Having a specialism is key, says Rory Cellan-Jones

“There are jobs out there and there will be jobs”, said Rory Cellan-Jones, the BBC’s technology correspondent.

What a refreshing talk he gave to postgraduate students at City University today.

Rory admitted that nowadays journalists are expected to be able to do a lot more than when he graduated, but he said that having a specialist interest may be key to landing a job.

“If you are interesting and passionate about something then there will be opportunities out there.”

He said that there is now tremendous pressure on journalism graduates to be able to do “everything under the sun”, but he said that if you have one or two really good skills then it is just as important.  

Image taken from BBC

The self-confessed Twitter obsessive was just as tech-savvy as I expected him to be, opening his backpack to reveal not only an iPhone, but a BlackBerry and a gorgeous little Flip Meno Camera. Using his Apple Mac, he showed us a number of tools he uses in order to keep on track of technology news, including reading websites TechCrunch, GigaOM and Techmeme.

During the lecture he also posted part of his talk onto AudioBoo and, of course, took a Twitpic of us all listening intently. (Link to follow later, depending on how the shot looks!)

Rory said that he became interested in the internet in the mid-90’s, after being a business correspondent at the BBC. He said that he was even awarded the title “Internet Correspondent” for a few months in 2000, before the BBC decided that the internet was over and he went back to his old job.

But he insisted that the internet was bringing exciting change and was finally made Technology Correspondent in 2007.

Rory’s blog dot.life on BBC

Thinking about my specialism, I would definitely say the internet and new media really interest me.

Luckily this blog has been a really good platform to demonstrate my skills and help get myself noticed. The more I discover online, the more I want to know!

But I don’t feel like I know quite enough yet to be able to call it my ’specialism’. What do others think? How much of an expert in a field do you have to be before you can call it your specialism?

Rory admitted that he still doesn’t know everything about technology, and would have no idea how to “defrag a hard drive”, but that doesn’t matter.

Once I have gained more hands-on experience in web development and new media I will be at a better position, but for the moment I am going to have to stick to the line “I am willing to learn.”