giantjay25
Member
I agree with most of what has been said: you have to love sports, but you have to love to write even more.
Don't expect to work 9-5, and don't be discouraged when all your best buddies from college make twice what you do, and have the weekends off.
One thing that keeps me going is the movie "Office Space." While those same college pals might be living out that movie from the same cubicle doing the same thing every single day until they retire (even though they can order take-out whenever they want and you can't), there's no excitement, or variety.
If you take on this type of career, your work environment and associates (IE the players and coaches you interview) change on a daily basis. There's a little life to this.
And as for the whole college/school paper/experience comments -- my grades sucked. I almost got kicked out of school as a freshman. I overloaded for three years straight after that, made it out on time but with an ugly GPA, and harassed the daily paper in my hometown for months until it hired me as a part-timer.
I worked my ass off there for two years (as in, I carried one of those 9-5 jobs anchored from a cubicle) while spending three or four nights a week on the sports desk asking questions and learning the biz. Finally, after sending my resume to every paper from my hometown to Kingdom Come, I got my first big break.
Now, I'm onto my second full-time gig, at a bigger, better paper.
Funny thing about it is, I never wrote a word for my school paper in college, and neither paper that has hired me has ever heard of the tiny D-III college I went to.
Yeah, it's great to say you get paid to watch sports for a living, but it won't be a lot. If you decide to pursue this line of work, it will only be WHAT YOU MAKE OF IT.
Happy New Year fellow posters.
Don't expect to work 9-5, and don't be discouraged when all your best buddies from college make twice what you do, and have the weekends off.
One thing that keeps me going is the movie "Office Space." While those same college pals might be living out that movie from the same cubicle doing the same thing every single day until they retire (even though they can order take-out whenever they want and you can't), there's no excitement, or variety.
If you take on this type of career, your work environment and associates (IE the players and coaches you interview) change on a daily basis. There's a little life to this.
And as for the whole college/school paper/experience comments -- my grades sucked. I almost got kicked out of school as a freshman. I overloaded for three years straight after that, made it out on time but with an ugly GPA, and harassed the daily paper in my hometown for months until it hired me as a part-timer.
I worked my ass off there for two years (as in, I carried one of those 9-5 jobs anchored from a cubicle) while spending three or four nights a week on the sports desk asking questions and learning the biz. Finally, after sending my resume to every paper from my hometown to Kingdom Come, I got my first big break.
Now, I'm onto my second full-time gig, at a bigger, better paper.
Funny thing about it is, I never wrote a word for my school paper in college, and neither paper that has hired me has ever heard of the tiny D-III college I went to.
Yeah, it's great to say you get paid to watch sports for a living, but it won't be a lot. If you decide to pursue this line of work, it will only be WHAT YOU MAKE OF IT.
Happy New Year fellow posters.
