Is anybody else finding it hard to tear away from the biz?

I miss the camaraderie of a good sports staff. There was a three month period when myself and two other 20-somethings put out the sports section during the height of winter sports playoff season. We worked crazy hours and would spend our off time together. It taxed our sanity, didn't increase our salaries and we did it because we believed in putting out a top notch product. I miss those days terribly and I wouldn't trade those memories for anything in the world. I miss the feeling of standing in line at the gas station, seeing someone come in to buy a paper and smile, knowing that someone who never met me was paying $.50 to read my handiwork. I miss being able to hold my work in tangible form. I've always said my favorite sporting event to cover is a high school sports game where winner goes to state, loser goes home. Doesn't matter the sport -- the tension fills the air and I miss just sitting on the sidelines, soaking in that feeling.

Freelancing gives me back part of what I miss. It allows me to go to games, ask questions, feed the writing jones and earn extra scratch on the side. But even in its best moments -- I have an old post-game press scrum saved on my computer when the big-name beat writer poked a finger in my chest and said, "THAT was a great question" -- I feel like an outsider because I don't get that same camaraderie by coming to the stadium, writing a story and going home. I love my post-journalism job and my newspaper time feels a little bit like an extension of college. The days run together, it probably wasn't as much fun as I remember it, I don't know if I could do it again, but I sit at my desk today and miss it all the same.

 

I'm in my mid-20s and have been working at the same small paper for a few years.

I've come to realize that, while I love the thrill of the pressure-packed experience of writing on deadline, with covering sports being my job I don't get to really enjoy sports as I used to. Then I get no time with my friends or family, outside of seeing my girlfriend for 15 minutes every third night before she has to go to bed to get up early.

But a question I have of people who have left, since I really have never held an 8-5 job outside of summer work in HS and don't know what it's like to be a fan anymore. Is it better on the other side? Is the boring 9-5 job still worth it because you have most weekends to yourself and can live a social life? Is being a fan who can drink a few beers with their buddies watching a game at the apartment r show up at a stadium, cheering when there's a 9th inning comeback instead of being frustrated your gamer was turned upside-down and has to be fixed in 6 minutes?

It's like I've mixed one of the things that brought me enjoyment with work and now I can't find that anymore.

 

I'm in a sort of different boat. I feel pressure to stay in journalism because I'm generally recognized as a good writer for my age (25), especially by friends and past journalism professors. When I put my mind to it, I think I can produce a good piece that is as good as anybody else out there. (If I can say so modestly, without sounding like a completely pompous a-hole.) I love the thrill of writing something on deadline, being happy with the piece, and then getting good feedback from either editors or the public.

However, I'd categorize my work ethic and interests as more Bill Simmons than a field reporter. If I have a set assignment (be somewhere at a certain time, attend a meeting, an event), then I'm fine. If it's anything else, I just put it off for days and sometimes weeks. I can't get anything done without deadline pressure, which was fine at my previous position as the only member of the sports staff for a small pair of weeklies, but less fine as a nearly-full-time news reporter that is expected to do stories in advance with no set deadline. In other jobs, crappy ones with set hours - Dunkin' Donuts in high school, a local driving range, an assistant in a HS AD's office - I'm considered a model employee.

Like the others in this thread, the money thing is also seriously stressing me out. I'm making under $20k a year, and living with my parents. Even if I got to full-time, I'd only be at around $25k, and some of the people with three to five years at this place are still under $30k. Meanwhile, if I could get hired even as a secretary or editorial assistant at one of the local colleges, they start at $35k with some benefits like free tuition - meaning I could work toward a degree in something I think I'd like better at this point, like teaching.

 

You would seriously sacrifice love, a family and a decent wage ... for THIS? I hope to God you grow out of that. This is from someone who thoroughly enjoyed much of his 10 years as a full-timer in the business, and went through angst to end all angst as I considered moving on.

Any college graduate who is 27 years old and still working nights and weekends covering preps for under $30K a year probably needs to start thinking about another path, no matter how difficult that may sound, no matter how much of a sell-out your passive-aggressive editors may make you feel like you are. Your 32-year-old self will thank you.

 

100 times yes.

 

The Dick Cheneys of the world would absolutely agree that this change is to the detriment of society.

 

Your quality of life more than doubles, even if your work almost never produces the same thrills. I remember the first weekend after I quit and realizing this is how weekends were supposed to be: relaxing, goofing off, hanging out with friends.

 

I've been out for more than a year now.

Do I miss it? Parts of it, very much. There really is an atmosphere to working in a newsroom, a mix of pressure, camaraderie, and a real feeling you're on top of what's going on in the world as you watch news roll in over the wire or whatever all day, that I don't think you get anywhere else. I miss being out in the community, the rush of writing on deadline, the feeling of craft I had when I managed to string together a really fine feature.

But overall, I got more from the trade than I gave up. And you know what? I don't hate my 9-5 job. It's not some soul-crushing 'Office Space' experience. I like the work and I like the people I work with. I can pay my bills, I live in a vibrant city that I love rather than Ass of Nowhere, Podunk, and my evenings and weekends are (largely) my own.

What I miss, when I boil it down, is writing (in a non-technical manner, my current job resembles technical writing more than anything else) and interacting everyday with journalists. I can write on my own time, and the interaction comes from me doing a better job of keeping in touch with my former colleagues.

Will I ever go back? Maybe. I'd like to wait a few years to see if the industry stabilizes. Are there things I miss? Absolutely. Do I regret leaving?

No. Not for a second.

Bottom line, it's a job. It's an interesting and unique job in many ways, but it's still just a job. I can find another job. The beating my quality of life was taking while I was doing it was fundamentally unsustainable.

 

I miss it. At least the way it SHOULD be.

The way it is I don't miss at all.

 

I have never understood this notion, presented as an either/or proposition, that every other job out there is "Office Space," as somebody pointed out.

Would teaching be "boring"? Would it be boring to be an architect? A doctor or nurse? To own your own business? You would think there are two choices:

1. Be a sports writer.
2. Hate your job.

And is it really that wonderful to chase 16-year-olds to the bus on deadline? Or sit in a press conference while some secretive college football coach gives you the runaround? I agree that there are positive aspects of this job. Telling a great story. Camaraderie. Being on the inside, though not really on the inside, of what amounts to a really fascinating business operation. It can be a really interesting job. But, geez, there are boring parts of it just like any other job. Stop romanticizing it to this degree.

 

Your ideas intrigue me, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

Waylon's response to NightHawk, on the other hand, just unnerves me. Hit a little close to home, that did.

 

Thrills are in the eye of the beholder.

This summer, a federal court clerk gave me a case in which two parties were fighting over $200k and basically let me research the law and tell the judge who should get it. I'm just a dopey law student, but it was essentially my call.

Much bigger thrill for me than watching any wide receiver catch a touchdown in the Rose Bowl or standing 10 yards from the deciding field goal block when App State upset Michigan.

Because either way it was my responsibility to get it right.

I loved the business. The business was good to me. I'm not telling anyone to stay in or get out, but if you don't think there are a myriad of ways to be just as fulfilled - if not more fulfilled - you're not really trying. And that's a more important point than ever on a day when another once-good paper folds in Arizona and I see more friends out of work.