For the ex-journalists here...

[Wendell Gee]

1. What do you miss most about sports journalism?

The adrenaline and excitement. As a sports fan, feeling like I'm somehow a part of it all.

2. What do you miss least?

The paycheck. The hours.

3. What do you do now?

Tech writer.

4. Are you happier with your new career?

Most definitely. The job itself is nowhere near as exciting. But the paycheck and having nights/weekends/holidays off and not having to schedule my vacation time for when it's best for my bosses more than makes up for that.

 

[three_bags_full]

1. What do you miss most about sports journalism?
A.) The guys who worked to the left and right of me. Covering small-town high school athletics.

2. What do you miss least?
A.) shirtty pay.

3. What do you do now?
A.)

4. Are you happier with your new career?
A.) Yes, but I feel like I'm destroying my family by spending so much time away from them.

 

[JackReacher]

1. What do you miss most about sports journalism? -- Road trips
2. What do you miss least? -- Everything else
3. What do you do now? -- Regulatory Development for the Coast Guard
4. Are you happier with your new career? -- Of course

 

[Harry_K_Parker]

I've known a long line of former journalists who've taken their shirt to the PR world. And ALL have been happy they did.

I also knew a guy who'd been in the biz as a columnist for decades and got laid off. He applied at a couple PR places and they brushed him off like he was scum. This guy, by the way, was overqualified for PR, but even though he was wonderfully talented, they had a blind spot. What gives? An insular group, those PR'ers? That's a question for another thread, I guess.

 

[DK]

1. What do you miss most about sports journalism?
The variety of places I would go and the people you would interview. There was always something new and different, which I found energizing. I miss the days when I covered the NFL and there might be three people at practice. I got a lot of great stories and got to know a lot of people because I was one of the few always there. Sunday game day, even though it was hard work.

2. What do you miss least?
Football section time, high school football season. I dealt with the pre-season sections on both sides as a sports editor and writer. Always seemed to be a ridiculous amount of work with little bang for the buck. You'd be burned out in August and then facing high school football season. I now take vacations purposefully in the fall, just more as a big fork you to my old industry, that I can enjoy myself during that season after years of not being able to do so.

3. What do you do now?
Manager in the social services industry.

4. Are you happier with your new career?
Yes and no. Daytime hours, no nights or weekends. But the pay is only marginally better and you deal with some very interesting, button-pushing people. I wouldn't call it a career, more like a port in the storm. it was something I fell into and I am marking time in it planning the next chapter.

 

[Songbird]

1. What do you miss most about sports journalism?
I switched from sports to news in 2007. It was a needed break after 17 years. After 18 months or so I began to miss covering the daily chapters each team wrote as part of a season-long book. I really miss covering a game through words, pictures and videos.

2. What do you miss least?
Been 5 years so I don't remember what I miss least.

3. What do you do now?
Manage an art gallery in Vermont.

4. Are you happier with your new career?
I'm 40 and want a wife and kids one day. If I choose to be a newspaper guy forever, which for me is an extreme lifestyle of work like a maniac, play like a maniac, then I might never experience what I've wanted since I was a kid. I kind of dig this new *thing* of running an art gallery. To keep from being completely forking bored out of my mind I keep the juice flowing with customer engagement, which becomes blog fodder galore. It's been 5 weeks. Vermont is very good for the rehabilitation of a tattered soul. At the same time the brain is a roller coaster of thoughts. Do I send out another 100 resumes only to hear nothing back or do I spend the next year in Bennington planning the next phase of my life?

 

[J Staley]

I'm still in journalism, as a features writer. But this thread seems to focus on sportswriting, which I did for five years, and still miss.

It's interesting, in a surprising way, that so many people that have posted say they are happier in their new jobs — though it's certainly not everybody, as some have mistakenly written. I am glad for you guys.

For me, the experience in the outside world has been much different. I have worked for three papers in two markets. The best job I ever had happened to be at a paper that was closed about two years after I arrived. Then, after being picked up by the town's competing paper, it laid me off, within six months with about six others. I am back at the shop where I started — my wife got a promotion which brought us back to town, then the paper happened to have this features opening.

During that time I held a few different jobs, thoroughly investigated other options, and have even been taking classes (switching paths after one semester). I was also in contention for a sportswriting job in another big market, and recently discussed returning to the paper that laid me off for the prime beat there. But, the timing's not right for family reasons, so I never applied.

I've thought a lot about the future of my career in the past four years. Everything that I consider a realistic option doesn't pay much more than I made in journalism. They all have their positives and negatives, but I never enjoyed work more than when I was a sportswriter, for many of the reasons mentioned here.

Maybe I wasn't in it long enough to get burnt out, or maybe I didn't have that demanding of a beat. But, in the right situation, I would definitely go back.

 

[Shifty Squid]

Miss most: Just the feel of being in a newsroom every day. God, I loved (still love) that. Every time I walk in to one, even if I don't work there, it feels like "home," if that makes any sense. Just feels like I belong there. I never get that same feeling as a bit of a corporate drone in a cubicle farm at my current job. There's nothing wrong with my current job. It's safe, clean, the people are nice, and I'm actually doing something similar to what I did as a journalist. But it's not the same.

Miss least: Illogical edicts from on high, which we have to follow. Higher-ups who didn't understand what we did nearly as well as we did, or didn't care if they did. Working long nights, most weekends. Furloughs. Layoffs. No raises. Seemingly no appreciation of what we did from the people running the place.

Now: I'm an editor/proofreader/social media manager for a company that does communications consulting for nonprofits.

Am I happier? Yes. Particularly since this job affords me the money, freedom and time to continue freelancing on the side. So I get a reasonable salary with regular raises, along with being able to make extra doing what I really love, minus all the bullshirt that went along with doing it full time. I still get the rush of Friday nights, deadlines, writing that perfect story occasionally. I highly recommend it if you have the opportunity. There's just no newsroom to walk in to. And that's the part I miss.