How I Landed That: Omar Abdel-Baqui
Editor’s Note: This post is part of a series on The Blog called “How I Landed That,” where we chat with students who have completed big-time internships around the country, and around the globe.
Omar Abdel-Baqui is currently a reporting news intern at the Detroit Free Press and a member of Wayne State University’s class of 2021. This past summer, he worked as a fellow at NBC News Investigations based in New York.
Tell us about your time at NBC News. What skills did you learn?
I worked as a fellow at NBC News Investigations based in New York this summer. There, I independently conducted investigations and wrote articles about immigration, fraud and voting laws. I also had the opportunity to work alongside some of the world’s most talented and hard-working journalists.
I assisted in the reporting of high-profile topics that NBC News covered, including the Jeffery Epstein case. I acquired a ton of skills and experience working at NBC News. This was the first time I primarily focused on long-form investigations, so one key thing I learned was patience.
Coming to NBC News with mostly breaking news experience, it took some time for me to be comfortable with the fact that it will sometimes take months to complete a story and the fact that it’s inevitable to encounter countless dead ends over the course of investigations. I also learned the value of maintaining relationships and establishing trust with sources. This is especially critical in investigative reporting. Sources shouldn’t just include people in government and law enforcement — it’s important to spend time in the community you report on and establish relationships with people there.
What past internships or college media experiences helped you land the job?
Prior to working at NBC, I worked at the Detroit Free Press for about two years and held several positions at my college newspaper, most notably, managing editor. As a news reporter at the Free Press, I gained a ton of field experience covering crime, local government and community issues. When I wasn’t reporting on breaking news, I worked on enterprise and investigative pieces that I felt would impact our city and our readers.
As managing editor of The South End, Wayne State University’s student newspaper, I learned the many, many responsibilities of upper-level newsroom management, which in turn made me a better reporter. At The South End, I reshuffled the newsroom to focus on investigative reporting.
Consequently, we broke several stories that would have otherwise gone unreported — most notably one on a cheating scandal at the medical school swept under the rug by university officials. During my tenure, The South End won third place for the Best Newspaper Apple Award, bestowed by the College Media Association.
What advice for students do you have about navigating the journalism industry?
My advice to students navigating the journalism industry is: don’t take things personally, and don’t be distraught if things aren’t going your way early on.
Keep finding ways to become involved in different newsrooms — both student newsrooms and professional newsrooms — and be flexible with your plan of action. Be just as persistent when job hunting as you are when reporting (which should be just one level under annoyingly persistent, and, sometimes, even annoyingly persistent).
“Keep finding ways to become involved in different newsrooms — both student newsrooms and professional newsrooms — and be flexible with your plan of action. ”
Are there any hurdles that you faced when applying for internships or applying for jobs?
The biggest hurdle I’ve faced when applying for internships is the fact that I don’t attend a high-level journalism school. Although many accomplished journalists graduated from Wayne State University, and the institution has helped shape the person and journalist I am today, it’s not ivy or elite. There are some national outlets that still follow an approach to hiring that favors students from ivy league or other elite universities.
Tell us about your role at the Freep. What does your day to day look like?
I am currently a reporting news intern at the Detroit Free Press. In this role, I pitch stories, report on breaking news, write enterprise and investigative articles and serve as a crime beat reporter. I also take photos using a DSLR when on assignment, and I write scripts and create audio newscasts.
No two days are the same in my role. Some days I check in with sources and review court documents to see if I can chase a story, and sometimes I am assigned a story by an editor or following breaking news.
Detroit is a hub for news, so there is always something going on.
What's your dream job?
My dream is to at some point work as an investigative journalist based in the Middle East, reporting on government corruption and misconduct. I speak Arabic, and that’s a much-needed skill in journalism, so I feel it’s important to be actively using that ability at some point in my career.
One final thought:
It’s especially important for minorities to enter the journalism field and for media outlets to hire minorities. One of many reasons I decided to join the news media is because of the lack of minority representation, specifically Middle Easterners, in the field.
A newsroom should be representative of the population it serves, and that is, unfortunately, rarely the case. We should strive to make it a reality.
“A newsroom should be representative of the population it serves, and that is, unfortunately, rarely the case. We should strive to make it a reality.”