After ten years in journalism I still find it a very exciting and rewarding career. Not only do you get to see your name in print but your articles could help certain members of the public, they look to you to inform them of what is going on in the world they are living in.

Though exciting and rewarding getting into the industry can be very tough, and unfortunately in this business it can be more about who you know than what you know. Now a days the average celebrity can be seen as a ‘journalist' if their given their own column to write.

However if this is a career that you really want to do go for it, and go for it all the way. I knew that I wanted to be a journalist from the time I was in college so this is what I did.

I firstly went to a volunteering company to see if they could find me any work in that field, as this would help me gain experience. The more experience I gained the more it would help me be a better writer and learn about different writing styles. Sure enough they did and I ended up writing for their newsletter and magazine.

I would strongly recommend that you try and find some experience with a newspaper or magazine whether online or print. As not only would you gain experience but it would look good on your CV for potential employers.

I then went to university and I qualified with a Bachelors Arts Degree in Journalism. Is it necessary to go to university? Yes it is, the reason being you can get a better understanding about this line of work, and you will be taught by professional journalists. If you want to go into broadcast journalism you would need to know about television production. There are many universities and courses out there that do journalism.

After university here comes the tricky part, finding a job. As hard as it is please do not get disheartened if you don't find a job straight away as this field is a very competitive market. With all my experience and degree it took me a year to find a job as a junior journalist within a local newspaper and then I moved onto magazines as a feature writer and worked my way up to editorial position.

One last thing joining the National Union of Journalist can help as this organisation gives you regular updates of what is going on in the media and you can get to network with professional journalists.

To conclude get experience, do a course in this field and never give up on your dream. If you are destining to be a journalist go for it and push through those barriers until you land your dream job.