Greg Finley

2007 graduate

News-Editorial option

Employed as

Copy Editor

The Washington Post

Q. Thinking back to your early days in the journalism program (e.g., “Writing for Mass Media”), is journalism what you expected it to be?

A. One thing I didn’t realize about journalism was that it’s more of a science than an art. A lot of times you are feeding the beast, just writing what has to be written to fill out the space for the next day’s paper. But there is still room for creativity within the seemingly restricting format.

Q. How are you applying the skills you learned in the journalism program at Chico State?

A. Not sure what you mean. They taught me journalism, and I’m a journalist, so I guess I apply those skills every day.

Q. How many jobs have you held since graduation?

A. Just the Post. In summer 2006, I was an intern at the Modesto Bee. Their little bee Scoopy mascot is adorable. (See? http://www.modbee.com/scoopy )

Q. Are you happy with your job (and life) post-graduation?

A. Wow … hella personal! Just kidding. It’s been good times out here, but I don’t know if I’ll live here forever.

Q. Please briefly describe what you do in an average day.

A. I show up between 4 and 6 p.m. each night. I edit two to four stories for grammar and accuracy, writing headlines and photo captions for each. I watch the wires, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal during my shift to make sure they don’t have some big story that we don’t. I walk by Bob Woodward’s empty office and wonder why he has so many copies on hand of his biography of John Belushi. I walk back home down L Street NW in downtown D.C. between midnight and 2 a.m., turning down several prostitutes and other shady characters on my 10-minute walk back to my apartment.

Q. Do you think the journalism program prepared you well for your job?

A. Yeah, I think I did all right.

Q. Do you think the skills you gained in the program gave you a competitive edge in the job market? Why or why not?

A. I think it’s more about the individual student than the program. I went 620 miles north of where I grew up to go to Chico State because it had The Orion. After being in the working world a while, I’m learning that it really doesn’t matter what school you went to or even if it had a journalism program, but it’s about whether you can write well and bring something of value to the paper.

Q. What do you wish you’d learned or done differently while a journalism student at Chico State?

A. I wish I would have had more fun and not worried about The Orion so much. I graduated in three years and worked on The Orion every semester. Sometimes, I wonder if I should have divided my time differently.

Q. Do you have any advice for graduating seniors?

A. Start saving up for grad school, if it’s too late to change your major.

Q. What are your perceptions of the future of journalism?

A.I don’t know of any papers that are hiring, and many are buying out older workers and laying people off. It doesn’t look good.

Information compiled by Nicole Zongus

Cat Bytes is a student-produced publication of the Department of Journalism / California State University, Chico