Job searching

Apr 16, 2004

On her show today, Oprah talked about sex, ’living on the down low’ and how silence and stigma can lead to HIV/AIDS. Read more about her show here.

If you are a regular reader of the Daily Chronicle, you know that I’ve just finished up nine months of research and reporting on this very topic. My thesis on HIV among college students in North Carolina is done—I submitted it to the UNC-CH Graduate School on Wednesday, and so my medical journalism masters degree is in the bag. I’d like to get all or part of my long narrative feature story published in a newspaper or magazine, but if I don’t soon, I’ll post it to my personal page.

A few months ago, I wrote about my next steps, but now I’m stumbling, in the way you stagger at the end of running 26.2 miles. My two years at JOMC have been a marathon, and I’m ecstatic to have crossed the finished line—thesis, blogging conference, HIV awareness series, kids, freelance writing! But I don’t have time to lollygag. I need to find a job in North Carolina. Why? Because Erin has been accepted by the UNC-CH law school, and it looks as if we’ll be staying here for the next few years. We need to quickly buy a house, move, find daycare for the girls and get settled before Erin’s classes begin.

You can help me in my job search by reading my job-search memo (shades of Jerry Maguire):

WHAT DO I WANT TO DO NEXT?

I have been a working journalist for more than 10 years, writing mostly for small monthly or quarterly magazines. In the late 1990s, I was a Peace Corps Volunteer on a small tropical island, and I nursed my wife and fellow volunteer through malaria and dengue fever. Often while swinging in my hammock I read Newsweek and New Yorker stories about the terrible toll of AIDS on South Africa. Those experiences led me to focus my own journalism on medicine and public health.

I returned to school in 2002 to study health and science reporting at the University of North Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and to understand the epidemiology of infectious diseases through classes at the School of Public Health. I continued to freelance while in school, and have published magazine articles about SARS, fragile X syndrome and genetic therapy, among others. My science column for Northern Ohio Live Magazine was awarded second prize for best column in the 2002 Ohio Excellence in Journalism Awards and First Place for Best Medical/Science Reporting from the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists in 2003. For the last ten months, I have focused my studies and my reporting on HIV/AIDS; my masters thesis project is a 10,000-word narrative feature about a new outbreak of HIV among college students across North Carolina.

From my childhood days reading National Geographic, I have wanted to be a magazine editor, and have always thought of my career as a series of stepping-stones across a river. Through college, in my work as editor of a regional arts and culture magazine, and during my medical journalism studies, I have kept a steady eye on the far riverbank, making sure that my steps brought that goal of editorship ever closer. With the advent of the World Wide Web and newspaper websites, that riverbank has shifted now, my dream of being editor of a glossy national magazine is evolving, too, to consider the possibilities of e-journalism.

Over the last four years, Ive spent considerable time learning the ins and outs of weblogging and online publishing. Ive operated a family website, edited a student online magazine, founded an organization for UNC webloggers, and created a website for medical journalism. I organized the Weblogs and Journalism seminar for the executive education series at my j-school, and regularly lectured about the trends and issues swirled into the excitement of blogging. Ive done this because I see the potential for journalism on the Web.

I also have staff leadership, project management and community development experience. Ive been an elected and appointed leader of numerous organizations student body president of my high school, editor of my college newspaper, editor of Northern Ohio Live Magazine, among other roles. I have been an effective manager of other writers and journalists. I was a successful and respected Peace Corps Volunteer. Most recently, I organized a campus-wide series of events called Narratives of HIV to bring the story of HIV to campus. As part of that series, I hosted Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Mark Schoofs, who spoke with students about international reporting and AIDS journalism.

I will graduate from UNC-CH with an M.A. degree in medical journalism in May 2004.

At this time, I am seeking full-time employment in North Carolina, as well as consulting or telecommuting work across the country. These are possible ways that I can be employed:

• As a staff or contributing science writer for a national magazine or a large metro daily newspaper.
• As a fellow or writer-in-residence with a science- or policy-based organization or institution.
• As a hired writer on newsletter or other communications for a science- or policy-based organization or institution.
• As a staff or contributing editor or writer for a science- or medicine-focused news website.
• As an entrepreneur of e-publishing.

My interests, which can be tapped for my employment, include:

• Science and medicine, including HIV/AIDS, infectious disease, genomic science and the ethical, legal and social implications of reproductive technologies.
• Weblogs, personal publishing, Internet communications
• International travel and cross-cultural communication
• Food and dining
• Urban design and architecture

I have at least two personal projects that can be developed, in whole or in part, as part of my employment:

• A weblog of science and medicine news, links and resources
• A weblog of community reuse and recycling resources

To learn more about my skills, experiences and writing talents, please see my personal web page at http://anton.zuiker.com, where you can find a database of my writing clips as well as links to my websites and weblogs.

Anton Zuiker ☄