Four Tab alumnae earn Daily Mail trainee scheme spots

Four Tab reporters have been offered jobs on the Daily Mail’s graduate scheme in New York. They are flying to London for training in July, and will come back to New York to start work in the company’s US bureau in January.

The Mail is the most visited English-language newspaper website in the world. We recommended some of our best editors for the scheme when The Mail contacted us earlier this year, and they decided to hire Karen Ruiz, Caroline Phinney, Abby Miller and Anna Hopkins.

Karen was the editor of The Tab Rutgers, one of the biggest sites on our US network, and Caroline led the hugely successful Tab team at UMass. Abby was a senior reporter at UNC, and Anna wrote for The Tab UGA.

Karen said: “The Tab taught me the importance of being the first to break stories and gave me the experience of working under a 24-hour news cycle. I’ve worked with great writers and built relationships with talented editors who have taught me so much.

“I’m excited to be joining the Mail and to be traveling to the UK for five months.”

We asked Caroline to write a short account of her journey with us this year.

I went to school as an English major unsure of what I ultimately wanted to do with it. Upon entering my senior year, I was contacted by an assistant editor at The Tab, and asked about my level of interest in journalism. After explaining that I had no past in it, The Tab was quick to assure me that their platform is one for anybody who has a story to tell. After applying for, and receiving, the position of editor I was excited but anxious. I was suddenly in charge of my university’s sector of the publication, and the mountain I knew I was about to climb seemed daunting.

However, through it all The Tab assisted me in the editing and publishing of stories, to a point where I eventually felt comfortable doing it on my own. After an invitation to intern with them in their NY office over the winter, I was confident that in some way or another, journalism was where I wanted to be. And in April, one of The Tab’s editors reached out to me about an opportunity as a trainee journalist with the Mail.

My advice to anyone who is passionate about language, story telling, etc., is to reach out to The Tab. Whether you are interested in editing, or writing, or photography, there is a space for you. People keep asking me how I feel now that my career in journalism is about to start, and all I can reply to them is that it started a year ago when I began with The Tab.

Sue Ryan, the manager of the Mail trainee scheme, said: “We were very impressed with the caliber of candidates recommended to us by The Tab.

“They were some of the best students we have seen and the experience they have had there made us feel confident enough to take them on without formal journalism training.

“We look forward to a constant stream in the future. ”

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