"Money's nice, but you'll end up hating what you do"

Bingo! Especially since the sample size has mushroomed in the past 12 months and is growing by the day, and we're still searching for even 1% who would honestly say, "I wish I were back in newspapers as they are today", rather than how they remember them from X number of years ago.

I know many former journos who pine for the way things were even as recently as 10 years ago. But to a man and women, they understand that those days are over. A lot of them feel as if the newspaper world shifted backwards one or two notches -- many of what would be considered MLB papers now do things in a Triple A or Double A way, with each level of the farm system dropping a notch or two.

Folks not very far along in their careers just see the steps and want to keep climbing, even if the escalator is coming down to them. But for those facing an unwarrented "demotion" in one's career from the bigs to the bushes while standing in one spot, it becomes real easy to move on. What's left at that point are a lot of Crash Davis lifers.

 

I don't hate my non-sports job, but I don't love it either. It's a means to end. I work so I can pay the rent, save some money and enjoy life. I don't live to work.

It was the same when I was a sports writer. So I figured if I'm working just to make a living, might as well have good hours and decent pay. (I'm in Internal Communications Manager if anyone's wondering).

If you're relying on your job to define you, make you happy, then you better make sure you absolutely love your job 100 percent in every way. I didn't.

To me work is something that keeps me away from home from 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. (Yeah, those are my hours!)

 

Good time to be in banking. Misery just follows you, doesn't it?

 

Ha, it's not a good time to be a bank in general, but it's a fine time to be a banker. Plus, my company is so tight that we never made the bad loans.

 

Just busting chops.

 

Dante: I'm in the same boat. I set a two-year time frame post-graduat9on to find a good journalism job or at least be on the fast track to one.

If I don't lock one down by then, I'm calling it quits and will do something else and maybe freelance.

 

I got a degree in journalism, and stayed in the newspaper field for two years after college. I worked at two weekly newspapers covering mostly high school sports, with some college games mixed in. I loved what I was doing, but was making no money and saw no possibility of promotion at either job.

I left the second newspaper gig for a job in sales, and am now making double the salary doing work I love equally as much. I have only been with the sales company for 6 months and have already received one sizable promotion with another about two months away.

My advice is that if you think you can get by and really love writing that much, then stay with it. Personally, I was more interested in establishing a comfortable lifestyle 5-10 years down the road than hanging on to my pipe dream of being a writer. Had to leave and couldn't be happier with the decision.

 

Listen to your boss. He's right. They more money you make, the more upwardly mobile you become, the more you will hate your job.

At least, that's the only explanation I have for why CEOs of companies whose stock tanks get $26 million bonuses.

 

I'm looking at it exactly the same way. I'm still in the biz and I know (at least think) I wouldn't enjoy another job as much as this one. But at the same time, and this might sound crazy, I'm not sure if that outweighs the negatives. Obviously I wouldn't want a job I'd abhor going to everyday, but as much I like this job, I'm also not sure I can see me staying with it forever just because of some of the negatives everyone here knows all too well.

I look at work the same way you do, so it makes me wonder is this worth it. I respect those who are so driven that they are willing to do anything for their profession, but I'm just not sure if that's me. I might look back in 20 years and regret not doing everything I could have done so that's why I'm not throwing in the towel right now. But it's certainly a consideration and in about a year I'll probably have to make a decision -- go after this thing full force or get out.

 

Thirteen years ago, I took a $10,000 salary cut to leave a corporate gig to get my first newspaper job. My assistant went on to become the head of the department and VP of the company. I'd guess he pulls in $250k plus bonuses.

It's still the best decision I ever made, because I hated corporate life.

 

First down, just curious - did you go for the MBA hoping to get into banking or were you open to anything? What sort of different offers/directions could you have gone in, and did anyone value your past experience in journalism?

 

Work to live. Don't live to work.