Are friends/family shocked at your salary?

Nice touch, Rick.

 

I agree with that for the most part. But in reality, even given the difficult economic times, pretty much any other profession on the planet has more hope than this one. Let's be real. I've got friends set to graduate college, and sure, there aren't tons of jobs out there. But the jobs that are there sure as hell beat out making 10 bucks an hour in some podunk town covering podunk high. And simply knowing that makes a new profession worth fighting for. It's not that there aren't any journalism jobs out there. It's that even when some do pop up, they aren't worth getting up and moving for.

 

How'd you get that job? Do you drive a forklift?

I wouldn't mind doing something like that --- at least temporarily --- but, truthfully, I don't even see many warehouse positions available here in podunkville. One problem I have run into is that when most everything you have done in the last 20 years is sports and/or media-related, it's hard to get people in other industries to take you seriously.

 

That isn't what he meant. He meant that the business will not be dead in a year, not that it isn't dying now.

 

OK enlighten me. What other businesses do employees (sports writers) work 50-70 hours a week easily and get paid for 40 with the wink wink 40 hour-work week.
You tell me.
Remember most people still have to fill out a timecard in sports, unless they are management, and on that card you must put 40 hours.

 

Hate to harp on the point, but since you're still whining about it ::

Go home after 40 hours if you're not getting paid for them. If you're working 70 hours a week and not getting paid for it, that's your own damn fault.

Otherwise, document it and file a claim. There is legal recourse, you know.

Unless, of course, you're full of shit. In which case you're just playing the victim, and most of us are sick and fucking tired of the act. But if what you say is true, then you're playing the fool. It's one or the other. So fucking do something about it.

 

I was simply asking what other professions people work more than 40 and don't get OT. Two people insisted there were other professions. I want to hear of them.

 

Was on a brief vaca with the family and met up with my dad for a few days. He's 68, still works full-time and is rather successful, financially. (PR for many years, j-schooler from Mizzou, yadda yadda).

I've been out of sports for five years (started in newspaper, moved into TV and radio) and in news. Finally told him what I made in sports. I can't think of a time where I've seen the look of shock on his face...in my life.

The ten years I was in sports:
Job 1: 13
Job 2: 16.5
Job 3 (more airtime): 18, 24, 27
Job 4 (main anchor): 28 (+12 more in radio), 30 (+8 more in radio before a format change to smooth jazz), 31, 33, 35, 36

By the end of it, I had a mortgage, two kids and a wife who couldn't work full-time because of her medical condition. Was just sick of the (as buckweaver point out) "work 70 hours and get paid 40 mentality" of sports. Usually was 55-60 a week for me. Sick of the weekends. Sick of management not caring unless it involved me spending an extra $20 in gas to get all the HS games covered. (I shot hundreds of games a year for the video on top of anchoring).

TV sports is like minor-league baseball. We all start out with dreams but, if you're not in The Show by age 30, it's time to put down the bat and get a real job.

Now I'm in the news side of it, which is far different. More money, hours are more set but now we're seeing the same issues I saw 10 years ago in sports.

I think I MAY be in a position where I could stay here and do this for 15-20 years, which is the goal. Yet I'm still trying to figure out what the next move will be, if that doesn't happen. Law school? At 35, I really think I'm "past the point" of that stage, especially because I have to bring most of the income right now. Grad school to teach journalism? I could pull that off in about two years time and I'm glad to be in a BCS-level college town.

This is the elephant in the room that I've gotta figure out.

Still love journalism (I'd better) and still love following the craziness of sports -- hence, I'm here.

 

One of the dilemmas involved with taking "a job that you hate" is in sticking with it.

If one happens to be single with limited social outlets (as seems to be the case for media types), what the heck do you find that motivates you to get up day after day and keep doing something if you truly hate it? It's hard enough to stick with a job you hate even if you can look forward to coming home and making love to the former Miss America several times per week and hanging out with buddies on the weekend. At least you have some other area of your life from which to derive fulfillment.

For many single guys, their careers are the sole outlet for that. And when the job starts to suck --- as more and more seemingly do --- then where do you find fulfillment.

Daily routine: Get up at 6 a.m., shit/shower/shave, go to office by 8 a.m., do whatever until 5 p.m., come home, microwave dinner, watch sporting event on TV or surf internet til 10 p.m., go to bed, get up and do it all over again. Is this really all there is??

 

I've never discussed my salary with family or friends. However, it's a sore subject for me when the mother-in-law begins talking about what my wife and I have, where we live and where we send our kids to school as compared to my wife's younger sister, her husband and their three daughters.

SIL's hubby makes close to six figures in international sales/development with a local furniture plant. They built a big house in an upscale neighborhood in the city. The wife and I live out in the county in a modest 3-bedroom home on 2 1/2 acres. We also own 26 acres in another part of the county. My wife and her sister are in the medical profession.

I love my MIL, but the more she raves on and on with the comparisons the more I want to drive a fist in her face to shut her up.

 

I asked myself that very question when I got out of the journo biz. And yeah, my new life is very routine oriented. I wake up at 5, in the office at 630, off at 3, home at 4, in bed at 10. Rinse, repeat.

However, there's PLENTY of room for non-routine stuff. For example, I bought a partial season ticket plan for the Nats (insert joke here). So that gets me to the park once or twice a week. And I have plenty of time to go to the gym after work (although, I'm a complete slacker in this dept.).

The best part...the part that makes the lifestyle/career switch completely worth it....is the freedom on the weekend. Having off every other Friday helps, too.

No more Saturday desk shifts. No more Monday off days. I rarely got anything accomplished on that day.

Even though I live a more routine life now, I feel normal again. Hope that makes sense.

 

My 2 cents as an ex-sports writer turned PR person:

The big difference that I've seen is career advancement. I spent five years doing (I think relatively) good work in my mid to late 20s. My salary increased by about 3-4 percent over that time.

If I, or any of you, had worked as hard as you need to work in newspapers, there's no way that would be the case in the "real" world. Hard-working, committed people that kick ass and get the job done no matter what are rewarded in the real world.

In newspapers? You bang your head up against the wall and it gets you nowhere. Meanwhile, some marketing/analyst/whatever person is at a manager level in about 5-8 years making 40-50k. That's what pissed me off the most.