Life after journalism

[captzulu]

It works if:
You live in a large metro area where PR ops abound; or if you are married, is your spouse willing to move? I know people who have gotten out of the business, tried working in entry level banking or the grocery store in middletown America and became miserable, leading to a divorce. I really feel for the middle-age people out there who are searching anywhere...they have a great deal of experience and let's face it, are discriminated against because of their age.

PR, banking, and peddling groceries aren't the only jobs out there. And even if you were able to walk into a PR firm and be handed a job, that doesn't necessarily mean you would be happy. But I don't buy the whole "so-and-so left journalism for job x and was miserable" line of reasoning that I've seen some journalists use to talk themselves into staying. That person may be miserable in his/her new job, but they were obviously not happy in journalism either, considering that it was enough to drive them to make a career change. Fear of jumping into a bad situation shouldn't be a reason to stay in another bad situation; otherwise, you're guaranteed to stay in a bad situation.

 

[ScribePharisee]

Did I tell you I'm happy and relatively secure with my job?

I forgot. Now if I got axed tomorrow, I might not feel this way.

I'm just one that feels for those who feel they're stuck.

 

[gridiron]

The thing that has most impacted my feelings about getting out is money. For those, like me, who are at a big paper and making more than many of your colleagues, it's hard to maintain that salary if you change careers.

I'm more than grateful for where I am in my career. But the state of the industry, the hours and the changing expectations (24/7 deadlines on competitive beats like mine, blogging day and night) have soured me big time -- even though I'm doing exactly what I hoped I would at this point in my life (early 30s). I think it might be time for a preemptive strike.

But it's a huge dilemma because of my circumstances (there's a family involved, too) and I often lay in bed at night staring at the ceiling wondering what's the right move. It pretty much sucks.

I think if I were a little younger or making just peanuts, this would be a much easier call.

 

[leo1]

i struggled with this for a while, too. then i went to law school. now i'm a lawyer. i like it a lot. my journalism background helped me get the job i have. i do commercial litigation, write briefs and pleadings, argue in court and occasionally do non-litigation things like contract review and negotiating with parties.

 

[Editude]

It's a challenge, as a mid-career journalist at a big place making decent money, to transition into something more stable/interesting that wouldn't be a big pay cut. The alternative, being pushed out with a severance, isn't that appealing either. I'm waiting for the pay raise when we stop paying for the younger Editudes' car insurance.

 

[zagoshe]

PR/media relations/flakdom/whatever you want to call it for me and it is wonderful.
I still miss my staff a whole lot.
I still don't miss the job one iota.

It's an interesting world out there on the outside. I left not long after an almost-30 type who was talking about those who left before us for jobs that paid more. The skills it takes to be a good journalist, particularly the organizational skills and work ethic, make us very valuable to lots of companies. There's at least five from the paper working at VCU in some capacity now, with more to come.

If you had told me five, three, even two years ago that I'd be ridiculously happy outside journalism, I would have said you were nuts. No, I was nuts.

Yes but didn't you have to take a decent pay cut to go from journalism to college PR?

 

[Moderator1]

No.

 

[Joe Williams]

No.

So we're to assume you were making a pittance where you were before, such that college PR pay would be a boost? Or do they just pay real well behind those ivy-covered walls?

 

[buckweaver]

Some of us are doing OK for ourselves, Joe. Really. I know that doesn't fit your message here, but it's true. Stands to reason that we can do better, sure -- but not all of us are in dire straits.

 

[Moderator1]

No.

So we're to assume you were making a pittance where you were before, such that college PR pay would be a boost? Or do they just pay real well behind those ivy-covered walls?

See buckweaver's post.
I was not making a pittance. I was doing pretty well and not actively looking to leave. I didn't do a comparison of what other schools paid. I know what they offered me was an increase and very fair so I took it.
I think it is a myth that all newspaper pay is shirtty and that PR pay is worse. In my case, neither was true.

 

[Joe Williams]

Some of us are doing OK for ourselves, Joe. Really. I know that doesn't fit your message here, but it's true. Stands to reason that we can do better, sure -- but not all of us are in dire straits.

Yo, Buck, I was just working out the math. You might feel that I bring one overriding agenda to most of my posts, but I don't. All I was saying was, either Moddy started low and thus got a bump into the expected range of PR pay, or that Moddy started fine and got a bump to something that is beyond what most people presume to be PR pay. Without seeking specifics, I was trying to get a handle on how PR pay could be better than newspaper pay -- either the former is better than what most of us figure, or the latter is as shirtty as the stereotype portrays it. One of those things had to be true and I was curious as to which.

BTW, I'll state for the record that, other than my first two jobs, I never, ever have felt underpaid as a sportswriter. I often have felt underemployed, knowing that certain financial goals would forever be beyond my reach as a sportswriter or knowing that I wasn't pushing myself to take on meatier subjects or roles. Once in a while, I felt there were gross inequities within a certain place's pay scale -- certain high producers weren't paid as well as some low (or lower quality) producers, for instance. But in terms of what was asked for what was offered, and vice versa, I generally felt the ballpark numbers were fair.

Don't think you'll find many, if any, of my posts where I'm ragging about the money end of this business, other than this: If we're going to put up with all the other ills of this industry, maybe the money should be better to compensate. My biggest gripes always have been about lousy leadership, lack of advancement opportunities, job insecurity lately and a lot of other intellectual bankruptcy issues in a business that allegedly aims high and attracts some of the best and brightest. I rarely have felt management has been up to the task or even was able to meet its infantry's standards, values and vision. I think newsroom leaders repeatedly have dropped the ball, regarding people skills, staff development, business savvy and reader relations.

Still and all, I'm glad to hear that some papers pay well and some PR jobs pay better.

 

[Corky Ramirez up on 94th St.]

Sometimes I wonder about this daily. Most of the time it's hourly.

I have tried forever to get a job at a college or university. For the last 2 1/2 years, I've probably applied to 85 jobs (PR, communications, athletics) at roughly 30 colleges in our region.

I've gotten only four interviews. Finished second in all four.

Sometimes I wonder if 10 years at one shop is not a good thing, that I should have gone to other jobs so it would show that I have been to different places. But then I ask, how in the world would that matter, considering I've written and copy edited for every section of our newspaper, everything from sports to fires to a dead body in the park at 10 p.m.? The frustration level is off the charts...especially when I see friends at other papers in our area get laid off.

One last thing: Is there someone on here who could take a look at my resume? It's the same template I've used, essentially, since I applied for my current job 10 years ago out of college. Thanks.

At any rate, for those of you in the same boat as I am: Hang in there. Good things happen to good people. That's what keeps me going. Something will fall into place and it won't be too late. It'll make this time period, even though it is frustrating as fork, seem that much better when you're doing what you want to do.