challenge. I had work experience at the BBC World Service, university radio station, local papers and all the usual garb under my belt, so thought I was in a good position to crack on with my graduate position, and of course, my graduate salary. That was me and the rest of the country, it soon seemed. At the time of writing, the rolling ITV news channel has just closed with the loss of many jobs. At the same time, belts are being tightened across most media platforms. British paid-for daily papers, for instance, currently show the worst circulation decline in Western Europe. From an outsiders point of view you can be forgiven for thinking it’s hardly the best climate to submit your CV, cap in hand, and ask for a well-paid job with private health care and promotion prospects.

However, regardless of what market trends indicate, if you've got the skills and determination and sometimes, a little luck, there's always the opportunity to create a career in journalism. The joy is there is no one definitive way in, so you can go with the punches and choose the road that you think sounds as though it would suit you best.

The National Council for the Training of Journalists is the main body for the training of budding hacks and 'direct entry' is the posh name for being taken on by a paper and trained on the job. As it is in your employers best interests to make you a better journalist, you learn on the job. It can be the Golden Ticket because your training is often entirely paid for by your employer and you can also be on the payroll at the same time. In my case I was sent away on a block release course for an intense 12 week study and exam fest. The different strands included public administration, which covers local and central government, and helps you transcribe all the jargon that will be flung at you your working life. There are also two different law exams, newspaper journalism and shorthand.

On the other hand the majority of students opt for Pre-Entry. This means getting your preliminary exams done at a recognised NCTJ centre before trying to get a job. Some centre's have amazing statistics of student employment after their course. Some even boast 100 per cent so it's worth shopping around. And it's even rumoured some of their journalists have even come to learn to like shorthand.

There are some really helpful websites worth visiting if you are considering journalism as a career:

For the official line and good advice visit the NCTJ website at: www.nctj.com

For job opportunities, links and a training guide try: www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk

For comment and up-to-date information about the media climate: www.pressgazette.co.uk

Jonpaul Hedge is a senior reporter working for the Herald Express in Devon. After leaving university and working in Archangelsk, Russia, for VSO, he joined the Torquay based title as a trainee.