Introduction: Why Entry-Level Journalism Feels Broken
For graduates hoping to enter journalism and blogging in the Netherlands, the path is steep. As of 2025, fewer than 40 editorial and journalism roles are open nationally, despite consistent demand for fresh stories and content (Glassdoor, 2025). At the same time, international graduates report that finding a first job is exhausting and time-consuming, even in attractive job markets like the Netherlands (VoxWeb, 2025).
This scarcity means aspiring writers, editors, and digital storytellers face long waits and countless applications before securing interviews. Employers, on the other hand, receive floods of CVs and portfolios that don’t always reveal true editorial ability. Universities struggle to balance traditional writing skills with digital-first journalism tools like SEO, audience analytics, and multimedia publishing.
The outcome is systemic friction: students are discouraged, employers guess at fit, and universities chase industry demands.
Talantir’s view is simple: the solution is to evaluate capability through real-world tasks, not just paper qualifications.
Current Frictions in Early-Career Journalism Hiring
1. Application Volume
With only a few dozen roles available, each vacancy attracts a disproportionately high number of applicants. Employers are overwhelmed by portfolios that vary widely in quality and focus. Automated filtering tools rarely work in journalism, where creativity, originality, and voice matter more than keywords. As a result, employers miss strong candidates who may not have glossy credentials but show clear talent.
2. Time to Hire
Delays are common. Even in broader job markets, median time-to-hire stretches into weeks—around 29 days for data-focused roles in Dutch hubs like Utrecht (Agency Partners, 2025). For journalism, where content demand is constant, such delays leave vacancies unfilled and graduates in limbo. Students often juggle freelancing or unpaid internships while waiting for decisions.
3. Skills Mismatch
The CIPD Labour Market Outlook shows more than half of employers across Europe struggle with skills mismatches (CIPD, 2023). In journalism, mismatches emerge when graduates excel at writing essays but lack practice in:
- Writing for SEO and digital platforms
- Using audience analytics to guide stories
- Producing multimedia content like podcasts or short videos
This mismatch makes employers hesitant and slows early-career progression.
4. Poor Signal Quality
CVs and portfolios can’t always capture the essence of journalistic capability: spotting a story, verifying facts, writing to deadline, or tailoring tone for different audiences. Interviews often privilege confidence, but confidence alone doesn’t translate into strong reporting. Employers are left uncertain about fit.
5. Assessment Drift
When tests are used, they often drift away from real work. Some publishers ask candidates to complete abstract logic tests or lengthy unpaid writing assignments. These approaches either measure the wrong things or create inequity by demanding free labor. Candidates feel undervalued, and employers still lack reliable hiring signals.
Why Journalism Roles Are Hard to Evaluate Early
Blogging and journalism roles present unique challenges in early-career hiring:
- Hybrid skill sets: Journalists need strong writing, but also digital savvy, ethical judgment, and communication skills. Bloggers may blend personal voice with structured reporting. Few graduates show this mix.
- Rapidly evolving platforms: From TikTok to Substack, audience channels evolve quickly. Students may graduate without exposure to tools dominating current publishing.
- Unclear titles: Job postings blur lines between “editorial assistant,” “content writer,” “digital journalist,” and “blogger.” This confuses candidates and employers.
- High stakes: Errors in reporting or poor-quality content can harm brand reputation and audience trust. Employers are risk-averse, raising the bar for entry-level candidates.
As a result, firms often lean on proxies—previous internships at big outlets, degrees from known universities, or high-profile clips—rather than evidence of current capability.
The Alternative: Work-Sample Evaluation
Imagine a system where candidates are assessed not by glossy CVs or unpaid trial work, but through short, realistic tasks that mirror day-one responsibilities.
For journalism and blogging, work samples could include:
- Writing a short news article on a provided press release, under deadline
- Drafting a blog post optimized for SEO and reader engagement
- Summarizing complex information for a non-specialist audience
- Reviewing a piece of writing for clarity, tone, and factual accuracy
These tasks are manageable (30–60 minutes), but they reveal how candidates write, think, and prioritize.
Why it works:
- Students: Show their true skills, not just their background.
- Employers: Gain clear signals of writing ability, editorial judgment, and audience awareness.
- Universities: Can align training with practical exercises, bridging theory with industry needs.
Work-sample evaluation is consistently shown to be among the most reliable predictors of job success. For roles built on creativity and clarity, its advantages are even stronger.
Talantir’s Perspective: Capability-First for Journalism
At Talantir, our model is built on capability-first hiring and readiness. Students engage in structured roadmaps where they practice real job-based cases, then enter employer-aligned challenges.
For blogging and journalism, this could mean:
- Roadmap cases: writing short articles, editing press releases, or drafting blog posts with an SEO brief.
- Milestones: completing mini-projects that combine writing, editing, and multimedia tasks.
- Challenges: employer tasks like covering a simulated event, fact-checking content, or preparing audience-ready copy.
For students: This approach provides clarity on whether journalism suits them and gives them a portfolio of evidence to showcase.
For employers: Instead of skimming through 100+ CVs, they can review deep candidate profiles that show how each student approached real writing tasks.
For universities: Journalism-focused roadmaps can be embedded into courses with minimal effort, producing analytics on readiness and employability.
By focusing on real work, not promises, Talantir helps reduce friction and rebuild trust in the early-career hiring process.
Conclusion: What If We Evaluated Real Work, Not Promises?
Early-career hiring in blogging and journalism in the Netherlands is marked by scarcity, application overload, slow timelines, and mismatched skills. Traditional tools—CVs, portfolios, and interviews—don’t provide reliable signals of who can deliver on day one.
Work-sample evaluation provides a fairer, faster, and more accurate alternative. By asking candidates to complete authentic, manageable tasks, employers gain sharper insights, students show their potential, and universities align education with industry demand.
What if we evaluated real work, not promises? That’s the reset Talantir proposes for journalism and blogging careers.
Explore how work-sample evaluation can reset early-career hiring standards.