By Peter Arrabal
UWIRE Contributor

(UWire)--Although the job markets for journalism and IT appear to be headed in opposite directions, a hybrid of the two careers is proving profitable for recent college graduate John Phifer. 

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To make things better, his May 2008 job search was short and sweet, with the offer coming less than a month after his graduation. After three pre-graduation interviews didn't work out, Saxotech, a company that builds, maintains and manages newspapers' online presences, returned his call. 

"They actually didn't call me until a couple weeks after I applied, and I'd forgotten who they were," Phifer said. 

The job was a perfect fit for Phifer, who helped build and launch the Web site for the University of Tampa's student newspaper, The Minaret. 

"Once I got [to the interview] and started talking to the guy, we hit it off. He really liked that I had newspaper experience, especially being the online editor," he said. "It's a similar product we deal with now, but on a much more advanced scale."

He landed the job, earning the official title of online technical support representative. 

The job is a small switch from his college days, where he was a customer of content management companies like Saxotech. That experience, he said, has proved invaluable in relating to customer requests and problems. 

As the economy struggles, recent grads have been scrambling to find an income before student loans and other debts begin to overwhelm them. 

"Once I got [to the interview] and started talking to the guy, we hit it off. He really liked that I had newspaper experience..."

-John Phifer

Tampa is one of the hardest hit areas with unemployment figures rising beyond 10 percent.

Phifer's four years in college were a time of major change in the economy and the IT industry. The boom that existed during his freshman year had fizzled. 

As graduation neared, Phifer ramped up his job search. Nothing seemed to be a good fit for him, and he didn't feel like a good fit for the companies who interviewed him. 

"In the last year or so as I started to prepare for job search mode, a lot of the professors in my department assured us that the job market for IT professionals wasn't as bad as the press made it out to be so that made it a little more reassuring," he said. "It was just a matter of finding something that matched what I felt like I was looking for and what a company wanted from me." 

The market for technical support reps is projected to have 13 percent growth over the next decade, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. On the other side of Phifer's career path is the crumbling newspaper business, which is seeing widespread layoffs and a number of closings. 

"There have definitely been moments when I felt like I could go anytime, especially since we're essentially tied to the struggling newspaper industry," he said, "but we're just adapting to the changing industry to meet the needs of the papers. I think as long as we're able to continue doing that, we'll be safe."