It was great of Seamus Dooley to come and help launch Furnace the other night – but the magazine's very existence and the kudos it has gained everyone involved ultimately proves that the opposite of his point is true. Seamus was arguing that what I said in my
State of the Union piece was inaccurate, and that you should never accept unpaid or low pay work.
The fact is that in order to get your foot in the door, you have to suffer a little. Work for low pay and you get a valuable learning experience, bylines and eventually, respect. Any of us who have paying jobs at this stage have done some pro bono work and with a bit of luck, it generates paid work.
Way back when I was struggling to decide whether the journalist's life was for me, I did amonth in the
Sunday Business Post working for Fiona Ness. I got ten or so article published and learnt a lot. When I started the masters this year, I rang up my contact in there who has been handing me snippets of work ever since. A free article written for
Sigla magazine got me a paid appearance on Dave Fanning's evening radio show and an interview with the Tribune. The photos I sent in to
Afloat when I was 17 have bloomed into a constant stream of articles, subbing work, photography and other promotional stuff.
And then there's Furnace. It's not just a project, it's unpaid work to showcase our abilities. We're putting it out there for free and hoping to get some attention, and maybe even a job out of it.
A journo from the Sunday Independent is already doing a piece on it – so the ball is well and truly rolling. Keep an eye out.
