Career Day

Who should attend:

• Mid-career professionals looking to move up — or pivot into new roles or sectors
• Journalists and media professionals recently laid off and ready to regroup and relaunch
• Early-career professionals searching for their next newsroom or communications opportunity
• Journalism and communications students preparing to enter a competitive field

Get your ticket early. Our popular pop-up headshot studio returns with a limited number of professional photography appointments. Reserve your headshot ticket tier now — first come, first served. (Once sold out, you’ll be added to the waitlist.)

Career Day training sessions

Whether you attend for the full program or drop in for a focused session, you’ll leave with tangible skills, actionable next steps, and something just as important: renewed momentum and community during a time of uncertainty. Training includes:

Cover Letters: Telling and selling your story

When you’re seeking a job, you can almost always expect to submit a cover letter with your resume. This is your opportunity to share your voice and describe why you’re a good fit for a position.

How you write this letter is also a key way to demonstrate your ability to write and tell a story as a journalist. A poorly written cover letter is an opportunity missed.

In this workshop, you will learn how to present your best self in a cover letter, along with tips and examples to help you land the in-person interview for a job.

7 steps to unlocking new opportunities with The Rewrite’s Aundrea Cline-Thomas

In this session, journalist and entrepreneur Aundrea Cline-Thomas will teach you how to lean into your transferrable skills, clarify your value, and adopt a practical mindset to thrive in the industry — or make a pivot. The focus is on playing the long game, relying on your network, and attracting job opportunities with more than just your resume.

Cline-Thomas understands career shifts all too well — in July 2022, she left her career as an award-winning local broadcast journalist to launch Mountain Court Media, a strategic storytelling agency.

Now, her training course and journalist community, The Rewrite, helps journalist’s storytellers with tools, expert guidance, and support for navigating industry uncertainty. She offers several free resources for journalists making big decisions and will open the door to her community in this practical session.

Staying motivated and strategizing after a job loss with LinkedIn’s Andrew Seaman

A job loss can deal a huge blow to your finances and professional progress. And it can leave you with questions about your chosen field, as well as your identity.

So how do you bounce back? What skills do you need to learn or lean into to find meaningful employment? And what considerations should you make when you’re not sure when you might find work again?

Whether you’re actively looking for a new role or want to stay prepared for a rainy day, you can always add skills and learn strategies that will help you thrive in a volatile job market.

Andrew Seaman, LinkedIn’s editor at large for jobs and career development and lead editor of the “Get Hired” franchise, will offer tangible strategies from job searches gone right —and wrong. He’ll explore a set of strategies for staying motivated during the job search, setting goals, staying organized, and nurturing a positive mindset.

What hiring managers want you to know

Landing a journalism job today takes more than strong clips and a proofread resume. Given the pace at which the industry is changing and the competitiveness of the job market, it’s become quite challenging to stand out as an applicant.

So how do you help hiring managers picture you off the page and as a future colleague?

In this session — a favorite at Career Day each year — recruiters and newsroom leaders will answer your burning questions about getting a journalism job in 2026, such as: What skills are must-haves in the newsroom? How do you adapt to a field that’s increasingly dependent on audience strategy, AI tools, and platform fluency? And what skills are transferrable to and from other fields?

Whether you’re fresh out of school and looking for your first full-time role or a veteran of the industry navigating a career pivot, this session will offer relevant strategies you can apply immediately. (Speakers TBA soon.)

How do I break into PR from journalism?

Join this discussion to hear from seasoned PR and communications directors and executives — including some who’ve made the jump from journalism themselves — to gain perspective on whether this could be the right move for you.

The panel will focus on the reality of what journalists face when trying to break into PR and marketing careers, and will answer important questions like: Is the move into communications as seamless as it seems? Which newsroom skills translate directly? Where do journalists tend to encounter skill gaps — and what does it take to thrive in a fast-paced communications role? (Speakers TBA soon.)

Newsrooms: Hiring now, or building your pipeline? Click here to learn how to reserve a recruiter booth, or contact Executive Director Beth Francesco at [email protected].

Meet the recruiters

• American City Business Journals
• Agence France-Presse North America
• American University School of Communication
• Bloomberg Industry Group
• State Affairs
• USA TODAY Co.
• Washington Examiner

Bonus: Career Day ticket holders can make the National Press Club their office for the day, with exclusive access to the Career Day lounge and workroom — a built-in networking hub for collaboration, connection, and opportunity.

In a shifting media landscape, standing still isn’t an option. Join us, build your strategy, and take your next step forward.

Check back for more details, including our list of recruiters.