Regrets, we have a few

I have no regrets regarding my degree. My experience has been hugely valuable in what I do now

 

My degree is a $40,000 piece of toilet paper.

 

I got my journalism degree just before Watergate, spent 45 years in the business and got out with my sanity. Today, no way. I would likely be a computer science or technology major.

 

I graduated in '96 and was told not to do it (it being getting into journalism, not not graduating) by almost everyone I worked alongside as a stringer at my local paper. So I fit right in between you and @Oggiedoggie and none of us listened. And I probably wouldn't listen if I was stupid and 21 today (instead of being stupid and *mumbles real age because some people here still remember what BYH was an acronym for*).

 

I was warned about quitting school to take a full-time newsroom job — that it would hurt my chances for moving into management, that it would hurt my chances for working elsewhere, that it would hurt my chances for moving into management after working elsewhere, and that it would hurt me when it came time to change careers. Thankfully, none of those things came to pass.

What would most certainly have happened had I stayed in school: I would have graduated directly into the 1991 recession, right about the time a bunch of second newspapers in larger cities closed, creating a flood of experienced and very good candidates for the job I already had.

The main thing I took away from what little time I spent in college was learning how to learn, and that has been exceedingly valuable, and has helped me along significantly in my career. I also have the advantages of being a cis white male, and having had extraordinary luck.

I have two close relatives who are 18 and considering a journalism major. My advice to them is to major in literally anything else, because a strong base of knowledge in [insert thing in which you’re really interested] is probably the best path to success in latter-day journalism.

 

I think about this a lot. The regret part. I'm 25 years in, somehow still surviving when so many talented people have not.

I doubt I'll still be in the biz when I retire. Who knows? Every year is one step closer. There's been a lot of job stress (both the work and fear of getting laid off) over the last several years. Though right now I'm in a (hopefully) much more stable situation. Definitely could do without those years of stress though.

But regrets? I can only look at my bigger picture. If I'd taken a different path, I might not meet my wife and my life could be totally different. And I love the point I'm at now.

So, no regrets.

 

Romped the terra every second of my 23 years in the biz and wouldn't trade it for anything other than a lot of cash which I blew like the King of Medellin ... and regrets ... I have none.

 

Yeah, “BMAH” doesn’t have the same ring to it! And I’m pretty sure I’m a bit older than you (reached the big Five-oh this past February)

 

And as bad as the industry is, I wouldn’t do anything different either. Still in the business — just pivoted back to full time writing and reporting after two decades on the copy and design desks, and am glad to still be doing it. Even if the scope of our reporting, its impact and definitely its readership is much smaller than when I started, it’s still important locally.

 

1. The kind of people who get into journalism tend to be the kinds of people actually honest about regret.

2. You don't need a journalism degree to be a journalist and that becomes evident quickly in the field.

3. There's virtually no guardrails to who become journalism majors, and a lot of mediocre writers, talkers and editors are wooed into the field with promises of big jobs that don't materialize.

4. Internships are not generally handed out on the basis of talent and expertise - the way an A+ student might be the get best engineering job prep - but who you know and who the internship coordinator likes for whatever reason.

 

I regret it every day.

 

Regretting (insert whatever the regret is) takes away from the joy, down to the marrow of the bone, that one was having in the moment.