Might be leaving the business, need suggestions about new careers

I think you've got the right idea. A lot of journalists I know who are looking to get out are having a bit of a tough time, not because they can't find jobs that suit their skills, but because these positions are closer to entry-level and they've reached a point in their life and career where they really can't go back to making entry-level pay any more. So if you're looking to get out, do it now, and you'll find that entry-level pay in other fields are often better than entry-level pay in newspapers anyway.

As for suggested careers, there are a lot of writing/copy editing positions in ad agencies. Of course, it's a completely different brand of writing, so you have to evaluate whether you'd be able to do it and whether you'd enjoy it. There're also PR jobs. While the more senior level PR positions require PR experience, if they hire someone just starting out, chances are they're looking for someone who can write and then groom them on the media relations aspects. Going back to school isn't a bad idea if you have another strong career interest. But just remember that an advanced degree is no guarantee of a job. I've seen English PhDs fighting over jobs at podunk colleges that I've never even heard of, and I work with health science grad students every day who spend more than a decade in college and training before they can even get into a junior faculty position.

 

I graduated from school a few years ago with a journalism degree, and thought it was so cool that I was going to cover sports my whole life. After the first few months, I started to wonder how I was going to ever get promoted/earn more money and stop living like a poor college student. After a year, I was out of the biz. I know work a not-quite 9 to 5, but I make more money than I probably ever would have made if I kept writing for local newspapers and I can say that the deicision to leave the biz after 1 year was one of the best choices I've made in my admittedly young life.

 

Respectable enough. I've yet to enter the business fully, but I've pondered over the same issues. I'll be entering upon the same line of work within July/August 2008, but I hope for the job to simply be a stepping stone onto something bigger and more flexible. I hope down the road, after I leave journalism, to go into some realm of public/media relations for a sports team. If all else fails, I'm considering just looking at technical writing and/or becoming an SID at some local college.

 

well, that's the challenge- truth is, i had to deal with that during my job search...but i finally lucked out and had a place take a chance on me.

 

Those jobs are harder to get than sportswriting jobs. And for all those who think being an SID is a better gig than sportswriting, remember that most SIDs work the regular 9-to-5 (because they're expected to as university employees) on top of the nights-and-weekends for games.

 

It still amazes me how many people have to be reminded of this.

Wanting a SID job b/c you're sick of the crap that goes along with sports writing falls under the heading "Be careful what you wish for."

 

Overall, in the long run, my dream job is to work for ESPN or Sports Illustrated. I figure all those I listed were back-ups, none of which I think will be better nor worse than sports writing itself.

 

I'm a beat writer covering a BCS conference school and, while I certainly miss out on things because of my job, I don't think it affects my social life more than when, for my pre-journalism job, I had to be at work at 8 a.m. on Saturday mornings and be there all day. Really, all it means is that I'm working while all my buddies are watching the game I'm covering. I finish writing and catch up with them later. No biggie.

Now, when I was working desk, that was a whole nother story. If I thought my destiny was as a desk guy, I'm pretty sure I'd quit, too. But, in general, I think people that bitch about the time they spend with writing jobs have somewhat unrealistic expectations for what the working world is. I grew up with my dad basically working a blue collar job from 6 or 7 a.m. to 6 or 7 p.m. Yeah, he got overtime. But he was also in bed by 10 every night because he was totally beat. And we weren't exactly keeping up with the Joneses, either.

Now, if you want to bitch about the pay, I'm with ya. But the hours just aren't oppressive to me, except in cases of things like coaching searches or other big, breaking stories.