Regrets, we have a few

my experience of navigating is side eying older colleagues as if to say “uhhh this is really how this works” and them shrugging “Yep.”

its not a TV show. Theres no crusade to so the right thing or expose the corruption. No one gives a poop

 

I kept trying to get jobs as a writer and missing out
I switched to the desk and was hired right away
I don’t consider myself a failure as a writer
I was lucky to be able to write and edit
Hard to do that now when copy editing is becoming a lost art
As it turned out I liked the structure, even with a shit schedule, and I had grown tired of going on the road
I will hit five years retired in December
Got out of the business at the right time

 

One thing about a journalism degree: they are not equal, and there's a massive difference from school to school.

I went to Oregon in the late 80s. It had a very respected J school at the time. It was probably viewed as the best on the west coast at the time, at least among public universities.

It was worthless. As I recall, there was a grand total of one faculty member who had actually worked in the business, and he'd been out of it for 15+ years. Everyone else was a lifelong academic who would lecture us about the need to "like, subvert the dominant paradigm, man." The equipment was antiquated, and was low-end consumer grade to begin with. I bailed and became a film major; everything of value that I learned in college came from my internship at a TV station.

On the flip side, I'm close to the program at ASU and it's outstanding. I've worked with much of the faculty before they moved into teaching. The best reporter in my shop teaches reporting there part-time. Our I-Team photographers teach videography there. Students leave that program absolutely ready to work in the business.

 

I have regrets about my now-over career.

However, I made some good friends in the business, and I met most of my lovers, girlfriends and STBX at various papers where I worked.

My life, obviously, would have been different if I made other choices. But it doesn’t work that way — and I got two terrific kids out of it.

 

The decline and fall of the Newhouse papers in Alabama has been very sad to see. But on the way down, it did mean I stumbled into a position I’d have never otherwise qualified for. I got hired as an assistant supervisor for the prep sports phone clerks at AL.com, but because they were so desperate for bodies I got loaned out to the news desk two nights a week to proof pages and eventually do first reads on stories for Birmingham, Mobile and Huntsville. And after years of wondering if I could have hung at a metro paper, I found out the answer was yes. It sucked when they closed our department down, but I at least walked away with my itch scratched for good.

 

Yep. I’m in exactly the same spot. Still have those dreams 30 years after graduation.

 

Phew thought it was just me. And apparently @PCLoadLetter.

 

I don't regret my degree either. Like a few other sentiments, I regret some of the stuff I did with it early on.

I was really unwilling to leave my area when I first graduated. I got kind of screwed over at my college town paper. Sports editor, who I worked for on the cheap for a whole year prior doing the total job said he didn't hire new college graduates. Never mind that newsroom was filled with my classmates getting their first jobs. But I could have gotten a job any number of places. So I ended up doing news at a weekly, and that actually was a very good experience too, but if I had expanded my horizons I could have been in sports right away and who knows where I'd be if I did that.

I finally did after six months and got a sports job at a bordering state, but not far away from comforts, and it was great and I got to do everything imaginable. Then I got tied down to my wife's professional training and didn't have any options. After being tied to location, I did get into a mid-to-large sized daily, but after fighting to get into sports (again, did tons for them but they wouldn't give me a real job), settled for the news desk and it was honestly great. That was also flexibility I wouldn't have a few years earlier. Then did a few internet and trade things after moving again before mostly getting out of the business.

The degree, though, has served me well and kept me up in marketing and information and helped me with other ventures, not professional. I started writing and editing again on a contract basis a little more than a year ago and work 15 to 20 hours a week and actually it's now my second-highest-paying journalism job! Says some about the pay in the industry, but also that there can be something out there if you look for it. I could do more of this work and make more, and I was out of the biz totally for 14 years and still landed it (other experiences surely helped).

I wonder about layoffs at past stops and all that, but I worked with three people in that mid-to-large-sized area that are now comfortable on a national level (one a broadcaster for some of your favorite NFL and major college games), and another who works as a broadcast media guy for an NBA team (he was print when I was with him). So opportunities were and still remain if you can stick with it. I can't think of another degree I really would have wanted, although I don't think I'd encourage anyone to do this now.

 

I got two college degrees and neither were in journalism, but I'm still in it and just staying afloat.

I have a second full-time job that is now paying more, but I still got my journo surfboard waxed up and will ride that gnarly tube till it plays out.

 

Surprised sports marketing hasn't made the list. Journalism is a good major, but it depends on the program. If you leave the program with the ability to dive deep into a subject and analyze it - figure something out - that will suit you well in pretty much any field you go into. Always heard that liberal arts was a good major because people change jobs/careers multiple times over a lifespan. Now a journalism major right out of college? Yeah, I understand the disappointment.

 

This is a really great post. And this is turning into one of the best threads on the J board in years, IMO.