JESSICA DaSILVA in D.C.

So I love my political journalism professor.

Somehow he makes every class interesting without any gimmicks. Like a good journalist, he just gives us the facts. And I think I’m officially his No. 1 fan.

Because I admire him so much, I decided to visit him a little more than a week ago for consultation on how I can attain my dream of becoming a White House correspondent.Obviously there is no clear cut path this kind of dream. And not having any specifically politically geared journalism professors at UF, I figured I would take advantage of my time here with my professor Richard Benedetto.

So I made the journey to his office at American University’s School of Public Affairs. I went in with no idea how to go about my job strategy, and when I left I not only learned a ton, I was really surprised by some of the information Prof. Benedetto gave me.

The most important concept he stressed to me was gaining expertise in an area of government. A good way to do this is to work for a government agency, lobbying firms, interest groups… anything that could help me master some aspect of government pertinent to the executive branch (such as environmental policy, national defense, etc.).

A good idea might be to get a job with the Pentagon, State Department, United Nations or Homeland Security — basically anything that could give me experience with topics that are relevant to the presidency.

I found it very surprising. I always assumed that if you were to get a job in media, you should just get a job at a paper to build your credibility. I mean, it makes sense to develop expertise, but I thought you did that through having a specific beat or something. This was a whole new idea for me.

Benedetto also mentioned being a press secretary for a congressional office as an option. It’s a good way to meet reporters and learn about opportunities in the political journalism industry. Also, there’s a chance you could get to do some speech writing, which is a good way to get your writing recognized.

Another way to get your writing recognized by people in Washington is to cover Virginia or Maryland’s local or state politics because a lot of Washington professionals live there — these are stories they’re going to read. If they start recognizing your byline, then there’s a chance you can climb the political reporting ranks.

Of course, jobs and internships with newspapers in Washington is always good, too. Benedetto said if I wanted to write for USA Today, it might be a good idea to try for an internship there. Even though I wouldn’t be doing much writing, it would be a great way to get my foot in the door. I could work my way up from there.

Another interesting topic he brought up was the lack of jobs in journalism. However, unlike what I’m hearing from my professors back at UF, Benedetto said news organizations prefer to hire recent college graduates because they don’t require the organizations to pay them very much, which seems logical. I don’t know why I ever looked at it that way.

Specifically, TV stations have been known to hire college grads as bloggers to go on campaign trails with the presidential candidates. It’s easy because the grads don’t ask for much money, have the Internet skills required, and don’t have commitments to hold them back from picking up and moving along with Obama, Clinton or McCain.

All in all, I found this very informative. I’m glad that he mentioned working for the government as a viable option because it really broadens my job options. This is important considering I’ve just found out I’ll be graduating this December rather than May 2009.

I’m excited because it means I’ll be able to come back to DC even sooner than what I thought. Living here this semester has really taught me that there really isn’t any other place I could live. My heart belongs to this city. Thus, so do I.