He then transferred to Western Illinois University, where he graduated in 1995 with bachelor's degrees in communication and journalism.
He joined the Sun-Times news staff in 2004 and covered transportation, Cook County courts and government, and Chicago neighborhoods.
In September 2012, Konkol resigned from the Sun-Times to join DNAinfo.com as the start-up local news website's Writer at Large.
Konkol was nominated for an Emmy Award for his work as producer and on-air talent for "We Are Timeless" White Sox Promo for Comcast Sportsnet (2017).
[citation needed] On April 18, 2011, Konkol, crime reporter Frank Main, and photographer John J. Kim won the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting for "their immersive documentation of violence in Chicago neighborhoods, probing the lives of victims, criminals and detectives as a widespread code of silence impedes solutions.