Is it worth it?

First of all, what is your alternative? Law school? But that field is rapidly changing and economic prospects for the lower two/thirds of the class are deteriorating. Which demonstrates that it can be really hard to predict the future of any career as technology advances.

But in the absence of a strong career alternative I would be inclined to go into journalism. This is what you have dreamed about. Go for it. But in two-four years decide if you want to stay in sports journalism.

The experience will also probably make you a stronger candidate to move into a field you will enjoy if you desire. For example, a couple of years of experience will make you a stronger candidate to get a job in an S.I.D shop and that way you can stay close to sports. And I can't think of any scenarios where getting a couple of years of professional experience would hurt your future marketability.

So give yourself to you are 25 or so to chase your dream.

 

There's so much to echo here, but to me, it comes down to one thing. For the last two years, I've worked a M-F, 9-5 PR job. It's the first M-F 9-5 job I've ever had in my professional life (after 12 years as Podunk SEs at small dailies and two as a small-school SID).

These have been the two greatest years of my professional and personal life. My wife and I are happier than we've ever been. My 11-year-old daughter and I are happier than we've ever been. I don't make all that much more than when I was in the other jobs, but my quality of life is through the roof, and I now have a real chance at promotion. I can't say the skills I learned at the previous stops didn't help me, because they did and are valuable to me now. But yes, I'd love to have the kind of money in the bank my college and high school friends do. Maybe now I'm finally getting there. But everything else these last two years has been a home run. And I can't put a monetary value on any of that. My life is better, and my family's life is better. It's as simple as that.

 

In the very large market I live in, the major metropolitan paper has substantially cut jobs since 2000, but is paying much more since then, even accounting for inflation. Said the editor, "We have to pay people a lot, otherwise no one would work here."

 

Writing seems to have lost much of its career specialness in a non-print landscape, and while copy editors at individual properties are vulnerable and overworked, there are some opportunities at the design and editing hubs. It may not be life-altering work, but the wages seem OK and the places seem to be hiring.

 

Not uncommon. But you have to remember that money went a lot further 30 years ago, too.

 

And that's part of the Catch-22 when mentioning salary. Aim too high and you may price yourself out of the running for the job you are applying for. Aim too low and you may undercut yourself. I never bring up salary; I let the other side bring it up.

 

I've always heard than in a job interview situation, the first one who brings up money loses.

 

The post says the alternative is "a job in finance with decent pay and job security." That sounds like a pretty strong career alternative worth jumping on.

 

I didn't bother to read through all four pages (just the first 20 or so posts), but here goes, and my story is plenty documented here:

I worked 19 years in the newspaper business. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I liked my job. The pay was crap, and I worked 55-60 hours a week. I always said, "Hey, I get paid to go watch ball games/races." Finally, I jumped ship. I went back to school, got my masters and started teaching. Right off the bat, I started making $10K a year MORE than I ever made in the newspaper business, and my quality of life increased by an even larger percentage. I still get my writing fix by stringing stories from time to time. But the feeling you get going home to your family at a normal time and going to events to enjoy them instead of hoping how soon they'll end ... I can't even describe it.

I regularly throw out a tweet ending in #offthetitanic

 

To be brutally honest, if you're having doubts now, then you already know the answer.

Because to be frank, there is someone out there with equal talent who (perhaps foolishly) has no doubts, no reservations.

And he or she is going to get the jobs you (sort of) want.

 

No.

Been in the business since I was a teen. Feel like I've invested way too much to bail now, even though I'm young enough where I still can -- and should.

 

Maybe the thing to do is to turn around a question people often mull when a good/better opportunity than the job they're in comes along.

That is, "Do I think I'll regret if I don't take this opportunity?"

In this case, perhaps the questions should be, "Ten years from now, will I regret having done this?" or maybe, "Ten years from now, do I think I'll regret not having done something else?"

I suggest this because that's what I've found. I loved my journalism jobs at the time and had no regrets until some time after I'd been forced out of the business.

Granted, it's difficult to have that perspective on doing something else until you actually do it. But now, I benefit from hindsight, and I wish not so much that I'd gotten out of newspapers 10 or 15 years earlier but that I'd gotten into my current career 10 or 15 years ago. And I'm in no high-powered job.

It's unfortunate that we can't know "then" what we might know "now/in future."