Able to walk away -- and the reason you did

I am just starting out in the business. I obviously have aspirations to make it big and never let myself doubt that I will get to that point. That said in 10-15 years if I am still at the mid-level, not making great money I will probably look to get out. I know at that point I will want to be around my family, assuming I find my wife and start one by then. I have always thought that someday I may go to the opposite side and do PR or similar line of work. It eliminates a lot of the stress and pay is normally better.

What I'm curious about is those that did get out how exactly you went about it. How did you learn about the job you left for?

 

Don't wait 10 or 15 years, Levin. If you're going to stagnate, you'll know well before that. No harm in always having another iron in the fire if you can manage it.

 

Well I just got my first full-time gig 3 months ago.. Maybe it won't be 10 years and maybe it will be never. I don't know. I love the work but at small papers I dislike the micro managing and the dumb readers who complain and because we are small the editors listen. I don't dislike it to the point that it makes me want to get out but I always have an eye on the future. I fully realize that at some point I may want out because of family and the way the industry is going.

 

10-15?

If your self-knowledge scores are good, there's a 98% chance you'll be pretty sure inside of five years . . . perhaps well-inside.

It's the old poker story . . . if you've played in a game for an hour and you haven't figured out who the patsy(ies) at the table are, perhaps it's you. Hope not.

 

I got out two years ago at the age of 40 after being in newspapers since I was 14. The last 12 years all were at the same place, and it was a dream job -- at least when I took it. Great group of people, pay was OK, hours weren't too bad, and I didn't have kids yet. It was a blast to go to work each day. But then, around 2005, things started to go south in a hurry. When co-workers left, they wouldn't be replaced. We went through a few rounds of layoffs. My wife and I had a few kids. I looked around and realized just how much I hated the place. The good guys, for the most part, were gone. I was doing my job, plus the jobs of others who no longer were there. And then they added blogging and all that social-media BS to our responsibilities. My pay had not gotten appreciably better. I realized my salary was just barely, and I mean oh-so-barely, counterbalancing what we were paying for childcare.

My wife has a pretty good job, so we discussed it and quickly came to the same decision - get out. Quickly. I now stay home and take care of the kids and house. And I've not been looking for a job since. If I did, it absolutely would NOT be in journalism.

 

Always hiring. Campbell-Ewald.com

 

It's easy. My first job out of newspapers was working as a copywriting and eventually corporate communications specialist for an insurance company. They taught me the insurance, but the writing is the same. They wanted someone who knew AP style, someone who could fix grammatical errors and make our flyers and e-mails read better.

For example, our company sells Child Care Day Care Center Coverage. One of the flyers listed the enhanced coverage options. Among the list of included items was "Sexual and Physical Abuse".

The company had literally been using this flyer for six years saying that each policy came with "Sexual and Physical Abuse". I immediately had it changed to "Coverage in cases of Sexual And Physical Abuse" or something like that.

So it wasn't really learning the job as much as it was transferring my writing and editing skills. It also morphed into a lot of corporate communications, writing newsletters and press releases. Those are easy for journalists, we get press releases every day. There was also content management for the Web site since I did the same at the last gig.

The new social media job? Well, I learned about that already because I led our social media efforts at the paper and here at the insurance company. I created my own Twitter account with lists, I have an active blog, Yelp, Flickr account, and more. It's all part of the package.

The best thing you can do to help yourself down the road is try everything. Report, edit, do web work, learn social media, shoot video... it will open up doors down the road.

 

Has anyone still frequenting this website really and truly been able to walk away?

 

I'm still in newspapers, but I left sports to go to news about five years ago. I'm still at the same shop. I'm not getting rich, but I'm happier.

I know I wanted out of covering prep sports when looking around one night in a gym and thinking, "I spend more time with these kids than I do my own." I also got sick of worshiping at the altar of the teenaged athlete.

I have no regrets and have not looked back.

So, why do I hang around a place like this? Good people (including some former co-workers) and good conversation. I've always felt that sports reporters/editors can transition to news easier than the other way around because of our ability to figure out the winners and losers, and how they arrived at winning and losing. It's a skill that translates very well to things like city council meetings and court hearings.

 

Good point. When I talk to old friends from my former paper, I still say "we." On the good side, it's with detachment and humor, instead of anger, when I say "can you believe we did that?"

 

Quit my full-time gig at a large paper after 10 years, fulfilling a long-time feeling that I wanted to get out before age 40.

For now, I'm free-lancing -- mostly sports, but not all. I have some long-term projects I can't discuss.

I'm not seeing immediate financial dividends, so I'm completing a long-term trade with my wife. She went to law school as we scraped by on my journalism money. Now she's supporting us, though I'm bringing in some money as well. So I'm sort of a stay-at-home dad, sort of a free-lancer.

We're giving this set-up 3-4 years. Then I might head back into the workforce. As a full-time journalist? Less than 50-50.

 

I totally admit I read this board because I miss newspaper people on a daily basis and like reading about journalism. I just don't miss it enough to put up with all the BS again.