Job Requirements

We tend not to put a lot of emphasis on basic qualifications; instead, we look at each individual candidate for what they have to offer and how they will fit the organization. This is to say that your “I Will” is much more important than your “IQ.” We endeavour to attract candidates with diverse backgrounds, cultures and experience. We are truly quite flexible in terms of who we will work with. Listed below you will find the basic (absolute) requirements as well as some competencies and skills that seem to fit best. Before you put in for any position, read through them and see how many of them describe you, and to what extent. Be prepared to talk about how you fit the role.

BASIC REQUIREMENTS

In order to join our team, you must:

• be at least eighteen years of age (or as required by our “junior reporter” program);
• be legally contractable and not prohibited from journalism;
• speak, read and write in the English language (clearly and fluently, advanced level);
• have a means of accepting payment (e.g. a bank account);
• have an address whereat you can receive letter mail, courier service, etc;
• not have criminality that would preclude you from your function or bring us into disrepute;
• have ready access to a computer device and internet connection (access our systems);
• have ready access to a cell phone able to connect through our systems;
• be competent to operate whatever equipment your role requires;
• have good hygiene, suitable dress and footwear (according to your role).

GENERAL COMPETENCIES

We look for the following competencies in people:

1. Self Confidence – a core belief in your own abilities and competency, while acknowledging and understanding personal limitations and deficiencies, always working to achieve better.
2. Communication – the ability to listen effectively, organize and articulate complex thoughts and narratives, verbalize complex points, write factual and perspective-based texts, etc.
3. Analytical Thinking – the ability to properly and scientifically analyze situations and events in a logical way, and to organize solutions to problems based on factual and meaningful metrics.
4. Self Control – being able to keep your emotions in check in rapidly-changing, diverse and stressful situations, and specifically to restrain from negative actions when provoked.
5. Organization and Strategy – the ability to construct plans based on steps of concrete action, to organize missions into milestones into segments into tasks into steps, and to achieve success.
6. Relationship Management – the ability to develop and maintain personal and professional relationship and to maintain a mutually beneficial, reciprocal network of contacts.
7. Respect for Diversity – the ability to learn about and respect differing cultures, backgrounds, social and economic circumstances – putting yourself in someone else’s shoes, so to speak.
8. Stress Management – the ability to manage (in a positive way) the stresses that are inherent to this business, including physical demands, setbacks, frustration, deadlines, concentration, etc.

IMPORTANT SKILL SETS

We actively seek and advance people with the following skill sets:

• honesty, trustworthiness, loyalty and integrity in everything;
• situational awareness and concern for safety (self and others);
• assertiveness, whensoever appropriate;
• curiosity and the ability to find and source pertinent information quickly;
• decisiveness and the ability to maintain focus;
• initiative, self-starters who take on a challenge and bring it to completion;
• continuous learning, especially concerning new methods and technologies;
• the ability to respect privacy, proprietary concepts, business secrets;
• a true desire to serve others through awareness;
• the ability to cooperate and productively work with others;
• organization skills to effectively manage workflow;
• subordination to decisioning authority, take constructive criticism;
• subscription to the state of ‘one band, one sound’ teamwork;
• compassion and empathy for victims and those with less.