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Q. I will graduate with a journalism degree in May. I'd like to work in the Chicago area, but have had no luck finding a job.

I've freelanced for the Daily Herald, interned at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as well as a specialty magazine and the Milwaukee business weekly. I have extensive experience as editor of a campus newspaper and also have multimedia experience in video, Web and print design.

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The Daily Herald seems to have a hiring freeze, the Sun-Times and Tribune are not for entry-level journalists and I never see any job openings listed for the Sun-Times News Group papers in the suburbs or the Northwest Herald. The JS just offered a bunch of buyouts and I haven't seen many openings yet.

Should I expect to see openings on job boards for any of these papers, or should I be sending my clips and resumes blindly to these papers? Is it realistic for a journalist to have a job lined up months in advance, like business students?

Thank you,

Stymied

A. It is frustrating, when you have friends who are in business or law, to see them get offers so far in advance. Journalism just doesn't work that way -- especially in recent years, when budgets are more nip and tuck.

Joe Grimm

Your biggest hurdle is focusing on one of the nation's most competitive media markets. People who are determined to start their careers in a major city, especially New York, Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco or Chicago, are trying to compete with veterans who have worked years to get there. For many of them, those cities are home.

The obvious choice would be to broaden your search to other areas or other forms of media.

Generally, I would not let buyouts discourage me from applying. Flint, Mich., Orlando and now Detroit have this year seen buyouts followed by some hiring. The dynamic is that buyouts sometimes get more people than the papers want -- or they are not in the right areas, or they prompt some people to quit -- and the papers are soon posting help-wanted ads.

I think you're wise to save Chicago's major papers for later.