Is what we do demeaning?

;D Yep, yep. You nailed it with that post. BB Bob and cap, too. It's a feeling, isn't it? It's a "what the fuck am I doing here" feeling.

 

When the father of a kid who is pretty good, calls you a (fill in the blank) for mentioning his kid fumbled; when the mother of said kid calls your editor to complain that you haven't written enough about said kid; when you look at your paycheck and get depressed and realize it's going to be another week featuring Ramen at least three times, yeah you realize very quickly that what we do is demeaning on many levels.

 

Well, today I sent some stuff to an opening on Journalism Jobs.com for the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel education reporter position.

There is probably no way in hell that they would hire me or even look at my application, considering my entire history is in sports, but it felt at least somewhat liberating to apply for a news-side position at a good paper.

 

I'm sorry that some of you have had such horrible experiences in the sports writing business. I tend to let the positive memories outweigh the negative ones.

It's such a great feeling to know that I've made a positive impact on some people's lives, whether they went on to professional sports or a non-sports career.

If you can't love your job, you should leave it.

 

I don't know where all this ramen talk is coming from. I don't make much money at all, but I can afford to eat basically however I want to. Even when I was making $12,000 a year in college, I didn't eat ramen more than about twice a month.

 

My experience has been far from "horrible." Some days it's the greatest. But in the long-term arc of my career, I think news is probably where I'll gravitate to. It's not personal.

 

what kills me is when someone gets on here complaining about being so poor they have to eat ramen noodles all the time yet in another thread brag about the vacation trip to the caribbean, etc.

 

Excellent points. Unless you are making what I am making, yet living in a major metro, there is just no way you are eating ramen. Unless you spend all of your money somewhere else.
The ramen theory is overplayed. In reality, you can live on just about anything, you just have to change your lifestyle to fit your paycheck.

 

And you had better pray the Sun-Sentinel hiring editor isn't an SportsJournalists.com member or lurker, because every application s/he gets from some dude in sports will go straight to the shredder. Why? Because clearly that dude hates his profession enough to call it demeaning on an internet message board. This is a very small industry... watch out.

 

I've gone from sports to news to sports to news and will likely go back to sports in the near future. It was on the production side, but still, the move is not that unusual.

 

no it's not.

 

I give up

Sorry, but the way you get treated when you cover exclusively college football, yes, it can feel that way on many days. You beg an intermediary to please ask the grand poobah if you can possibly, oh pretty please, talk to a 19-year-old college kid. But then, even if he lets you, it has to be under his terms.

I don't "clearly hate the profession." That is a complete, complete exaggeration and twisting of what I was trying to say. I thought it was something worth throwing out there, and thought others would find it worth at least tossing around, or even identify with that feeling. But I guess you are supposed to leave certain things unsaid.

I didn't think it would touch off this much of a shitstorm. I'll be more careful from now on.