Kind of a “duh” piece from NPR, but I would recommend that every journalism student take to heart these two grafs:

Emily Younker is a master’s degree candidate from Joplin, Mo. She says her goal is to get a job in journalism when she graduates in May.

“I am starting to think about plans B and C in case that doesn’t really happen,” she says.

ABSOLUTELY … HAVE … A … BACKUP … PLAN! No matter how much you may love journalism now and can envision yourself spending the rest of your life doing it, have a backup plan and don’t delay putting it into motion. The best time to start laying the foundation for that backup plan is while you’re still in college, while your primary responsibility is to learn. If it turns out that you don’t need that backup plan, the learning you did in preparing yourself for it won’t go to waste. Journalists work in a knowledge industry, and more knowledge, on any subject, never hurts. And trust me, it’s a lot harder to go back to school, especially from a motivation standpoint, after you leave it.

As for whether or not I would encourage a college student to pursue journalism right now, I would say that journalism is a great job, but a lousy career. There’s so much the experience of being a journalist can do for you, even when you move on to other fields, that I would recommend trying your hand at it, especially while you’re young, energetic, and not tied down by family or financial obligations. After a few years, though, it’s time to move on and do something else that would give you more balance in your life.