Sports page designer/reporter, Martinsville, Va.

Goplay, do you mind sharing some of the advice that you were given? I graduated just weeks ago and started applying and am I supposed to wait on a job that everybody says is a good start or do I just take the first offer that I get

 

I didn't fall for that trainwreck, thank god.

I'm hardly the best advice Lefty...but I think I did alright for myself by just taking as many interviews as possible and turning down some of the crappier ones without remorse -- even when I was terribly, terribly desperate. I'm not sure what your situation is now, but some of the soundest advice I got was to just play the field.

Send out applications like a madman (If you haven't started, go go go) and when the interviews start to roll in, take them at face value. If your gut tells you that you're going to be miserable there for monetary, environmental or other reasons, don't take the job. Don't get me wrong, you're not going to find your dream job right out of the gate, but look for a place that offers an obvious perk (Superior management, a nice beat, a place with a rep for moving people on, etc.). Even if you're miserable now, you'll be much happier in a year or so when you're moving on to bigger and better things than when you're stuck in a shithole with nothing to show for it six months down the road.

That's just what I gathered, anyway.

 

Absolutely. Ten years from now, you won't remember that you spent a few months rolling burritos or crashing on couches or living with your parents if it means you got a better job than you would have by being desperate.

Don't limit yourself to just one type of job, too. If you want to work in sports at a daily newspaper, that's great. But that doesn't mean that has to be your first newspaper job. Plenty of people, for example, get their starts at weeklies. You ain't gonna write just sports at a weekly, guarantee you that. (I wrote sports, and also covered the cop beat, and the education beat, and the occasional City Council meeting, etc., etc.) Doesn't mean you can't do good work there, though. You may find you enjoy more freedom than you would at a small daily. Conversely, you may find you don't get much editing and have to improve yourself. There's good and bad either way.

Don't be afraid to ask when you interview where the last person went. Small papers know you're not gonna be there forever (at least the good ones do). If the answer is "to the mid-sized daily 50 miles from here," that's good. If the answer is "to sell life insurance" or "he jumped off the bridge out of town," not so good.

You will not find the perfect job straight out of college, unless you hit a one-in-a-million shot. So like goplay said, do your research and trust your gut. And for God's sake, don't go work in Martinsville. These people know of what they speak.

 

That is funny. They should have taught you the definition of the word over, instead.

 

Zing.

 

I appreciate the input goplay and deskslave, I don't find myself desperate.... yet, but I'm just out of college not even a month and had started the process and any input from somebody who has gone through it is nice to have

 

I hear you lefty. I'm in the same position. I graduated from college almost a month ago now and I've been on the job search since getting home and I've heard a few encouraging "Thanks, Kevin. I'll make sure to get back to you about times for interviews," but never heard anything back, even after being persistent. Some places just never emailed me back at all; even the Mt. Vernon job that was going to offer a base salary of $15,000-$20,000. The time is discouraging, but I just wake up everyday and if I find something, it's another opportunity to get word back.

 

A lot of places, especially the smaller ones, may not even give the time of day to you if you are so many miles away. They would rather hire someone local, mainly because a lot will think it's a waste of time to interview someone XX miles away.

Not saying it's the right thing, it's just the way some smaller papers will think. They think small, so they act small.

 

Strangely enough, I just got an e-mail from an SE in Indiana saying he was hesitant to bring me out from DC/MD/VA to interview because he couldn't guarantee I'd get the job. I proposed a preliminary phone/Skype/webcam interview and am waiting to hear back.

 

Be sure to wear pants during that interview.

 

Skype?

At the three papers I worked for over the past 10 years it was nothing short of a miracle if you could find someone who wasn't fresh out of college that was capable of sending a document to the printer and actually getting it to print without involving the systems editor in the process.

 

He's trying to figure out what Skype is.