Have you given up?

Don't forget about the cheerleaders, Tomas.
[/quote]

Oh, there was cheerleading involved too. It was a banner weekend at my shop, let me tell ya.

 

awesome.

I haven't given up yet.

I'm not sure why.

I think it's laziness.

 

you might be tired of "hearing" this, but, that was brilliant.

you will get my vote for poster of the year this december.

 

Aww, thanks, Tomas. I guess I'll know where that one vote came from.

 

I posted this in another thread, but it applies: I had three jobs in journalism. I was laid off from two. I don't blame people for wanting to give up. They're trying to avoid a very fucked-up situation that I was put through twice. I loved the business, but the business didn't love me back. Whatever phrase you can think of. It fucking sucks balls to feel like you have zero control over your life. I still love to string games, but there's no way in hell I could stay in the business full time and consider myself sane given my bad fortunes.

 

Gave up years ago. The work began to bore the hell out of me, and that's when I knew I was really finished. It's all I'd ever wanted to do since I was 12.

 

Oh, I forgot to tell you that careerbuilder and monster give you 90 percent crap. But...if you keep looking every week or so there will be some legitimate, good jobs in there.

Also, it took me a while to research and find the best places to look for job openings. Look for university, Junior college, state, city and county employment sites. Hospitals (if you can get in) is a great industry.

As someone else said: The cover letter is crucial. Explain how your skills would transfer and how your experience would benefit the company.

Also, think about freelancing non-sports stuff whereever you can get it. Or ask the news side if they need a story once a week during the slow summer months, or weeks I should say.

In my PR career I've actually bumped into a good number of former newspaper people. They understand better than anyone that you're qualified.

And...don't be SCARED of change.

 

See I'm not that hung up on the income. Plus, I know my wife will probably always make more than me unless I get an ESPN or Yahoo job. She's an LPN right now and making like 10,000 more a year than me and when she becomes an RN she'll be banking.
But, I could live off my current salary as a single person and be happy.

I've had several professors tell me that they love their job though. And something about teaching has always appealed to me.

One of the reasons I think I can't think of other jobs is because this is the job I'm supposed to be doing right now. This is the job I want to do, I just have to find the right situation. It doesn't have to be at a giant paper but it has to be working for something better than Gatehouse!

 

I know I talked about income, but the biggest reason I still want to get to a big paper before I bag this is not income-driven, it's not ego-driven, it's this:

At big papers, you can just write.

You don't have to pay your desk penance in the offseason. You, I imagine, don't have to turn in a time card every week. You don't have to justify how you're spending your time. Your trusted to produce, and you are ultimately judged on that production. Busy bodies don't demand office face time. The same can't be said about some of the smaller papers I've worked at.

I'm sure, of course, that there are office politics that go on at the bigger shops, as well. So I hope I'm not overromanticizing the culture.

 

Yes that would be nice. I'd love to be able to write a story after a game, send it and be done with it. Instead I have to rush back to the office, write the story(while possibly not having time for anyone to look at it because they've all gone home) and then try to crank out the sports pages on deadline.

I think part of my problem is that I came straight out of college into being the sports editor at a small daily and I'm a one man show in a town that is used to having 2-3 sports writers to cover everything. I'm constantly accused of being a bad manager by my publisher despite the fact that I have nobody to manage.
It's just not the sort of job that someone right out of college should do, then again I have gotten a lot of in the fire experience.

 

Let's not overlook the fact that dreams generally end. You wake up in the morning, the dream is over. Or you chronicle the exploits of others in sporting pursuits for a decade or two, and then you've had enough. For five, 10 or 20 years, you enjoyed it enough to put up with all the sacrifices required. And the industry allowed you to hang onto some dignity.

Then one day, you're 20 years in to doing this and you start to feel a little dumb for chronicling the athletic deeds of people now somewhat or even much younger than you. The lack of payoff in terms of money or growth starts to bug you, and the sacrifices seem to increase, not lessen, the longer you stick with it. Maybe you have kids yourself and you realize that the great history and math students deserve the kudos as much or more than the jocks. Now overlay that with the panic of bottom-line obsessed managers, and the disrespect they're all too happy to dump on you and your colleagues.

At that point -- I feel bad for anyone who truly believes they "were born to do this and only this." That really is selling yourself short.

 

I get to cover and work my beat year-round [with no desk work] with nobody looking over my shoulder or telling me how to do it. I get to travel and cover bowl games and the NCAA Tournament. I own a condo in a great town. I'm doing what I always wanted to do. There's no such thing as a "bad day" for me in this line of work.

Have I given up? Not until someone tells me I have to. As someone said earlier, I'll cross that bridge when I get there. I know it's probably coming, so I'll ride it out and enjoy it while it lasts. I'll at least have some satisfaction in knowing I went after it and did it while I had the opportunity.