When to call it quits?

You can take a lot of courses for free online. I did this with a few stupid things like Excel and Powerpoint and it ended up being pretty important.

 

It's funny how people differ, because those are exactly the days I do NOT like the business. I call them the "ambulance chasing" days. All the other days I enjoy.

 

All of this. All of it. I was 34, small daily SE, and had been in essentially the same role since out of college. Making low 30s, wife and elementary school-age daughter at home and by the last year, just doing enough at work to get by. I was miserable, and my wife could tell. Great for those who love it, but the high school sports thing was too much for me by that time. I grew to hate it - the same cycle, the same stories, the same parents. I felt like a complete loser.

I worked hard at getting out, and the last three years have been the best of my working life. For the last year I've been doing 9-5, M-F, and on a dramatically different stage that makes other people's eyebrows go up. I'm lucky, but I worked for it, made tough decisions and changes, and took a couple of leaps of faith. Knocking on wood it continues.

 

Interesting conversation. Just last night I advised a friend working on the desk of major sports website -- one of the top 5 in terms of unique visitors. He's half my age, yet concerned about his future.

Although he loves his current job, i told him to use the free time he has to get some more credentials outside journalism -- such as becoming certified to teach in public schools, or even enrolling in nursing school

That's what I would do if I were in my 20s. I'd hang in there with journalism as long as I could -- but I would have a completely different career in my back pocket if I needed it.

 

The contempt for high school coverage is an interesting development here, and the complicated feelings that sports writers begin to have toward that beat would make its own great thread, given enough participants.

A lot of us started out on high schools, particularly back in the days when there were actual starter beats, and one could nurture a career over the long haul more than now. I jumped to a college beat when I was 28, fairly young, but was already experiencing moments of full-out despair about covering primarily high schools. It was difficult, because I had some pretty aggressive reporting instincts, and that doesn't always mesh well with the more mundane aspects of high school coverage.

It also led to quite a bit of guilt, because I felt I was entering that zone where I thought I was better than my job, which is not a tremendous character trait to carry around. But in hindsight, there was something to it: At a certain age, given a certain ambition level, you begin to want off.

Especially if you've been covering them at the same shop the entire time.

And especially, as was in my case, if it is your home region. (I did get to dabble in MLB coverage the last couple years, providing home coverage in the nearby big city). Not that colleges is national security or anything, mind you.

 

I always tell people to give it five years, if they really want to give it a fair shot. And be aggressive about your career development and goals. If things aren't happening by then, bail without guilt. Or at least aggressively lay the ground work to bail. So mentally and emotionally check out. After 30 or so, you risk being the old guy in graduate school or on the internship.

 

This is an interesting point.

So many people on here have as their point of reference the 1990s/early 2000s.

EVERYTHING was going great then. Not just for newspapers. For everybody. Unemployment was below 4 percent, the market was setting records every day.

BUT . . . this was not a normal time. Unfortunately, however, because it's the first point of reference so many people have, they tend to believe that it should be normal. The 1970s and early 80s certainly were not like that. What we are seeing now as a lot closer to the nation's norm than 15 years ago. If you were entering the business in the late 70s, I doubt you would have thought you would be buying a house any time in the near future. Not with newspaper pay in the $20Ks, inflation at 12 percent and mortgage rates at 18 percent.

I guess I'm lucky, because a lot of the people I know are working 6 days a week, sometimes 12 hours a day. Selling cars. Running a small business. I wouldn't want their lives for a second.

 

I entered the business in 1993. The people I was looking at as an indication of what my future would hold were 15-20 years older than me, meaning they got in in the 1970s. And they were the ones I looked at and the ones who had houses, paid for college, etc.

Newspaper salaries used to be middle-class. They are not anymore. It's just fact.

 

Agree....I cover primarily high schools. I'm editing and I'm making good money. I do not for a second feel like any kind of failure because 80 percent of my stories are high school stories. If you're one of those folks that does, I suppose its your time to call it quits if that's all you've found.

I ground out 60-70 hours a week in retail (combined with my reporter gig) for the better part of 4 years while I progressed at a newspaper from part time to full time to an editing/writing position. I wanted to make some extra cash to put away in case something happened and for the future family. It wasn't easy and there were times it wasn't fun.....In my experience, retail was worse than newspapers. More pressure (sell X,Y and Z and make the customer fill out this online survey or else) and less reward. Hours were as bad and often worse.

I'd say the answer to this question about when to quit is unique for everyone. I never hit the point where I wanted to quit. The job is not perfect but I wonder more about my future when I read a thread like this and I do from anything I hear or experience in my own shop.

 

Because someone asked, I'm in my mid-30s and the SE of a small paper in a town that is very unique. Yes, most of our coverage is HS, but we have a small D3 college here and we have an ATP tournament that comes here yearly. I really do like what I do on a daily basis. I make good money (although that could be taking a hit in the years to come) and, as I said before, I could see myself here for the long haul if the industry weren't so up in the air.

As others have mentioned, I'm going to start the search process .... slowly. I certainly want to look before I leap. And with a first child perhaps on the way in the near future, I must tread lightly.

 

To each their own tastes when it comes to coverage; I know a few news writers that wouldn't want to spend a day in the sports department.

I'd much rather cover HS sports (as I do now) than small college sports.

 

This is how I felt, too.

Among the worst things about covering solely preps -- maybe unless you're working in Texas and covering a school with a 20,000-seat stadium -- is the sinking feeling that what you're doing does not matter a lick. I certainly got that feeling covering a softball game with 10 people in attendance or signing ceremony of a kid who was going D2 and you just knew wouldn't make it through a season at the next level.