Has your career been that bad?

On the whole, it's been a mixed bag. A lot more good than bad.

Since March, since the last set of layoffs, and a change of the newsroom/sports dept. structure, it's been a fucking nightmare.

And that's the good part.

 

I work 40 hours a week with 5 weeks' vacation at a place that pays me 2x (maybe 3x) anything I'll ever be able to find on the outside.

If I wasn't deathly afraid this will end sometime in the next few months, I would only have a couple of minor complaints.

 

As my older borther, a high school teacher in Arizona, said to me last year;
You've spent yoou;re entire adult life working in the profession you told me you were going to have when you were 12 years old. Do you know how lucky you are?"

Yes, I do. The past 40 years have been quite good, a few bumps here and there but I've always made a decent living doing the only thing what I ever wanted to do. How do you beat that?
I'm old enough and my paper, I think, is stable enough that I'll retire on my own terms in 5 or 6 years.

 

My career has been a dream come true.
I have no complaints. The hours? I expected that. I can't imagine working these hours thumbing through a law library or something like that, which would have been the alternative. I don't see any of my friends or family working less -- just working at jobs less interesting, in my eyes. I've always made more money than I ever thought I would. The only concern now is the direction of the business, where we'll all be in 5 years.

 

My career was mostly good until it ended. Unfortunately, the way it ended will always make me remember it in a less-than-positive light.

 

I'm right there with you, Spirited, except for the part about my paper being stable. I have serious doubts about getting in another few years before retiring on my terms.

 

My career's only 9 years old, and it was great until the day I got laid off. Now, I don't want to do this anymore, even though I picked up another job pretty quickly. I just don't care knowing that I can do all the right things to make a name for myself and do good work and it doesn't mean jack squat. If I wanted to go to work everyday, I would have kept pushing carts at Giant.

 

Except for a couple of brief missteps into jobs I shouldn't have wanted, I've been very lucky and mostly happy. The fact I'll be working until I"m 75 is only the result of personal lifestyle decisions regarding divorce and lack of discipline in spending, not the career. I have no complaints....

 

for me it's been almost 31 years. ditto to everything spnited said.

i don't know if i can avoid a bloody ending. but it's been a stellar ride for me -- with a couple of stressful speed bumps along the way, natch.

i'm afraid that vets like us got in just under the wire of what was once a golden age. for yougin's in the biz five years or less i'd imagine the answers have been quite different. 'tis a shame 'cause this was once a dream-come-true type of way to make a solid living.

 

My career was a joy. Hell, even the stress was fun in a weird way. It's over, it has been over for some years now, and I'm over feeling bad about that.
I have a job that for being just a job is more than OK. But I have to find my fun elsewhere in life now. Maybe that's for the best. I'm not sure I'd be happy if I was back at the Herald or some other paper these days.
Better to remember past joys.

 

I was working a corporate gig when I decided I wanted to get back to journalism. I took a five-figure pay cut to do so. I have not regretted it.

I've loved 12 of my 13 years in the business. The past year has sucked, sucked, sucked. I hope for however many years I have left in the business, there will be more good years than bad ones. I'm 50/50 on whether that'll happen.

 

Good career to this point, and if it ended today I would have no regrets. But it's not ending today, and the next decade-plus could drag down the winning percentage considerably.