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Does this job define you? (Long)

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Pulitzer Wannabe, Nov 24, 2007.

  1. pallister

    pallister Guest

    Tell me more, Aristotle.
     
  2. leo1

    leo1 Active Member

    i was a sports writer. now i'm a lawyer. sometimes it sucks, other times it's fine. mostly the good outweighs the bad. i put in a long day at work, then come home. it's a job.

    anyway it took a long time but while i was battling my way through the slog of law school i came to realize that a job is work. the biggest thing career changers should keep in mind is that there will be shitty parts of any job. if the crap parts outweigh the good ones of sport writing, then get the fuck out. just don't expect to find paradise on the other side of the fence.

    and fuck what other people say. you're a writer at heart? fine. so choose one of the approximately 10,000 other fields that also involves writing. or freelance on the side. or write a blog.
     
  3. STLIrish

    STLIrish Active Member

    Gosh, Pulitzer, it's been like three weeks since the last time you started one of these professional/existential threads. I was getting worried about you.

    But seriously, it's a tough question. One of the things I like most about this job is that it's always different, and that I get to see things and meet people I've never met before. But I've only been doing this professionally five years, and unless I just keep moving every 2 or 3 years I'm eventually going to run out of new stories to write and new people to meet. I'm not sure what I'll do then: become one of those wise old hands of the newsroom, satisfied by the challenge of doing a good job well? quit and teach or do the law school thing or something? Become a freelance magazine writer (I wish)? Go be an editor (God forbid)?
    I don't know. All I can say is if you're burned out on the current gig, try something else. But if you think you might still want to be a newspaperman, do it at your current paper, so you keep the safety net of a steady job.
     
  4. Trouser_Buddah

    Trouser_Buddah Active Member

    Ryan Sonner defines this job and then sits back and watches as it defines you... :)

    Seriously, I hit a fork in the road a couple years ago when I was in line to get a job at the second-largest newspaper in the state... the kind of step up that I thought I'd been working for since the day I started in sports journalism.

    Then it suddenly hit me... working 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. every Friday and six out of seven Saturdays wasn't what I wanted for my life. I'd spent the past six or seven years of my life trying to get to the top of the mountain, and when I finally got close I realized getting to the top no longer interested me. D'oh!

    I eventually switched to news at my current paper, but I find myself back at the crossroads mostly because of the pay (A hearty thank-you goes out to my ex-wife for that!)... I'm still not sure what I'm going to do...
     
  5. doubledown68

    doubledown68 Active Member

    I'm in the same sort of quandary, but for different reasons. After a handful of years in the business, I'm starting to wonder if I have the chops to be as successful at this as I want to be.

    I work hard, but I wonder if my work is getting better
     
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