ABSTRACT
There are no minimum qualifications for journalists, so in theory you could get a job without an A-Level or a GCSE. And however many training courses there are available, there will always be some magazine editorial staff who get in by informal means: by talking their way into a job as an editorial assistant perhaps, by going to an office for work experience and contriving to become indispensable, by bombarding an editor with such good cuttings or story ideas that in the end a job has to be offered. This is anathema to those who believe that journalism is a profession, but it is a fact of journalistic life. If you write well enough and are able to convince an editor of your worth, the lack of a paper qualification in anything, let alone in journalism, is no barrier to success. Except, of course, for the fact that so many people, including some of the best graduates, want to be journalists too, many of them in magazines. They will be competing fiercely for jobs and so editors can look for flair in addition to educational achievement, not instead of it.
