As a graduate of NU with a B.S. in journalism, I totally see where Stephen Sears is coming from in his last column (“Job-search blues,” Dec. 7). However, picking journalism as your major, you should have expected this and accepted that you probably won’t land your dream job right out of college.

When I graduated, I knew the job market wouldn’t be good and I would probably have to go an alternative route in order to pay the bills (credit card debt, student loans, etc). What have I done with my journalism degree? A little free-lance writing on the side, but my primary source of income is coaching/substitute teaching at my old high school.

I am really enjoying myself and will hopefully be hired to teach full time up at Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, N.H. The job search doesn’t get any easier and the market seems to be getting worse, not better, with more and more papers cutting jobs left and right.

I have to thank my professors and advisors at Northeastern, particularly Bill Kirtz, Chuck Fountain and Liz Matson, for making me realize that you don’t get a job at the Globe right out of college and you really have to work hard to break into the industry. Knowing this, I wasn’t disappointed at all when I had a couple of job interviews and nothing to show for it. I am freelancing and building my resume and clip library, and that’s really all I can do.

I hope somewhere down the line a job will come up and, based on my freelance work, I will then have enough “experience” that is so often talked about during the interview process. Good luck on your job search and don’t let it get you down – it’s only going to get harder.

One more thing: I find in the journalism market, in particular, the hardest part about finding an entry-level job is you aren’t a college student willing to work for nothing anymore. Papers, magazines, television and radio stations, and any other media outlet can hire “interns” and pay them nothing. Why would they pay someone to do work they can get for free? They don’t have to and that’s a big problem.

– Tim Croes is an alumnus of the class of 2004.