Not all journalists are equal

Kaloyan Konstantinov is a Bulgarian journalist and student at King’s College London. He recently attended newsrewired and was inspired to write about his own experiences as an immigrant looking for a job and the struggles he’s faced despite his experience.

A talk at newsrewired on 19 July highlighted the Refugee Journalism Project that aims to support the re-establishment of careers for exiled journalists in the UK.

The speaker explained that the main problem facing the refugee professionals is not their lack of skills or the language barrier – but the fact that they simply do not know the right people. And while the audience, including myself, applauded the noble initiative I couldn’t help but think that such difficulties are not only limited to refugees but affect many of the foreigners in the UK educated abroad.

I arrived in England in January 2017 to study for a postgraduate degree at King’s College London, starting from September. My intention was to use the time to find a job or at least manage to gain some UK-based experience in journalism. I have previously managed to balance work and study, graduating from the best university in Bulgaria and writing for one of the most prominent news outlets.

I was conducting investigations, interviewing foreign and domestic ministers, ambassadors, royals, artists and scientists, and reporting from around Europe. At the end of 2016, I received an award for journalistic excellence and became a member of the International Federation of Journalists. I have also worked as a PR for the exhibitions of Bryan Adams, Lenny Kravitz and Ulay. I did all of this before I turned 23.

Proud of my achievements, I immediately started applying for both full time and intern positions at various UK organisations, big and small. I was prepared to work for free, just to prove myself. You can probably guess that several months later there was no positive result. In fact, there was rarely a response at all.

Frustrated, I adopted a more aggressive approach by ‘headhunting’ editors and HR executives and sending them speculative applications. I lost count of the exact number of positions for which I applied, but it was more than 40. Meanwhile, some financial matters began to make my personal situation more pressing. I started applying for jobs at stores, restaurants, supermarkets and factories but I was rejected from every single one of them (again, over 40 and counting).

I was once told that my university degree is not recognisable and they couldn’t be sure whether I was telling the truth about my experience. I’m not alone, many educated and skilful foreigners struggle against such prejudice and discrimination.

I can hardly imagine how British journalism graduates, with no real experience, find a job at all.

To be honest, in the end, one place did hire me. Now I work in KFC and clean the bathrooms. I continue to apply for jobs, basically everywhere, and all the while, a nagging voice in my head insists that some people are more equal than others.