Career Advice

Depends where you are. Most companies in most fields will recover. There is currently no blueprint or viable plan to suggest that ours will be dredged out of the muck. Personally I think it'll be a slow burn once all this recession business reverses itself. Which means that while the rest of our cubicle-loving buddies see their businesses slowly come around and start offering them pay raises, advancement opportunities, weekends, substantial benefits packages and job security, we'll still be at it with our hammer and chisel watching our back with a mirror. And yeah, even in prosperous times jobs in general aren't meant to be a day at the amusement park, but there are things your career should offer you that ours just isn't right now and may never again. That doesn't necessarily mean you won't have to put up with bullshit. I think that's everywhere. But it does mean you have some basic human needs protected.

But anyway, live to work or work to live... took me awhile to realize that the latter has far more advantages over the former than I ever wanted to believe. I think I can handle being a corporate shill knowing what I'm leaving behind.

 

all great advice thus far, but let me add this: if you're at brandeis, you'll learn a ton working for adam levin, the school's sports information director. some people here may roll their eyes and say journalism and pr are two different things, and, of course, they ultimately are at the end of the day. but there's also something to be said for getting as much sports and as much writing experience as possible, and guidance from the right people. as someone who worked for mr. levin once upon a time as a sports information intern in college, and as someone who credits him for helping to lay the foundation of my career in journalism, i can't say enough good things about him or what he'll be able to teach you. be polite, be professional, be curious, send him an email out of the blue and see what happens. i did about a decade or so ago and, several stops later in life, still consider myself fortunate having worked for him.

 

Don't think of yourself as a sports writer. Think of yourself as a reporter and story teller, in whatever medium that story might be told. We don't know what media will dominate even five years from now, so be ready for all of them.

The blog is a good start. Learn how to tell stories in print, on the web, on the blog, for the wire service, in photos, in videos, even (and it kills me to say this) via twitter. Good luck.

 

I'd recommend calling Omar Minaya and asking if he knows of any openings ...