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Career what-ifs

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Bronco77, Aug 22, 2017.

  1. Bronco77

    Bronco77 Well-Known Member

    This subject might be considered a spinoff from the very interesting "For those who left: any regrets?" Have you ever had a career opportunity, either long ago or relatively recently, that you turned for whatever reason but always wondered how it might have worked out?

    I don't spend time dwelling on any job changes I did or didn't make in newspapers, but there were a few opportunities very early in my career that would have sent me down much different paths. I'll provide details if/when there are a few other responses.
     
    Donny in his element likes this.
  2. PCLoadLetter

    PCLoadLetter Well-Known Member

    Not me, but an old friend of mine has a classic.

    Many years ago he was working as a news anchor in Macon, Georgia. A startup news operation wanted to hire him as its main anchor. My friend's agent convinced him it would be a bad move and a career dead-end, and that taking a news director/anchor job in Idaho was the way to go. My buddy went to Idaho.

    The startup hired their second choice: Bernard Shaw. It was CNN.
     
  3. SnarkShark

    SnarkShark Well-Known Member

    A small paper I was interning at one summer offered me $22,500 a year to go full time and not go back to college for my last two years.

    Took every ounce of my strength not to laugh in the SE's face, as he presented the position as some grand opportunity. SE was also the most verbally abusive person I've ever worked for. Rarely targeted me, but he hammered one guy every fucking day, and his whipping boy happened to be the nicest guy in the office.

    Fuck that shithead. Best decision of my life.
     
  4. wicked

    wicked Well-Known Member

    Something slightly different... Had to hand in my playbook on my third job. I'd been job hopping, and it doubled as a nice, humbling moment.

    Alas, that sent my career on a slightly altered trajectory. I wouldn't be where I am today had I stuck around. I take solace in the fact that they've cut loose lot of good people over the years.
     
  5. WriteThinking

    WriteThinking Well-Known Member

    A few years ago, at the peak of my three-year struggle following the loss of my last regular full-time newspaper job, I got offered a part-time, long-term temporary job in the county Human Resources department. Sure, it was just temporary, part-time and pretty much an entry-level position, but I was told forthrightly during an impressively open interview process that getting this gig in HR was a huge step that could and would definitely lead to bigger and better things within the county. Getting in in HR meant you could get in almost anywhere, should you ever wish to do so. Apparently, it's almost like a reference -- an official one.

    A week later, however, I got an offer for job, that wasn't temporary, at a county library that was closer to my home than the HR offices were, and because library work had always been something I thought might appeal me, I was interested in that, and, essentially, had to make a choice. I went with the library job, and it was good and fine. But ever since then, I've kind of regretted not following through on the HR offer. I believe HR work really is a good option, and, as my interviewers said, can open all kinds of doors in all kinds of businesses, and now I wish I had that experience that I would've gotten in that job, and seen where else it could have taken me, or if, indeed, it would have led to a lot of other offers within the county.
     
    Last edited: Aug 22, 2017
  6. jr/shotglass

    jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

    At 25, I think I was fairly set as a preps/college writer at my newspaper. Then we had a sports editor change, and I was positive that the new guy was going to phase out local coverage in favor of pros/majors. We had not had a permanent desk man to that point -- pretty much anybody who walked in the door that evening could have the dummies tossed to him. So I offered to take over the full-time slot duties for a healthy bump in pay.

    Financially, it set me up well. Professionally and happiness-wise, I wonder if I wouldn't have been better off staying on the beats.
     
    Bronco77 likes this.
  7. MisterCreosote

    MisterCreosote Well-Known Member

    I turned down a dream news editorship in my dream destination because my ex didn't want to move too far away from the guys she was fucking behind my back.
     
    Riptide, Doc Holliday and BrownScribe like this.
  8. PaperDoll

    PaperDoll Well-Known Member

    No, which is a little sad considering I'm a professional job hunter. But I've always been better at finding jobs that fit others. Maybe, like WriteThinking, I should have gone into HR instead?

    I occasionally wonder what would've happened if I'd taken the spot I deferred and went to social work school after my first year as a sportswriter. But I think the all-in, 110-percent, job-first attitude comes from me, not sports journalism... and it's easy enough to follow a similar path as a social worker!

    Within the business? I'm surprisingly OK with the f---ed up situation I'm in. I have one job which covers my bills in a place I want to live. I'm very very lucky... until I get axed. But that could happen any time, anywhere.
     
    Last edited: Aug 22, 2017
    Doc Holliday likes this.
  9. CD Boogie

    CD Boogie Well-Known Member

    When I was in my mid to late 20s, a friend whose father was a producer on NYPD Blue said I should submit some screenwriting samples for use in the show. Stupidly, I said I knew nothing about screenwriting and so never submitted anything. It probably would have come to nothing, but I still think about it from time to time.
     
  10. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    Right after college I interviewed at the paper in tiny Milledgeville, Georgia. Spent several hours there but turned down an offer to cover a game that night, as I had to drive back north for some reason. Dumb move -- they obviously wanted to test me on not only writing but initiative, and I failed by leaving. So I didn't get the job and went back to my college town to chase another opportunity, which came through and while there I got together with the now-wife. So who knows -- if I stay and cover that game, maybe I get that job and my entire life is different.

    The wife had an interesting offer a decade ago to be the editor of a startup city magazine in Greenville, South Carolina. We spent a long weekend there exploring the offices, the city and houses, but our 1-year-old was with us and we weren't able to coordinate babysitting with my parents, who were in Charleston. So the whole weekend was kind of compromised and ultimately she didn't take the job. But we felt for a long time afterward that if we didn't have to worry about the kid and were able to focus over that weekend, we'd have made the move.

    Those are the only "what-ifs" that come to mind in 20 years. We've made three interstate moves for work, so our general motto has been "let's just do it." Some gigs were better than others, but it's always been interesting.
     
    Deskgrunt50 likes this.
  11. Rhody31

    Rhody31 Well-Known Member

    I think about where I'd be if I hadn't been let go on a regular basis. With what I was doing at the time, I likely would have landed the job at the paper I wanted to and would have had enough support to chase innovative stories and ideas that don't get chased today, reaching the local celebrity status I desire like a MFer.
    I'd also be working like a mad-man, traveling far too often and not raising two beautiful girls.
    Yeah, I think about the what-ifs. But I also hear plenty of people tell me how lucky I am to be at home with the kids. At first I thought it was just something people said; now I'm starting to believe that there are a lot of (mainly) guys with adult children who wished they had that time back instead of being at the office.
    Would I go back? Of course. I'm a junkie.
    But I can't imagine not getting goodnight kisses every night when I put my kids to bed.
     
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  12. BitterYoungMatador2

    BitterYoungMatador2 Well-Known Member

    I was four months into my first full-time gig when the major metro in my hometown needed a new state capital bureau reporter. The state capital was an hour away from my new gig. One of my old teachers was also full-time at major metro and said he could get me in. I decided to not backstab the hand that gave me a boost into the business and said, "nah. I owe it to these guys to not jump so quickly."

    I'm a fucking idiot.
     
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