The Pay Jump

I can tell you firsthand, the chances of you moving from your job to another sports writing/editing job in the DC area where you are going to make real money are all but zero. Take it from someone who's been slugging away at it five years longer than you.

 

If you can't write well when it doesn't matter, when do you write well? Do you have a switch that you sort of flip on?

Because I've heard this from a lot of people. Coincidentally, these are the same people who turn in sloppy copy and expect the desk to "just fix it."

The people who told you to get more experience were lying to you.

My advice: Start a Web site and rip them all new assholes.
 

 

Take the CIA job, then covertly engineer the demise of a high-paying reporter at the paper of your choice. At the same time, arrange for SE at said paper to be in a compromising position - something homosexual always works best - and then slip the photos in with your resume and clips.
If you still don't get the journalism job, you can always murder said SE in a way that makes it look like his secretary did it.

 

Well said.

 

Yeah, like wenalway.com.

 

For better or worse, this industry likes its reporters and editors to take steps along the way. Being upset that, through geographic coincidence, you live near the Post or Sun and won't get hired from a weekly makes little sense. Take the money elsewhere or keep plugging away until you fit a bigger paper's needs.

 

This isn't meant to be mean-spirited but quit fooling yourself with this thought.I mean how do they think it's outstanding? It's printined on nice expensive paper?

A resume is your life story. If they want more experience, then NO, they don't think your resume is outstanding. Otherwise, they woulda freakin offered you a job.

 

If you've only applied to "several" dailies, that's a problem. You need to be living at the post office and Kinko's, applying for jobs in every section. And don't limit yourself, geographically. About that editor job you're considering. Would you be the editor of the paper? Or the sports editor? If it's a sports editor position, my guess is you're wasting your time.

 

Aren't you the same guy who was complaining about the pay a couple of months back? :

 

The guy?

 

Yeah, there was a big thread about how he was ready to leave the biz after 6 or 8 months and guys questioned his manhood commitment as a result, IIRC.

 

Based on the tenor of your post, I'd say it's a mortal lock that you would get less than you think you deserve.