Austin’s Hacks and Hackers came out for this panel on Integrating Tech Skills in Your Communications Career, a topic that is of great interest to students, recent grads, job-seekers and seasoned professionals, as they wish to update their skills to reflect the coding and social media requirements of modern media. This panel included four recent graduates who are all using tech skills in different ways in communications careers. Scott Thomas is the business/tech reporter for AustinPost, Maira Garcia is a content producer at the Statesman, Ryan Murphy is a data journalist for Texas Tribune and Maggie Cook is a User Operations Analyst at Facebook.

Each panelist expressed the need to gain experience while in college, working in student media or perfecting skills with projects. And, Murphy said that meeting people who shared your interests was key, highlighting the importance of early networking. He also added that mentors, like Matt Stiles formerly of Texas Tribune and now at NPR, were instrumental to his development. Cook expressed that it was important to find your passion, what really makes you happy, and to use college to explore those interests. She also said that every class she took was valuable, including languages and requirements that may seem less relevant at the time.

Thomas and Garcia expressed that writing was an important skill to have, and should not be replaced, but complemented by stronger tech skills like learning HTML, CSS and Javascript or learning multimedia editing. You can watch the full panel in its entirety below.

Thanks again to the Statesman for providing the facilities for the event. Stay tuned for announcements of the next meetup, scheduled for July 5 at Texas Tribune.