Post here if you don't feel that bad about your job.

This is an optimist's thread. Bash me if you like.

Personally, I'm young and have a beat I always wanted (granted, by some lucky breaks). I think I'm (almost) fairly compensated. I have plenty of autonomy. My stuff gets Web hits. I live in a cool town and my paper isn't buying out anybody. We're getting pretty proactive on the Web and, while we're understaffed on the desk, nobody is spread unreasonably thin. I have a general sense that at our shop, things are about to get better.

We're no bastion of journalism excellence, by any stretch, and I certainly bitch a lot, but I don't feel like going postal.

Post in this thread if you have similar experiences.

 

As Tom Petty (the real Tom Petty, not the guy who posts here) once sang: Some days are diamonds, some days are rocks.

On the whole, most of my days are at least cubic zirconia. I'm relatively happy with where I am and what I do.

 

A while back I interviewed for another job and one of the editors asked what my dream job was. I thought for a second and answered, honestly, the one I have now.
We're a small paper, but we cover a lot of things beyond high schools. We'll send people to football (along with the occasional basketball and baseball) games at our state colleges, there's freedom to write pretty much any feature story I want and the hours are good (we're an afternoon paper). My SE shares the same philosophy I do -- that this is a job, not the be-all and end-all of life in the universe -- and keeps the stress level low.
We're a small, independent paper so there's not a lot of the concerns bigger shops have about buyouts and corporate rules and all of that nonsense. Hell, over on the news side we can't seem to hire reporters fast enough. They come in, stay a few months, and leave. Seems like we're always shorthanded over there, but not because of a hiring freeze.
Of course, since it's a small shop the pay isn't great and never will be. But I'm not starving. All else considered, this is a fucking Utopia.

 

At the moment, I really like my job. There's very few downsides for me so far. I'm sure there'll be some soon, but for now, I'll just enjoy my time.

 

I read sports stories and design sports pages for a living, get five weeks vacation, make a good salary, live in a place people save all year to visit for two weeks, rarely have to work overtime, receive good benefits, and expect 2008 to be the best year of my life.

Complaints? Not here.

 

Perfectly happy. Really.

Solid, family-owned company. Reasonably compensated. Excellent SE. Fantastic co-workers, in both the personal and professional sense. Paper has the monopoly on the local media market.

(That final point is no small factor. We've actually increased circulation the last two years. Yes, you read that correctly.)

 

I could not agree more with the above comment. I get to cover football 365 days out of the year. I get to visit cities that people save money up for a year to watch the best sport. I may not be paid the highest salary available, but my philosophy is that if you wake up every morning and want to go to work you are doing just fine.

 

I've got the best job in the world. Period.

 

Present.

 

I love my job, big-time. Seriously.

My pay sucks yak rectum, though. ;D

 

May I borrow writing_irish - yet with 2 small tweaks?

I love my job, big-time. Seriously.

My schedule sucks donkey rectum, though. ;D