One of my co-workers is a former photo-journalist, and when I was asking him about how he made that work for himself, he said that there was an old saying in journalism: "Never be a journalist: be a specialist." What that means is: find a niche and pursue it. In his case, he marketed himself as a photojournalist specific to the area of Panama in which he was living.

This makes sense for every profession and not just journalism. Most people, when putting together their resume, use the "sheer volume" strategy. They cram as much expertise and experience onto their resume as they can, and then they send it to as many companies and recruiters as they can in the hopes that at least one of them will take notice, feel they're a good match, and give them a call for a job interview.

This is like hunting with a shotgun because you're a poor shot and you're falling back on the spray pattern of the firearm. If you're not accurate in aiming, you're more likely to hit something, yes, but not necessarily the bullseye. Maybe not even the target you were shooting at. I think the reason we have trouble targeting our dream job is because we're so modest and have trouble assessing our own strengths. That, and a lot of people don't really know what they want to do, so they hope a good opportunity will find them. Not a great idea. You might as well aim the gun at your own foot.

Here's another quote that I like but won't expound on: "He never was a person. He was a journalist!" -Almost Famous

Never be a journalist.