Career options for current and soon-to-be-graduating journalism majors?

P.P.S. Find some love, people. Quit your jobs you got now and get new ones if they're so bad you can't take the time to find someone you love to spend your life with. There's more to life than covering people playing games, watching people live their own lives. Nothing's worth living a life in misery, and man alive if those responses to my getting married don't depict misery, or at least discontent, someone tell me what would.

 

Nah, man. I guess I just never realized how many people viewed marriage as such a negative thing, and it got to me. Finding that person you want to be with forever is incredible. I can't believe I found her already. I thought I'd be 30 by the time I even thought about marriage. I'm a romantic, yo, and just want everyone to taste that. It's....phenomenal.

 

Nothing wrong with being a romantic, dude. But a good marriage is also about being realistic. Hope you have at least as much of the latter as you have of the former. Hope your spouse does, too. Good luck.

 

I think I use my romantic side to balance out my realistic side. My mom complains I'm too pessimistic a lot of times haha.

Thanks, dude.

 

Sneed---do the one thing I"ve regretted the last 15 years not doing myself---get a master's degree if anyway possible, preferably an MBA. If you can pull it off, it will make you that much more marketable and able to transition into other career paths.

When I got my first fulltime gig and with a sizable metro, I was accepted for master's program at a university with a good J school, but then when I went to register for classes, I blew it off because I was so anal about not wanting two more years of classes to mess with my precious time. Dumb.

Think about it.

 

Thanks for all the advice, again.

clutchcargo, I'm definitely thinking about it.

I'm gradually settling on pursuing journalism for a couple, maybe a few, years to feel out how it might go for me, per some recommendations by others in this thread. If I feel like I can get where I want to at that point, I'll probably stick it out. If the market is just drying up with no promise for potential advancement, I'm moving into something else.

I love writing. I love telling the stories. I love compelling features, in-depth enterprise pieces. I love writing columns, man, I love a good column. It just sucks I'm a generation or two too late.

Anyone have any other advice on how to revolutionize the journalism market for the good? I'm young. I'm ambitious. I'm cocky enough to think I can do big things. What should I do? (haha)

 

the advice on MBA's is a good one, if you want to cover your ass, career wise. But there's nothing more dangerous than a guy with an MBA who "used to do journalism."

 

Explain?

 

You seem like a nice enough guy, but you're in for a rude awakening.

 

Yeah, I get that feeling. Real excited about it.

 

Man, Shaggy, this could've described myself.

I was laid off from my sportswriting gig about three months ago, and I've been doing alright freelancing (along with some other odd jobs) since. But I'm engaged and scheduled to be married in August, and my fiancee occasionally gets up my ass about what I'm going to actually do for a career and consistent income.

Now, it bothers me a bit, and I always tell her that I'm "pursuing my dream" and that she needs to bear with me through the tough times in the economy and in the newspaper industry. On the other hand, I can't blame her for being concerned about money. I mean, eventually we want a house, kids, etc., and I don't know if this business can provide those things anymore.

In response to the original poster, don't compromise what you want to do with your life, and don't give up and get out of the business without ever really trying. But take it from someone who's been in the business for awhile and has been kicked in the teeth plenty of times (I was laid off via voicemail, after all): It might be a good idea to have a back-up plan.

Following your career dreams and goals at 21 is a great thing to do, but there will come a time when those dreams and goals might not mesh with the reality that you need to make a living. If they do, then wonderful. More power to you. But be careful and consider options such as teaching, which you discussed in your post.

 

We're all trying to figure out those answers, but the problem is, nobody really knows yet. Least of all, the people that operate the publications you're going to work for don't know, and a lot of them aren't interested.

If I can tell you one thing to be prepared for, it would be this: Get ready to work for people who are interested in keeping the status quo, who know journalism as we know it needs to be changed radically but don't want to make the efforts necessary, because they just want to keep cashing their nice paychecks until they get to retirement, then it's somebody else's problem.

That's how lay-offs happen. Short-term solution to stop the bleeding.

However, I believe the journalism industry will eventually figure something out. It will probably be shooting through cyber-space in hacked-up fractions of its former self (which it very much is already), but it will be something. There will always be need for journalists in some capacity. What capacity that is, I really don't know right now.