Sports Reporter, Sun-Sentinel

Tyler's got a shit-load of talent. Good kid, too. Heart is in the right place. Don't know the specifics of the situation, but we all have a lot of maturing to do at 23. Hopefully if there is a lesson to be learned about professionalism, he learns it. That said, I left my first job out of college 10 months after I started and felt awful about it. Swore I would never do it again. But if I was in the same situation now, I sure as hell would do whatever is best for me, and I wouldn't lose a minute a of sleep. I'd be up front about it, particularly with the people vouching for me. And I'd be professional about it. But I can't think of a media company that has not laid it's cards on the table at some point over the last seven years. They are looking out for No. 1. They wouldn't think twice about firing you two weeks after they hired you. They wouldn't think twice about freezing a position two days after they offered it to you. So why shouldn't the reverse be true?

 

I too am hoping to stop posting on this thread. And, for the record, alas, I am no longer young.

But let me just share what happened to me some time ago.

1. Interview and accept Job Offer A to start in about four weeks.
2. About a week later, get approached from Job B about possibility of getting job there.
3. Call Job A and say that although I haven't yet been offered Job B, I do feel strongly about my chances there. I'm very sorry, but in order to give you the most possible time to find a replacement for me, I am going to pull out of Job A.

Happily, I did end up getting Job B. (Although the reason I took such a risk was trying to do the right thing by Job A.) Yes, it sucked, but Job A just hired one of the other million applicants they had, and somehow life went on for them. Meanwhile, if I had selected Job A instead of Job B, I might have missed a great opportunity that might not have come again.

That's the thing. The Sun Sentinel will be OK. They may be temporarily inconvenienced, but they are going to be fine. But job opportunities are not plentiful. If he thought this was a uniquely wonderful fit in Milwaukee, then he did the right thing.

But the text message thing, if true, was obviously not good.

 

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True, but more than anything, I don't think this is about the job. This is about how you treat people that stick their neck out for you.
That being said, I rarely vouch for anyone, but when I do, I know for sure they won't pull a Tyler Dunne on me.

 

Why on earth would a major metro hire someone a year or so out of school for a major beat when there are dozens of veteran guys out there to begin with?

 

Lane Kiffin??

 

The entire contents of this thread have inspired me to drink myself into a tremendous stupor this weekend. Hopefully a coma. I'll let you know of the results.

 

Except they are two separate issues. You seem to be more upset about the job-jumping. If someone has made a slew of lateral moves in a short period of time, I can understand. But if someone has accepted a better job each time, why the hell should you care about that? If you want somebody who is going to be content covering high school sports for three years, then a guy/girl like Tyler probably isn't the person you should hire in the first place. If you want a person who is going to come in and bust his/her ass and do damn good work, then you do hire a person like Tyler. And when that ass-busting and good work opens up other doors for that person, then you choose to find a way to convince him/her to stay at your place, or you choose not to, and you go out and hire somebody else. Tribune Co. has made it clear that it believes that neither side owes the other anything.

So whatever. Go ahead and talk in your pre-hiring internal meetings about red flags and then talk in your post-hiring internal meetings about the nerve of somebody to look out for himself instead of your dying company. But while you are in your meetings talking about whatever you talk about, a guy like Tyler will be out in the real world doing the type of work that will extend the life expectancy of for-profit writing/reporting and, GASP, lead him to a better job in the future.

(And when he accepts that job, hopefully he will not do it via text message).

 

If it is true he got the J-S Packer blogger job. It was a no-brainer to back out of the S-S job. The last person to have that Packers gig went to the Boston Globe.

That said, sending a text to back out doesn't cut it.

 

It's still a no-brainer over the S-S job.

 

So, does this mean the Packers job has finally been filled or what? I'm kinda confused based on all the info posted.
And does this mean there's also an opening in Buffalo?

 

The Packers are one of those teams -- think Bama (or really any non-Vandy SEC) football, Kentucky basketball, Yankees/Red Sox -- where just getting into that door to cover them will get you places if you somehow don't consider it a destination in itself. That part I get. What I don't get is how so many opportunities can pile up for someone so rapidly as I whittle away my dwindling 20s in backwater towns where every worthwhile chick is married by 21 and people criticize me for drinking non-domestic beer, all the while hoping that my sacrifice of leaving family and friends back home will someday amount to the goals and dreams I have established for myself. At the end of the day, I figure this will be worth it because it will make me appreciate every good thing that comes my way that much more. I can't fathom how anyone who shoots up various ladders so fast can even comprehend having a similar appreciation for what it takes to get to that level. I just honest-to-God hope that somehow this kid does. If so, the more power to him.

 

He can also learn from two of the best NFL beat writers out there.