Experience going into your first gig?

Just a curious question, but I'd be interested to know what your experience base was heading into your first sports writing job. What did your resume look like? How much writing had you done beforehand, and how big was the circ at your first job? Did you feel like you earned it or did you just fall into the position?

Excuse me if this has been done before, but the search feature on this site sucks.

 

First sportswriting job? I had no experience. That's why it was my first job.

 

I'll qualify this -- first sports writing job out of college... to support yourself. Surely you weren't hired at the Podunk Weekly with no previous experience.

 

When I was in high school, I did prep agate at a major daily and they let me write two girls' soccer gamers.

When I was in college, I interned at three major papers (two as a writer and one as a copy editor) and I freelanced for a paper in almost every Big 8 city usually for football siders or volleyball or women's hoops or the stuff where they didn't always travel.

My first job was at one of the papers where I had interned.

 

I was sports editor at my college paper, a major D-I school, but had zero internships and only 1 non-college clip, stringing for a top-10 daily. Got hired at a 24,000-circ daily in the 'burbs of a major market. I would've done much better with at least one internship on my resume, but my writing was solid enough that I'd say I earned what I got.

 

I worked on my college paper for a year and a half and was a part-timer at the local paper for a year. Said local paper hired me after I graduated from college.

 

I had three years' experience in college radio, television and the newspaper, and I was the president/general manager/ editor-in-chief at all three. I had more than 150 clips from the newspaper in every section. It was good enough to get me a part-time job at my local paper out of school, then a full-time gig a couple weeks later.

My resume was packed because of everything I did in school from music director at the radio station to sports editor and copy editor at the paper in college.

I felt like I earned more than what I got at my first job. I was wrong, and wish I knew it then.

 

One year stringing in HS
Five years at major college paper — two on football, one on hoops
Two major metro internships
One job offer out of 75 applications — 100k circulation.
Hired.

 

Two and a half years of college newspaper work.
No internships.
No daily newspaper experience.
Took a year off after college, worked as a secretary.
Got back into it, sent stuff to three papers, got offers from all three.
Took one job, stayed there for 5 years at a 12K PM. Loved it.
Got a job at a paper roughly 15X larger after that.
Still here.


That's it. Paltry.

 

I had five years of near full-time stringing at the local 30K daily and four years of beat writing at college papers (volleyball, basketball, soccer). Had plenty of clips, a news internship at a weekly chain and decent references.

First gig was being Sports Guy at a 3K weekly. Hardly glamorous, but it beats working in a credit card factory.

 

SPent five years between my stint as sports writer in college and sports writer in the real world... News/copy editor...

 

Didn't work on the school paper in high school.
Didn't work on the school paper in college.
No internships (didn't know there was such a thing.)
No journalism major.
Walked into the 12K paper during my freshman year and volunteered to do anything.
Got hired full time six months later.
Moved up from there...not sure how.