Lecure: i-Reporting by Ann Olson – Updated with podcast
10 October 2009
JMSC’s Focus Asia Business Leaders series airs on ATV World
12 October 2009

JMSC Graduates Succeed in Job Stakes

Despite the woes afflicting the media industry, there has been excellent news on the job front for JMSC graduates.

As of early September, at least 30 members of the class of 2009 had found full-time employment in positions in Hong Kong, China and as far afield as South Africa, Australia and Germany.

“The JMSC, more than anywhere else, provided me with the connections to the people in the Asia industry,” said Saul Sugarman (MJ 2009), an American now working as a multimedia producer for Bloomberg News in Hong Kong.

Bloomberg was just one of 70 employers worldwide to offer both internships and jobs to JMSC students and new graduates over the past year.

In addition to Saul, the international financial news group took on Cornelius Rahn (MJ 2009) to work in its Berlin bureau after he completed an internship there.

“On my first day at Bloomberg – I believe it was after three hours – my editor told me I wrote a very clean copy.

To hear such a thing so early on boosted my confidence enormously, especially given what an overwhelming work environment Bloomberg can be when you first start. And that clean copy – I know I learnt that during my writing courses at the JMSC,” Cornelius said.

JMSC students beat out hundreds of local and international applicants to win three out of four of Bloomberg’s prized Hong Kong summer internships in 2009.

Internships extending beyond summer are providing more work experience for new MJ 2009 graduates.

In Hong Kong, Chen Xi interned at the Financial Times (and scored a front-page byline) and Rob Olsen at Forbes. Rob was later hired by Forbes.

In Beijing, Josh Fenn obtained an internship at Science Magazine, Fu Lei at the wsj.com and Ariel Huang at chinadaily.com.

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More than 70 employers hired JMSC students and alumni for internships and/or jobs in 2008-2009

They include:

– Forbes – CNN – CNNGo – Bloomberg – Hong Kong Economic TimesHong Kong Economic Journal – SmarTone – TVB Money Magazine – Muse Magazine – Next Media & Apple Daily – Hong Kong Broadcast News – Shanghai Media Group – Caijing – Netease – China Energy News – Xinhua News Agency – Fin24.com – Asialink – Asia Society – South China Morning Post – BBC – Far Eastern Economic Review – Asia Pacific Vision – Thomson-Reuters –  – Al Jazeera – The HinduTaipei TimesScience Magazine (Beijing) – Phnom Penh PostFirst Financial Daily (Beijing) – Mail & Guardian Online – Hexun.com – Time Out (Hong Kong, Beijing & Shanghai) – Economist Intelligence Unit –  Readers’ Digest (Chinese edition) – International Herald Tribune – Financial Times – Radio Television Hong Kong – Radio Australia – Business Traveller – Jakarta Globe – Yazhou Zhoukan – Sing Tao, Commercial Radio

In the course of the academic year, JMSC students were placed in a total of 115 work-experience positions.

Many took on multiple internship positions to broaden their work experience.

One was Joyce Choi, a  BJ 2009 graduate, who spent time on the wire desk of the NOW Business News Channel, volunteered in Cambodia and spent a year as an exchange student at the University of Missouri.

In the US, she interned for a San Francisco-based ethnic news wire, New America Media, and later went to Washington D.C. to pursue a photo internship with National Geographic Traveler magazine.

Upon returning, she obtained an internship at CNN.com International (Hong Kong). That later turned into a freelance opportunity to assist CNN.com staff covering the Beijing Olympics.

After graduating, she became a staff writer for Muse, the Hong Kong-based literary arts and cultural magazine.

Sarah Chakales (MJ2009), who interned at CNN in the spring, returned to the satellite broadcaster on a freelance contract after graduating.

She joins Zoe Li (MJ2009), who was appointed managing editor of the company’s new web-based travel and lifestyle venture, CNNGo.