I was laid off Friday, now what do I do?

[sgreenwell]

I have enjoyed reading a lot of great advice on this thread. I am trying to prepare for a career change while I'm still in a sports reporter job that is supposed to be the first stepping stone. I know I do great work here, but it clearly is not gonna go anywhere and I'm tired of living in a town I have no purpose of being in other than for this job.

I am working on applying for grad school but without much direction on what I really want from it, then not sure I wanna pay those loans.

One thing that I think the original poster might be looking for, and that I have struggled to find even when reading posts like these, is "Where do you ACTUALLY look for different jobs?" I have tried Indeed, Zip Recruiter, etc., all those garbage job boards that have the same listings everyone looks at. I have only managed to get inquiries from those predatory pyramid scheme things.

If I want to get a college asst. SID job or pro media relations job, where do I look (other than TeamWorkOnline, which I have applied to many many jobs on and never heard back)? Do those jobs not exist anymore either? What about corporate comms, PR, media relations, tech writing? Are they all on the same job boards that everyone in the world already looks at? It is getting tough to figure out what I am doing wrong in trying to find a different place to work or move, which makes me and probably many others think we don't have any marketable skills.

I am 25 and don't have many connections. The ones I do have are not (yet) those super strong bonds that develop over long periods of time. I moved far away after college and don't have really any established connections outside of this forked industry I am in.

The best place to look for college / university jobs is to just look up the 'career' sections of the ones local to you. Pretty much all public schools have to post their jobs for a set amount of time. The one I got was on ZipRecruiter, but I had already applied to it beforehand because I was signed up for new job postings with that school already. (Not sure if that helped me in the hiring process, but it couldn't have hurt if they saw my application before the 'flood' from those sites.)

 

[User 150927]

CoSida jobs

 

[WriteThinking]

The best place to look for college / university jobs is to just look up the 'career' sections of the ones local to you. Pretty much all public schools have to post their jobs for a set amount of time. The one I got was on ZipRecruiter, but I had already applied to it beforehand because I was signed up for new job postings with that school already. (Not sure if that helped me in the hiring process, but it couldn't have hurt if they saw my application before the 'flood' from those sites.)

Same applies for media relations jobs with pro and minor-league teams and sports organizations. You need to approach them and apply to them specifically. Find out who the contacts are in those departments, reach out to them and talk to them about your interest. Some sports -- MLB in particular comes to mind -- also have good communications/media department internships, for which, at age 25, you could probably still apply.

Job hunting is A LOT of work. It's a big reason why, eventually, people sometimes call a halt to it, and settle for something they never thought they would have done. But surprisingly, even doing that can wind up working out OK.

I also have, oftentimes on here, suggested applying for the myriad city and county jobs there are, almost wherever you are, or want to be.

 

[SixToe]

Here's another thing: contact every person you know, ever met, crossed paths with, slept with, wanted to sleep with, bought a beer for, met at a wedding or anything else. Tell them you're looking and if they know of anything in the areas you're looking into to please let you know.

Don't worry about being "that guy" contacting someone. Just do it. You never know when someone might have a line on a job.

 

[playthrough]

I have enjoyed reading a lot of great advice on this thread. I am trying to prepare for a career change while I'm still in a sports reporter job that is supposed to be the first stepping stone. I know I do great work here, but it clearly is not gonna go anywhere and I'm tired of living in a town I have no purpose of being in other than for this job.

I am working on applying for grad school but without much direction on what I really want from it, then not sure I wanna pay those loans.

One thing that I think the original poster might be looking for, and that I have struggled to find even when reading posts like these, is "Where do you ACTUALLY look for different jobs?" I have tried Indeed, Zip Recruiter, etc., all those garbage job boards that have the same listings everyone looks at. I have only managed to get inquiries from those predatory pyramid scheme things.

If I want to get a college asst. SID job or pro media relations job, where do I look (other than TeamWorkOnline, which I have applied to many many jobs on and never heard back)? Do those jobs not exist anymore either? What about corporate comms, PR, media relations, tech writing? Are they all on the same job boards that everyone in the world already looks at? It is getting tough to figure out what I am doing wrong in trying to find a different place to work or move, which makes me and probably many others think we don't have any marketable skills.

I am 25 and don't have many connections. The ones I do have are not (yet) those super strong bonds that develop over long periods of time. I moved far away after college and don't have really any established connections outside of this forked industry I am in.

Go to higheredjobs.com. You can set up a search for any geographical area and any kind of job. I'm in a university PR gig (not sports) and it's been a good ride for a few years (knocking on wood though, the pandemic is doing us no favors right now). I didn't realize how many communications gigs exist until I got here; there's the main PR office with folks like me, the social media team and the spokesman that gets in the papers all the time, but also every academic unit has a rep or two. And don't think that the PR rep from the engineering school is an ex-engineer, that's almost never the case. It's often someone who came from TV or newspapers or another gig where they could write and talk. In other words, anyone on this board could do those jobs.

 

[swingline]

I was the engineering and computing senior communications coordinator at my last full-time job, and I didn't know deck about most of the research stories I wrote before the reporting. If you can interview someone, you can do the job.

I made too much money and got whacked in the first round of mass layoffs three years ago last month. It came from high above; my two immediate bosses looked like someone kicked their dog.

I left the office and got stoned at a friend's place.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

I was the engineering and computing senior communications coordinator at my last full-time job, and I didn't know deck about most of the research stories I wrote before the reporting. If you can interview someone, you can do the job.

I made too much money and got whacked in the first round of mass layoffs three years ago last month. It came from high above; my two immediate bosses looked like someone kicked their dog.

I left the office and got stoned at a friend's place.

I'm sorry to hear about your layoff, but the first graph is bang-on. We all have skills that we don't realize apply outside of this awful profession. I was an Internet copy writer for a few years at the beginning of the 2010s (history might repeat itself, who knows). Like you, I didn't know jack shirt about anything I was writing about. But all I had to do was do enough research to write 500 words. It's no different than reading up on a couple prep teams you've rarely if ever covered, or writing a feature about the local midget who is a bullrider on the weekends. It rebuilt my self-esteem to know my skills transferred elsewhere.

 

[Jesus_Muscatel]

Another thing to consider.

There is no "one size fits all" guideline to this, NB.

What works for some might not for others. Demographics count. Reputation, ahem, counts. Timing is still critical.

What I can tell you is the way the suits do this still pisses me off.

Bad.

 

[Danwriter]

In all seriousness, 37 is the cutoff for joining the military. With your background, you could be a public affairs specialist. The Air Force and Coast Guard would be your best bets.

I love this. You could be Bill Murray (and who wouldn't want to be Bill Murray?) and write the screenplay for Stripes 2.0. Of course, basic at 36 could be murder.

The bottom line is you're nowhere near over the hill. I veered from a reasonably successful career in music to an even more successful one in journalism after going back to college at 34. Reinvention is part of the deal now, and that is a great age to do it.

 

[SixToe]

Driving down the street the other day I saw an EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle. Looked just like it including the color. I began looking for Winger, Zisk, Louise, Stella and Sgt. Hulka.

 

[RedSmithClone]

I have debated doing this all weekend because I don't know how productive it will be, but I thought maybe it's useful not only for myself but all of the other people who are or will be in my situation in the near future.

I'm logging on under a new account because I have this to share: I was one of the people laid off by The Athletic on Friday. I am here because I have no idea where the heck to turn next.

Obviously our world has gone to shirt in the last four months and I get that. I am trying not to be bitter about what has happened, even though our company's owners told tried to be "transparent" with company wide meetings to tell us everything will be okay. Even though a number of people who still work at the company, including my ex-boss, punched a timecard that said eight hours a day but was 7.5 hours a day less. From talking to now former colleagues that seems very common at that place, a great disappearing act. I'd love to know why I was chosen. I made probably the least amount of money of anyone employed there and always assumed I did a good job. Nobody could tell me why.

I'm in my mid 30s. I'm single. I live in a place where even in a booming economy there aren't a whole lot of journalism jobs. I have built my journalism career by hopping from small town to larger town to small city to university city to larger city and got every single job by networking and knowing someone who got me in the door. That's how I got where I was and I'm proud of it.

But because I have done that I have limited marketable skills. I have a resume focused on a newspaper career that I figure nobody at any other company is going to care that I covered the Gator Bowl one year. I have actually tried for years to get out of journalism and applied for lots of openings (marketing, SID work, corporate communications, technical writing, whatever other boring garbage) and never get a sniff. Funny story: The only place in the last 48 months that contacted me was the time I applied to work installing home security systems. I applied for that job just because I was so pissed off by the whole system and so skeptical that I didn't even think someone would contact me back. Of course they did. I ignored them.

For a lot of people this company was a dream job. A place where they treat people well. Again its only been a few days but I have very much learned it's just another media company. Don't let the door hit you where the good lord split you.

Basically I don't know what to do. I don't know where to turn. Are there career counselors who talk to people who are 37 and steer them toward new jobs? I should probably start looking for graduate programs that are not even remotely related to journalism, but is it even possible to make such a move at my age? Can I even afford to do that? Do they care that I got a 3.2 GPA at State U a dozen years ago? What if I spend all that money that I probably don't have and spend two years getting a graduate degree and that industry sucks too?

So many of you on this board are not involved in sports journalism anymore, which I have learned by interacting with many of you and reading your posts for the last decade. How did you make the switch? And if you didn't and you're just one of the people here posting, what do your industries look for?

I know I'm not the only person at a career crossroads but I'm really stuck. I don't really need a pep talk (okay, maybe I do) but some actual substantive advice for me and anyone else would be helpful.

It took me enough courage to sit here after 60 hours and post this so, maybe take it easy a little on me too? Thanks for listening.

I got out two years ago on my terms. I still freelance here and there - covering high school games and helping with season previews.

I went from 22 years of sports reporting/assistant sports editor/evening news editor to human services. I became a case manager for adults with developmental disabilities. I didn't need a social worker degree. I was surprised how happy the trio of managers who interviewed me were with my communication skills - thanks to my journalism degree and years in the field.

It's been one of the most rewarding changes in my life. Mind, body and soul, I am feeling better every day. Don't give up. You will find something out there. And no matter the city or town you end up in, touch base with a local paper and offer freelance services that don't conflict with whatever job you land. There are days I miss the newsroom, but then I remember my biggest passion was being out in the community, interacting with the public and getting to know the people around me. I'm doing that in my new job, and still getting a chance to write more as a fun outlet than one of work.

 

[Fredrick]

Heard layoffs are rampant again at newspapers. Anybody have a list?