ABSTRACT Our paper presents the contradictory views journalism graduates from the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences, University of Bucharest and their future employers from local and national Romanian media organizations have on profession, knowledge and skills. The study shows that at the end of their three-year formal training the students do not fully understand and internalize the journalistic professional values. They reiterate an academically induced picture of the profession, which has not been revised for years. However, the contextual analysis of the research results indicates that professionally committed students, that benefited from internships and trainings in media organizations, came up with more relevant answers, integrating more easily their knowledge of curriculum with their practical experience, as opposed to their peers without work experience, that are undecided about their professional path. Academic education does seem to help professionally committed students to adapt more easily to the fast-changing work environment and makes them look competent. Moreover, our findings highlight a lack of dialogue between the journalism schools and the media organizations, showing a steep gap between the students’ expectations and the requirements managers and editors have from a potential job applicant.