Recently, the Department had a chance to catch up with Nicholas Moyle, Class of 2011. Keep reading to learn more about his career and tips he has for current undergraduates.
RUPS: Let’s start by having you tell us about your current role. What do you do?
Nicholas Moyle: I am the trending national politics supervisor, as well as being a writer for NJ.com. It’s a pretty recent position for me. I started here in October. I previously worked at the San Antonio Express News, covering sports, but obviously I have that political science background, so I moved back to New Jersey a couple years ago and got this offer. It’s been a great role. Essentially, day to day, we are tracking the nonstop chaos and turmoil that’s happening in the world. It’s fun, it’s frantic. We’re watching press conferences, we’re watching hearings, trials. Obviously, there’s a lot to juggle, whether it’s what’s going on in Iran, or The Epstein Files, or voting rights. But yeah, it’s chaotic day to day, but NJ.com is a great organization. I work with some really, really talented journalists and editors and I’m very happy to be back in my home state covering it.
RUPS: How did you get your first job? How did it lead to your current role?
Moyle: I had a little bit of a weird and winding path to journalism. Obviously, I graduated as a poli-sci major. I was planning to go to law school, but completely pivoted. I ended up going to Indiana University to get my master’s in journalism. So after I graduated, my professor from Indiana moved down to San Antonio, became this sports editor there, and he gave me a job offer. So, I spent about 10 years in Texas. I started out at, essentially, our sports trending desk, mostly covering the San Antonio Spurs. Then, a couple years in, I moved up to Austin to become the Texas Longhorns beat writer. That was probably the most fun I’ve ever had in my career. And honestly, at that time, a lot of politics were bleeding into it too, because you had the rise of name, image, and likeness. You had all these congressional hearings of players, collegiate athletes, both past and present, fighting for their rights, their representation, and to be able to make money. So, even back then, I was still sort of steeped in the politics world. Then, this job just landed on my lap one day. A recruiter reached out to me, and I thought it sounded great. And I think there’s a lot of sports and politics that are sort of bleeding into each other now too. So, I felt well versed and prepared to take on this new challenge.
RUPS: What advice do you have for undergraduates who want to break into your field?
Moyle: In terms of breaking into the journalism field, I would say to make yourself versatile, especially in this day and age, because everybody fears AI, but no matter what, AI cannot do the job of a reporter. They can’t go out and interview people and they can’t be boots on the ground. They cannot bring a human aspect to what we do. But also, figuring out what really speaks to you and what you’re interested in and what you want to cover. Again, it’s a career that opens up a lot of avenues too. So, my advice would be, don’t be too afraid of what you see out there. If this is what you want to do, there are certainly a lot of creative ways nowadays to get into journalism.
RUPS: How important is networking in your field and how do you do it?
Moyle: It’s usually important. A lot of the jobs that people get aren’t necessarily even posted. Its somebody that you’ve established a relationship with, or maybe even just a journalist that you’ve reached out to. So, in that regard, I think it’s really, really important. There’s so many brilliant, smart and talented people and they can teach you so many different things.
Thank you Nick! For more networking opportunities, be sure to join the Rutgers Political Science Alumni Network on LinkedIn.