For those who've left: any regrets?

Heh. Why would anyone in the business ever worry about being laid off when riches and happiness immediately follow getting the ax (or sure seem to)?

 

I miss the people - the folks in the pressbox and the newsroom - not the job itself.

Of course, thanks to all the industry cuts most of them aren't there any longer anyway.

 

Riches? No. More like reasonable pay for a middle-class lifestyle.

Happiness? Without question. Those things tend to happen when the weekend represents a true 60-hour mental break between Friday night and Monday morning.

I don't feel like my current job is something that requires a unique skill set that only a few of us from the world of journalism possess. I've asked old newspaper friends if they want to give it a shot, and for a while my company had a lot of openings on our team. But I show them the work and it looks so boring and awful to them that they'd rather be stuck in a coal mine. Eh well, I think of them every Friday night as I turn off my work computer.

 

Nope, not one bit.

I felt I had a bright future in journalism, winning some national awards and making some good connections. But the newsroom culture was crushing, and it became worse and worse with each new set of layoffs. Roles kept getting stretched and stretched, all the while not being appreciated by upper management (except for a few good editors, who left my last paper before things went downhill). That made it hard to be happy. The lack of editing -- because staff had been cut to the bone -- didn't help.

My current company is growing (imagine that!), my bosses appreciate me and I'm still excited to go to work. The pay is much, much better, too, but that's not even close to one of the top reasons I'm glad I'm out of journalism. I enjoy watching sports again, and actually hope for games to go into overtime or extra innings. Weekends off and being able to take vacation in months other than June or July is a nice bonus, too.

I haven't freelanced once in the nearly 1.5 years since I made my career change, but I plan to at some point. It'll be enough to give me a taste of sports journalism if/when I need it. All in all, I don't have any regrets.

I don't regret getting experience in journalism because writing and hitting deadlines is valued in many other career fields. Journalist skills translate well, which makes the learning curve post-career change less steep.

 

Another upside of your departure: It leaves some APSEs for the rest of us.

 

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while.

 

If I'd had the job I did between the ages of 14 and 25, yeah, I'd miss it.

But not the job I had between the ages of 25 and 58. And especially not after the beancounters took over.

 

Left in 2008, which was a bad time to be unemployed. Eventually I found freelance magazine writing and other freelance writing that in no way paid the bills, but I was lucky that my wife had good jobs.

I finally found a job in a university's marketing and communications department, and I did damn good work writing stories about research and students and alumni. I got laid off from that at the end of May, but my wife makes crazy good money now, so we're still OK. The benefit of being out of work is that I can be here when our oldest gets out of school, and I can take both of them to the doctor/dentist/optometrist as needed without my wife needing to take time off.

Long story longer (but not Ragu long), I don't miss the shitty hours and the low pay. The cuts at the places I used to work have decimated the newsrooms and sports departments, so who knows if I would still be employed at any of those places anyway. Stringing never appealed to me, so I won't be in a newsroom again.

No regrets.

 

Had to chime in.
I've been out for about 1.5 years now. It was the best decision I've ever made. I've went on a million dates (seemingly) in the last 18 months, and met several really impressive, accomplished women. Amazingly, miraculously, I'm going to have a baby now.
Stuff like that would've been impossible for me while working as a newspaper sports writer. I was CONSUMED with my job. It was my world. Everything else was secondary.
Most people probably weren't as obsessed as I was, but I think most people who get out of sports writing probably look back about a year later and think it was insanity that they willingly worked late on so many Fridays and Saturdays. ...
And I DON'T miss the newsroom at all-- because there was barely anyone left in the newsroom by the time I got out. The newspaper had been torn to shreds. I realized on one late Friday night -- when I was the only person in the newsroom -- that my job had painfully little relevance at that point. It was time to go. ...
Now I just write for a living, and not about sports. But I love it. There is infinitely less pressure. Try it. And don't turn back.

 

Excellent, interesting thread. Just curious, though -- any copy editors out there have "getting out" success stories to share? Most, if not all, of these posts appear to be from the (former) writing/reporting side. I've contended several times that it's more difficult, for various reasons, for a copy editor to find rewarding employment "on the outside." But I'd be happy (and encouraged) if a few posts prove me wrong.

 

When we went to three-a-week a few years ago, our production department was housed in a concrete cubicle in the press facility, a block away from the newsroom. Each night, somebody had to stay alone an extra hour or so until the papers ran off the press for checkers. Sitting by myself at 2 a.m. in that room felt more stark and depressing than anything else I can remember doing professionally.

Bronco, you'd be surprised by some of the doors that can open ... just by being a good typist and copy reader. I took the state civil service test, got a 98 on the clerical exam and had 21 interviews for state jobs within weeks. And that was at 58 years old. Anyone younger would have even more opportunities, I am sure.

And clerical work isn't a bad gig. Better than many might think. You see great variety of tasks in the course of the day. Some are tedious, but I've found many of those tasks to be enjoyable, especially if you have the "bury yourself in it" gene. And there is room for advancement if you keep your eyes open.

 

Back when my Florida shop was going through layoff binge after layoff binge, I would regularly apply for state jobs. Almost all of them were clerical in nature (though none required a civil service exam), so I figured my desk skills would translate pretty well.

Was never contacted once. Maybe I should have taken that test anyway. I knew some specific tests were needed (for USPS jobs, etc.), but the USPS site never showed any openings, so I never even pursued that.