Three things you would have done differently

I heartily endorse the redundancy of "little Napoleon" because, well, it's just so much more fun and spiteful to say it that way.

 

I'm way too early in my career to contribute.

That said, this is by far the best thread I've read in my short time here. Please, more! Very valuable stuff to a dude like myself.

 

Pringle, you seem to have a knack for starting good threads. Kudos to you.
1. Applied for more internships and applied myself more in general. When I started at my college paper I did opinion writing the first year in part because it was easy. When I switched to news, I tended to go for the easy, boring-ass press release story. And I didn't think about summer internships until my junior year.
2. Like Walter said, more variety in classes. PR class(es) would have been good, maybe a broadcasting class. For sure some photography classes would have been good. Also, my school had a "4+1" MBA option. Take certain business courses as an undergrad and an MBA would only take one year. Exit strategy wise that could have come in real handy.
3. Read more "big name" writers and much more networking with writers at bigger area papers. Especially for advice and mentoring purposes.

 

Granted I'm young (under 25), so my three things probably hold less weight. Oh well. (Also, they're very journalism centered, so it does not show a very wide worldview)

1. Freelanced more in college. My approach was not good and I had no real idea how to begin looking for outlets. Looking back I could have found work, and the fact that someone is willing to give you money for your work seems to carry some weight. I didn't start until late in my college career, and it seems building a network as a freelancer would have been a good way to actually network.

2. Gone for fewer big deal internships. I swung for the fences in terms of applying and looking back, I was just spinning my wheels. I didn't have the resume/clips/references for big time spots. Unfortunately, I was pretty bad at identifying mid-sized places to apply (or that offered sports positions), so I ended up pissing away a lot of time on not very good apps for positions I simply had no chance of getting.

3. Generally being more aware. So this kind of catches the others, but I feel it deserves its own category. From not knowing how to prepare a good looking application to not pushing and asking more questions about the profession, I probably set myself back time and again due to my own lack of understanding. I can't help but think that if I'd been willing to ask more basic questions early on to professors/advisers/professionals, it would have been quite helpful.

Very nice thread by the way.

 

Stayed at my second TV job about three months longer (I just barely survived a massive round of layoffs and jumped at the first thing that came along. Three months later the sports director gets canned and I could have slid in at least to the #2 spot in sports, but by then I was gone)

Gone to the Cape for a shuttle launch (saw one from the beach when I lived in FL, but it wasn't the same)

Asked out the brunette in my science class my freshman year of high school

 

Your initial three are pretty much right on...

1) Been more daring in searching out an early internship...try to get that daily experience on my resume early, even if it meant getting coffee and typing boxscores.

2) Dressed like a pro...no, you don't need a three-piece suit, but slacks and a dress shirt make an impression and command more respect than a T-shirt and jeans.

3) Explored the other media venues such as radio and TV, while I was in college. I respect newspapers the most, but first-hand experience with the others may help shape your path. Plus, if you find you like one of the others, there may be more $$ in it.

*** All in all, I'm happy with my journalism career...working at a twice-weekly has its challenges and financial struggles at times, but the flexible schedule allows me to be a husband and father, which are far more important roles in my view. (Of course, my wife works at a great job, which helps us out a ton).

The three listed above would be more for those wanting to chase a prime spot in this profession...oh, and to add a fourth...be willing to travel.

 

1. Like others on here, taken internships more seriously. I remember my junior year, the editor of the local small-town daily came by to talk to our newswriting class. He talked about internships, and how a lot of his FT reporters came from our school and said that anyone who wanted to talk about an intership or a job should call him. I asked him how much they made, and he replied $7.50 to $8/an hour (this is in the mid-90s). I thought that was way too low for superstar me, so I never called. Sure enough, my first two newspaper jobs ended up paying simliar to what he paid.

2. Gotten away from my now-former Gannett paper a few years earlier before my layoff. I could see the writing on the wall, but I was too busy/too lazy/too naive to bust my hump to get better skills and find an alternative career, until it was too late.

3. I wish I'd had the experience I do now when I was working as a one-man sports staff way back when. I would have made the section so much better and been more efficient than in my youth.

 

1). I would have learned and become truly proficient in as many computer-graphic and layout-and-design software programs as possible, and I would have pushed to do more desk work. It was always something for which I had an eye and a feel, and it was always something I enjoyed but that I didn't do again once I'd left the smaller paper at which I started my career. I had several good internships and I was a very good reporter and a good writer. I did well in going pretty far and lasting pretty long without the greater technical desk/layout skills demanded in today's tech-driven industry. But I have no doubt that I could have done more had I had continued real ability and experience along production-related lines.

2). I would have moved farther away from home during and just out of college. I didn't feel like it at the time, but now, I think I may have missed out on something, and may have set myself back a little bit by not doing that.

3). I would have not let my career consume my life. I'm not sure how I would have done that. But the costs of letting it be pretty much all I had are clear to me now, and they were devastatingly so when I lost my job at my dream workplace three-and-a-half years ago. It was like losing, well, my life, pretty much, and I am only now beginning to forge a new -- and vastly different -- one.

Be forewarned. Try not to let this job be the only thing you've got going on or become the sum of your identity. It will make things better and easier if/when, god forbid, you ever lose it.

 

Nice point on No. 3 Write...

and good advice for any job. The people in your life are far more important that what you do to bring home a paycheck. Take pride in your work, but don't let it consume you. Don't put in 60 hours, while getting paid for 40.
You'll forge working relationships with coaches/parents/etc., but they'll do the same with the next reporter that swings through town. The important relationships are the ones in your personal life -- wife, kids, friends, etc...those are the ones that should last regardless of how your pulling your weight.

 

1. A lot of people told me I should have stayed on the writing side instead of going into editing. I've made a good living doing this, but I often think they might be right. There's a caveat, though: I could put words together, but I wasn't really good with sticking my nose in and getting dirty on the reporting side of things, and if I couldn't have done that, I wouldn't have been the writer people ultimately thought I could be. But let's say: Stick to writing, or at least write more rather than pretty much giving it up altogether.

2. I made a lot of friends in bars and my social life over the years, and that led to a lot of opportunities, but ultimately, I was so good at it that it probably cost me something. I wouldn't mind going back and seeing how it would have turned out taking another path alcohol-wise. So: Do it without the alcohol.

3. No Jupiter Daily Journal. But even that disaster opened another door, so ...

 

There was a blonde in my chemistry class my first semester of college. There were 120 people in the class, 90 of 'em were women (I found out later that it was the intro chem class for nursing majors).
The class was at 9:30 a.m. right across the street from the all-girls dorm on campus. She would show up in sweats (usually white or dark blue...she was a Wolverines fan, and might have been from Michigan) and her hair in a ponytail, and she STILL looked positively amazing.
She is my girl on the New York ferry.

 

Absolutely one of my favorite scenes in any movie.

[quote author=Mr. Bernstein]A fellow will remember a lot of things you wouldn't think he'd remember. You take me. One day, back in 1896, I was crossing over to Jersey on the ferry, and as we pulled out, there was another ferry pulling in, and on it there was a girl waiting to get off. A white dress she had on. She was carrying a white parasol. I only saw her for one second. She didn't see me at all, but I'll bet a month hasn't gone by since that I haven't thought of that girl.[/quote]