If you left the journalism biz today ....

I understand that feeling. My advice on that is to not let your job embody/define your life. Go pursue other interests outside of your job. From my own personal experience, since I left the biz, I've had the time and the opportunity to pursue interests/do freelance work that I didn't have a chance to do when I was working till 3 or 4 a.m. at the paper three nights a week. I'll admit that I don't get the same kick out of my job now as I did from my job at the paper, but it's a tradeoff I'll gladly make. I won't be doing my job now if I didn't at least have an interest in the work, but I also don't need to reap immense enjoyment from it -- I look to other outlets to make up for that, like doing freelance work, taking self-improvement classes, or spending nights and weekends with family and friends.

 

To the poster "Will Hernandez": I hope you find something real soon. You'll be in my prayers. Keep thinking of unconventional ways to get a gig.

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I've got lots of ideas about what I want to do next.

1. Lawyer repping journalists. I feel like the pendulum has swung far against the First Amendment, and journalists need some serious legal backing. Fair use and intellectual property law as they relate to the First Amendment interest me. A lot of these big corporations would rather make a legal problem go away than fight for the First Amendment - consequently, their lawyers are weenies.

*** But I have no desire to sit through F'ing "torts" - yuck.

2. Documentary filmmaker. I have an understanding of photography and editing. I probably have the skills to shoot and edit my own documentary.

*** But taking on a project like this takes you away from your family for like, a year. I can't do that.

3. Inventor. I have an idea for a product.

***But it would involve rubber or plastic. I keep thinking of the line from The Graduate-- "Just one word. Plastics." Ugh. There are also some liability issues... double ugh.

4. Fashion designer. I sew, and I'm passionate about it.

***But with the United States going the way of the Roman Empire, I'm not sure I'm contributing much as a fashionista. Still, look for me on Project Runway!

 

Serious question ...

If this business is so bad and the future is so bleak, why would anybody want to leave journalism to teach journalism? If our business is such a dead-end career, how could you steer college kids into it?

 

That's why I'll never teach, Inky. I'd teach English or literature or something like that long before I taught journalism. And if anyone asks me about my eventually former profession, that person will have his or her eyes wide open. I'll tell them about standing on the sideline a half-hour before a high school football game in Texas and of watching a young Jeremy Wariner own a state track meet, and they'll know about world champion bull rider Matt Austin's bone-crushing handshake, as well as the frustration in a 60-year-old basketball coach's voice when his team goes 10-for-22 from the foul line.

But they'll also know about parents who think sports writers have a line on college scholarships and managing editors who count bylines, ad reps who blame our travel for declining revenue yet claim they can't sell a football tab, as well as the sword from on high that comes swinging when the share holders' profit checks aren't as large as they were five years ago.

 

Dude, don't gloss over the "except for summers off" part. You're home by 4 and you don't work in the summer. You get two weeks off at Christmas and a week in the spring. And in most places, the pay really isn't that bad after you've done it for a few years.

My Dad was a teacher and I've thought about it for a moment now and then.. before realizing I'd want to kill the little fuckers by lunchtime. But yeah, the schedule is unbelievable.

 

Happy and hip(ster) librarian
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/fashion/08librarian.html?ex=1185508800&en=6005570d88ef307b&ei=5070

apparently being/becoming a librarian is cool...I have a friend that was an Ad major who is going back to get her masters in Library science.

As for me, I haven't been in the biz for too long, but don't plan on leaving soon. I picked up a business minor in college thinking, "If this journalism thing doesn't work out, I can fall back on my business knowledge." Now that I think about that knowledge, I can't remember much beyond supply and demand. I guess I spent too much time working at the paper and not enough reading text books. "Business" is too vague anyways.

 

i have an idiot ad director who can't sell an ad on a saturday during football season, but wants to create a weekly prep football tab. i also have a publisher, who probably won't make him prove he can sell ads for prep football before agreeing to run said weekly tab.

the stupidity level simply amazes me sometimes.

 

See, I'd want to choke the little bastards too. PLus, I hear too many horror stories about shitty parents who blame the teacher first and kids who are never told they;re wrong, so you can't discipline at school. Kids today suck.

Fuck a bunch of that. I'd rather deal with a soccer parents. Getting home at 4 isn't worth it. Plus, any good teacher still has a lot of stuff to do after school to get ready for the next day. Or at least that's what a lot of them have told me.

 

I certainly wouldn't go into manufacturing:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-poverty_jonesjul25,1,1968916.story

After a while, it's just like, "Goddamn, can anybody make a life for themselves doing anything any more in this country???"

Although it is interesting in this story to read about the people who go from factory jobs to making awful wages of $30,000-$35,000 a year. I know a lot of people on this board would kill for a job in the $30s, which says a lot about our pathetic industry. What a joke.

 

Something about not fighting the mob but joining to steer it in the right direction, maybe? If you're teaching journalism, you're teaching kids who've already been steered into the profession, or are in the process of. If they're going to do it anyway, might as well teach them to do it right.

And while I'm sure there's a great number of professors and teachers that haven't seen the inside of a newsroom in decades that nevertheless do a marvelous job training the next generation of journalists, I'm equally sure there's a lot of out-of-touch people behind those desks. Having someone who left the profession recently and who can tell you the climate of the profession, as well as the temperature of the local newsroom, can be a big help. Which doesn't mean that there wouldn't be completely unfit journalists-turned-teachers, but it'd be a start.

 

They'll be wheeling my corpse from my desk, I feel sure, but if for some reason the business decided it didn't want me, I'd flack out in a heartbeat, assuming I couldn't afford to take time to go back to college.

 

My mother was an elementary school teacher for 30-plus years. When she stopped freaking out if I mentioned wanting to go into education, I realized she'd figured out just how beaten-down I've become by the biz. :-\

Of course, my original post-college plan was to go to social work school. I'd probably make just as little money and be bringing home worse problems than annoying high school parents. I'm not sure journalism was such a bad choice.

I've wanted to be a librarian since I was a little kid. However, I think I'd have to get a Masters in Library Science to be a <i>real</i> librarian, not just the kindly woman at the front desk who checks out the books and CDs.

I haven't given a career change much serious thought though, aside from maybe switching departments. (Thanks spnited!) I'm starting to feel like I might be the only one around here who can say that!