Meet my best friend:

It seems that new PR people aren't the only ones who are finding difficulties in the "real world." My best friend, Ashley Smallman, just started a blog about what it's like to be a broadcast journalist seeking a career.

Ashley is the victim of the most frustrating Catch 22 of a college graduate's life: No one will hire you because you don't have enough experience, but you can't get experience until someone hires you. 

The ironic part is that Ashley, like many young journalists I know, does have experience in the form of internships, clips and a stellar education. I'm exactly like her, I have enough internships to add up to almost 2 years experience but because they were only internships no one sees me as very qualified. Ashley interned with NBC in San Francisco and pioneered our school's student run multimedia news program. Is that not valuable experience? Apparently, it's not quite valuable enough. So what gives?

In our many rants about the horrors of job searching Ashley and I have given each other many logical explanations- the economy is bad, everyone just graduated so there's a rush of people, the Gods are punishing us- but in the end, getting told "no" so many times gets you down. 

I know that Ashley's talent and experience will ultimately end in a wonderful career in broadcast, even if it takes a little while. I'm so excited that now everyone can follow her journey, listen to her insights and learn from her experiences. Check it out!