I know I am probably prematurely freaking out, but you know it is on every seniors’ mind. Graduation. I still have one semester left, but I have already begun the job hunt and let me tell you, it’s terrifying.

Scrolling through sites for journalism jobs 24/7 is almost becoming my other job at this point and there is a trend that I am starting to see.

Many job openings are looking for previous experience. Okay, I know, that should be a ‘duh,’ but many of these jobs claim to be entry-level. How can a job be entry-level when they are looking for one to two years of previous experience in a professional setting?

I understand, a company doesn’t want to hire someone who is inexperienced. They don’t want a kid fresh out of college who has no idea what they are doing. I mean if I were in charge of hiring at a newspaper or any other type of publication, I would not want to hire someone like that either. However, let me state this again. Entry-level.

That means it is supposed to be for people who are just joining the workforce, like students. People who do not necessarily have a ton of work experience but are still qualified for the job. Entry-level is supposed to be our chance to gain experience and prove ourselves.

It’s not like I haven’t had previous experience. I will have been on The Spectator for two years and have had many internships with great publications. You would think that this would be good enough, but no.

This isn’t what places are looking for and it is stressing me out. As a way for some companies to compensate for higher-than-achievable expectations they offer unpaid internships. I have had many unpaid internships and I have learned a great deal from them. I would never take back a time that I was involved in an unpaid internship but when it comes down to it, I no longer have time or the finances to devote to something that doesn’t give me some form of monetary compensation.

I get confused and I’m sure a lot of other people do as well when on the job hunt. I think I am qualified for a position but then when looking through criteria it mentions things such as, “previously worked at a high quality, high traffic, newspaper or website. Bonus: knows coding.”

Oh, okay. What in the heck does that even mean? Isn’t that a little subjective? Isn’t a “high quality, high traffic” publication something like The New York Times or USA Today? Because if so, no man, no, I have not worked at The New York Times. But I have worked for some fantastic publications that are important and are of quality and I think create high traffic.

I am not saying that all entry-level jobs are the same. Some really are what they state to be and I am searching through every website to find those jobs. They are out there, and I know that this is not just a trend in journalism.