Have you given up?

That's the thing -- a lot of the money that is made is just sucked right back up.

And if it wasn't for the Web, situations would probably be even worse. Newspapers' sites help cover nearly a third of print audience losses (Don't believe me? Read some of the studies by Scarborough Research).

It's time to jump on the digital train.

 

Skip: "You can keep going to the ballpark and keep gettin' paid to do it. Beats hell outta working at Sears."
Larry: "Sears sucks, Crash. Boy, I worked there once. Sold Lady Kenmores. Nasty, whoa, nasty."

 

I'm going to say this, looking for neither envy nor sympathy ...

I have my dream job. Or, at least what once was my dream job. If you had told 18-year-old me what he's going to be doing in 12 years, he would have pissed his leg in joy. Seriously, when I entered J-School, I said, "I want to cover This Team for That Paper" -- and it's exactly what I'm doing now.

And you know what? It's OK. But not everything I'd dreamed. At least once a week, I kind of wish I was on the less prestigious beat I was covering last year. Sometimes, I find myself wishing I was still covering high schools at the smallish-town daily I worked for before hitting "the big time."

It would mean less money, and less prestige. But more free time and, in some ways, less stress. Overall, I like my job I think, but there are times when The Way Things Used To Be sounds pretty nice, too.

I guess my point is: Sometimes, the dream ain't all it's cracked up to be.

 

I've also found craigslist to be a pretty good place for graphic design, editing, and writing jobs ranging from entry to senior level. If you live near a university, check its job board. Also check the local and state government sites for their careers sections. Find a list of big local companies and check their web sites. Trust me, you're not limited to choosing between newspapers and selling vacuum cleaners at Sears. When I left the biz, it took me about seven months of serious searching to find a job that I felt comfortable jumping to, but I've never looked back since then.

I loved newspapers. I miss what I did in newspapers. But I can't imagine going back into the business, not with the sacrifices I would have to make. I've had three jobs since I left newspapers, one I loved, one I loathed (mostly due to a bad owner), and my current one, which I am fine with. But I've loved my life away from work ever since I left newspapers, and that's not something I could say when I was in newspapers, and it's not something I can find if I go back into the biz now. Like one poster said, being a journalist can be, ironically, one of the worse jobs you can get with a journalism degree. I certainly understand those who love the biz and don't want to leave it, but those who are considering jumping, know that there are a lot of options out there.

And for those who think that you have to sell your soul to work in PR, here's a little anecdote: On one of the first days at my current job -- university PR -- I asked my boss for some tips on dealing with the media since I hadn't done any media relations before. The first thing he said was "Never lie," which was a bit of surprise even to me. And in the year I've been at this job, I've never once had to lie or even fudge the truth to a reporter. I would say 99.9 percent of our dealings with media are cooperative -- they call us looking for experts to comment for stories they're working on or to follow up on releases we send out, and we get them in touch with the right people. Now, I don't pretend that it's like that with every PR job, but just know that a good number of PR jobs don't have the same adversarial relationship that exists between SIDs and sportswriters. Most of my time is spent writing, editing, and designing -- very similar to what I did at newspapers. And a journalist looking to break into PR on one of those skills would also have the added advantage of having worked under ridiculous deadlines. Not many PR folks have to turn around a news release in 15 minutes.

Several posters have said that they can't imagine what they would do if they weren't working in newspapers. That's something I hear quite often from my newspaper friends too. I would say that you would never know if you hate or love something until you try it. And one mistake I see many journalists make is that they think they have to be a perfect fit for a particular job ("I don't really know that much about X", "I only have four of the five desired skills," or "I'm not sure I'd enjoy item No. 10 on the list of job responsibilities") so they don't even bother to apply to a lot of openings. My response: You probably didn't know squat about the area prep football scene before you took your current job; everyone has had to learn some sort of new skill on the job; and I'm sure you don't love every responsibility that comes your way at a newspaper. Those concerns, while somewhat reasonable, are often just excuses to talk ourselves out of taking the risk of making a career change, even though realistically the risks may now be just as great or greater if you stayed.

 

I could have just written that same little synopsis. Accurate on a lot of accounts.

I don't want this at all to sound like I'm lazy or unappreciative, but our place isn't paying me any more to handle a high-profile beat (and deal with all the time and headaches) than it would if it reassigned me to something lesser. So it's inevitable to think, "Hmmm, why am I doing this again?"

 

You want to know what's funny? I was going to start this exact thread today, and it turns out someone already jumped my gun by a couple days. But I guess it makes sense.

At any rate, I am starting to run out of ideas. I have now been without a full-time job for five months. I have been rejected for jobs at more places than I can count. I have had interviews with about a dozen different places, including one PR gig. About eight different times, I have specifically been told "It came down to you and one other person, and we would have been happy either way, but we went with the other guy." That's just fucking great. I'm thrilled to be the goddamn bridesmaid again and again and again. Living with my parents is pretty sweet too.

The shit of it is that I can't even find a part-time job either. I've been freelancing and making pretty decent money and have gotten regular assignments. But I haven't even been able to get a daytime job to supplement my income at fucking retail stores. So I guess that puts the number of jobs I've been passed over for in the past year somewhere in the 50 range.

I'm beyond understanding at this point. I've got a good resume. I've won several awards. I have good references. I know that I was more qualified than the person who got hired at two of the places I was rejected by, if not more (I won't even go into the places that hired within, as I've ranted on that before).

Throughout all of this, I have taken the spirit of Rick Astley and told sports journalism "I'm never gonna give you up." However, my patience is starting to wear thin. So, if any veteran out there would like to provide three concrete reasons for me to continue hoping something good will happen to me someday, I'd appreciate it (bonus reasons for not offing myself also accepted).

 

John's future is so bright, he wears his sunglasses at night

 

I tried career builder but it turned up with a bunch of jobs that required no previous experience or a degree. Those just always seem like scams to me.

Monster for some reason refuses to load at a decent speed on my browser.

Well shit, maybe I just don't know what to search for or where to start.

 

a guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do.

how many people stayed to defend the alamo?

 

And those jobs never give any indication of salary. I mean, it's hard to tell if they are $20K jobs or $80K jobs. What a country! It's a wonder anybody ever find work anywhere

 

Does that mean Ozzy Osbourne is gonna piss on us?