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Associated Press

Is this your company?

Working as a news associate will help you improve your writing and learn AP style, but you can't report or get bylines. - News Associate Associated Press Employee Review

4.0
Feb 25, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You get AP on your resume and will work with the smartest people in the industry. You'll learn how to write stories quickly and accurately. The pay is awesome compared to other places. You get paid vacation and sick days. Half the year you'll work a semi-normal hour weekday shift. The job isn't stressful. You'll see your stories published in all the major newspapers. You'll have a relatively large amount of autonomy half the year on the night shift, covering what you feel is necessary for morning drive time broadcasts. You'll learn about the ongoing issues and happenings in 10 states.

Cons

Not sure if this is technically a con, but there's definitely a learning curve. No way around it. The position is tailored to bright-eyed, eager college graduates trying to get into the industry. And each will tell you they weren't very good when they first started. You'll be answering to several editors and reporters who each have their own pet peeves or preffered writing style. What works in one state doesn't work in another. You'll have to work on slow computers with slow internet and a hair-pulling word processing program that can crash on a moments notice. Night shift. While the work is decent, the hours are not. 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. starting Sunday night. This means every two months your body has to abruptly switch from sleeping at night to sleeping during the day and vice versa. Invest in blackout curtains or black trash bags. Summer can be brutal. And good luck watching Game of Thrones, Sunday football or the Oscar's. It's not impossible, but you'll need coffee. No bylines and no reporting. You won't have a byline for two years. You also won't have originally reported a single fact. With everything you write, someone else did all the heavy lifting. You're simply repackaging it. Let that sink in, and then begin thinking how to spin that for your next employer.

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Pros

Work was easy and supervisors were helpful

Cons

It can get very busy during peak times.

1.0
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Pros

You get to work with lovely people, some of which are brilliant.

Cons

This is an organization where relationships often matter more than results. Advancement tends to favor visibility and proximity over impact, which can make the path forward feel less about contribution and more about navigation. HR and People functions appear heavily resourced on paper, yet those teams are frequently stretched thin, creating the impression of care without the corresponding capacity to deliver it meaningfully. Each year brings another cycle of organizational reshuffling that can feel at odds with the stated focus on employee experience and development. Learning and development exists, but its purpose is sometimes unclear, as day-to-day work life has grown more complicated rather than more supported compared to prior years. There is a noticeable gap between the language used around innovation and data driven decision making and the organization’s appetite for actual change. The culture often speaks in aspirational terms while operating in familiar patterns. For employees who value transparency, consistency, and progress over rhetoric, this can be frustrating. The result is a workplace that talks about transformation but remains largely committed to the status quo.

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