Picking your exam subjects
I'm 14 years old and I'm picking my exam subjects. What will be useful in my chosen career as a journalist? Should I pick history or geography?
I don't think subject choices at 14 will make a big difference to your career given the constraints put upon choices by schools. A good English result is extremely helpful and often necessary and some humanities subjects (geography, history) help to show that someone can handle abstract ideas and write about them. But there are plenty of jobs in technical magazines and newspapers writing about science and technology and foreign languages are an asset when researching most industries. If schools are the same now as they were when I was choosing (admittedly some time ago), they'll force students to have a mix of science, humanities and languages and will require English and maths.
Unless you have a very clear idea of what you want to write about (and it's better to keep your options open), any set of reasonable results should do fine at this stage and open lots of doors for a variety of journalism jobs further down the line. Most publishers will require you to do a degree or journalism training after school, but they won't mind what your subjects are. You should be able to get a good result at English language, but that doesn't mean you actually have to do it to prove it.
Pick subjects you enjoy or have a natural talent for, keeping in mind that you'll need to study some in much more detail later (possibly to degree level).
Look out for opportunities to get work experience in journalism (this might require some initiative organising your own work experience during the school's work experience week if the school doesn't have suitable links with local publishers). Experience counts for more than education in journalism usually when there's competition for a job. Applicants often have the same qualifications but will have done different things with their spare time to show a commitment to the job. That's what makes the difference.
This is an excerpt from the ebook 'Journalism Careers: Your questions answered' by Sean McManus. These excerpts have been chosen for their relevance to school students.The whole ebook includes advice on picking university courses, vocational training, and how to succeed as a freelancer. It's equally suitable for students planning their future career and mid-life career changers looking to make a move now.