When to cut bait

Another suggestion...get an objective review of your talent level.
Some frustration can stem from writers who are never told that their skills are not of the caliber to warrant a promotion or full-time gig.
I have no idea if this person is in that situation, but many of the part-timers and correspondents I have worked with fit that category. I try not to mislead them when a full-time gig arises. It's hard to keep them motivated after declining to hire them for a permanent spot and therein may lie the problem. It's easier to be evasive and vague in the quest to keep part-timers doing what they are best suited to do.
If on the other hand you are a talented writer, then perseverance can be it's own greatest reward. Good writers should be encouraged to stick with it and keep waiting for that break, because it should come one day.

 

My motto: I'd rather be twice as happy making half as much.

I am that, doing that.

'Nuff said.

Sports it is for the rest of my life.

 

that's the spirit!!

 

i got out. now i'm in law school. i graduate in about seven months and take the bar exam nine months from today.

one of the reasons i chose law school is that i spent about nine months in a corporate marketing job (i'm still amazed that they hired me; it was right out of office space and i sure as hell didn't fit in) and i dreaded going to work every single day. it was mind-numbingly dull although in hindsight i was treated with respect, paid well (although not as much as at my top-paying newspaper gig) and got three weeks paid vacation my first year, so it was probably the nature of the business that bored me, not necessarily the job.

another reason i chose law school is that being a lawyer involves similar skill set to being a journalist. namely the writing and research (although reporters don't really call it "research" when they find stuff out).

i know of at least two other SportsJournalists.com regulars who are sportswriters-turned-law students and one who i believe is seriously considering it for next year.

i have no clue what i'll do once i'm a lawyer. actually, i have some ideas but i'm not sure what direction i'll go.

PM me if you want to talk about law school and the legal profession.

 

Freaky. I was ready to come in and put up a thread wondering whether I wanted to leave the business for law school. Study up on some Constitutional law, defend me some amendments. Well, at least the first one.

But every time I think about going back to school and getting a job with more normal hours, I always come back to one thing: I don't ever have to use an alarm clock. I can sleep for 12 hours and not be late for work. It's a small thing yet a tremendous thing. That and the $120,000-plus that a decent law school would cost me.

 

I cut bait last August to head back to school and finish my first degree.

On Wednesday morning, the moment on which I've waited for a long time will actually happen. The Army Acessions Command releases its branching (job) results for 2007 grads and commissionees.

HOPEFULLY, Uncle Sugar's deperate dumb enough to let me fly helicopters. If not, it's artillery for me! Yippe!

 

I say go fishing instead. Cliche alert. Bad day fishing beats a good day working.

 

Fuck 'em. Feed 'em fish heads.

 

Has anyone here cut bait for a writing (or editing) job in the financial services market (ie. a mutual fund company)? It's an idea I'm starting to consider.

 

by the way i think parcell's quote only applies to professional athletes because the amount of mental and physical effort it takes to be a professional athlete - especially a football player - just won't be there if you're not fully committed. a sportswriter who has one foot out the door? well he might not win a pulitzer or even a state AP award but he can still do his job when it's time to do his job. for the most part pro athletes have to live the lifestyle 24-7-365 in terms of how hard they have to work and watch what they put in their body and such.

 

Three former colleagues in recent years have shifted to government communications (PR work for nearby counties). They love the 1) hours, 2) lack of stress and 3) pay. One still strings when he can, while another would if he didn't have to step over the bridge he burned in leaving. : It's always a good idea to assess and reassess your career and its options; it's true, whether it should be or not, that people do judge us by what we do for a living.

 

One piece of advice, if and when you do decide to try another career -- if there's any way to try out the job before committing to it fully, do it.

I work in TV news, and for a while I had been thinking of jumping to a production house. At my interview the boss showed me their work, and it was stuff like a fundraising video for the symphony. As someone who spends too much of his day putting together stories on murders and child drownings, a symphony video gig looked like heaven.

Then I did a freelance job for them. The client wrote the script -- it was horrid, but the client loved it. The client's CEO turned up at the video shoot and kept changing the script, making it worse each time. My photographer was apparently the best the production folks had and he was borderline incompetent. I had to go into editing and try to salvage it, loathing the entire project. I barely slept the night before I had to screen it for the client, knowing it was a piece of shit. The client LOVED it. I then had to pester the production people for more than a month to get paid.

I was ready to take the job before the freelance opportunity; after trying it out, I know I would be absolutely miserable doing that. I don't know how long I'll continue doing what I'm doing -- I'm pretty burned out, and any promotion I could get would dramatically screw up my life -- but my attitude about my job improved considerably once I discovered how much I hated the alternative I was considering.