Tough time to find a new job

Back to school for me. After months of searching and searching, I'm going back to college.

 

His post came came across to me as condescending, an I'm better than you because all you do is unplug toilets type attitude. If I'm wrong, I apologize.

 

Ehh, maybe you're right. I did get a vibe of "I'm so cool, because they'd give their right arm to do what I do." A very naive statement, these days.

That said, plenty of people in other jobs do feel that way about ours. (Maybe not since the industry has tanked, though.) But I've heard it many times before.

 

You finished third in a very high class, BUT you picked this dying profession.
All J-school hopefuls and professors should read your story. They are throwing money down the toilet in this dying profession.
You are 26, much younger than some on here.
You need to take a new career path, period. You probably are going to have to go back to school if you want a "profession."
You are going to have to deal with that. Law, whatever, but journalism is dead it appears (look at all the top talent out of work!) and you are going to have to suck it up and go back to school or plan on working a trade type job like car mechanic or store manager the rest of your life.
Nursing? Accounting? You are only 26; you are going to have to move on.
Moving in with your fiances parents before the wedding is a bad idea.
You should postpone the wedding and get your career path in check. Tough talk but you are not equipped to be married now.

 

Laid-off buddy has given up on pursuing another full-time newspaper gig, but one main reason he doesn't find that so funereal is because of all the interesting people he has interviewed. He has enjoyed the games and people involved in sports, and if he has to transition to another field, so be it.

 

I also don't think those that envy us really do envy us. I mean, my god, whatever male is still in this business after the age of 40 better have a wife with a good job if he hopes to have a house and raise the kids properly. I mean it sounds great that we have interviewed Hall of Famers and current stars of sports and get to travel, but when relatives look into it and see Uncle Max is making less than his 24 year old nephew who just got hired by a law firm, they tend to shake their heads and feel no envy any more.
Believe it or not, a lot of people love working five days a week in another white collar profession, go home for the weekends and cut the lawn and have real lives, unlike we sports writer/editor freaks.

-- as a clarification, I realize there are exceptions in this, like those high paid columnists or people who work for major major metros who pull down six figures. I'm talking about the majority of writers/editors on small to medium to semi large size newspapers.

 

Not that this matters (and apologies for continuing the threadjack), but I think you're wrong, and for this reason:

People who say they wish they had our jobs never "look into it." That's the whole point.

Bitch all you want about sports writers not making any money and having no outside life, but when people "envy" us, it's because they only care about the "interviewing Hall of Famers and traveling to sporting events" parts of it. So what?

Look, a lot of people like to think they wish they had our jobs. That's OK. Let them think that. Why is it so important to some of y'all to convince people in other professions or people in your family that this job can be miserable? I'll never understand that.

If you're miserable, by all means, find a job that makes you happy or gives you the life you want. (Easier said than done, I know. That's what this thread is about.)

 

What do you plan to study? You going for a bachelor's? A grad degree? Or on of those tech schools where they teach a trade?

 

No word yet on whether I got the job. Two other interviews lined up this week. Busting my butt with freelance work. Working on my unemployment appeal. Networking. Selling things oon eBay. On Craigslist. People are doing wonderful things to help. I am curiously optimistic in the face of harsh economic realities. I can truly say I'm a better person than when work was steady and a given, so I've learned a lot in eight months.

Keep grinding. It is the only way.

 

And I'm still all thumbs, in a bad way, on this BlackBerry.

 

Good luck, Mr. Dangerously. My not-so-easy transition from newspapers to copywriting ended in a layoff in December 2007. Frankly, like most of you chaps, the job hunting and mind-numbing fruitless interviews have left me furious.
Luckily, there are a lot of call centers in my area, so I've kind of settled into that for now. My first call center job paid crap, but my current one is pretty decent (with comparable pay to mid-size reporting jobs and awesome benefits). It's kind of like newspapers in that you are on the phone all day and get cussed out from time to time. I miss writing and editing, but what do you do?

 

Education...Master's program.