Has your career been that bad?

If only the rest of my life has been as satisfying as my work was, I'd be one of the happiest people on earth. Alas, it is not so, and now I'm laid off to boot.

 

I don't have a lot of complaints about my career. Coming out of school, I went to a small town that really cared about its sports and I just worked hard, stayed as objective as I could, and shared their passion for sports. Worked there for five years and now they treat me as one of their own - I live there and am involved in that community. It's a good life there.

I took a promotion and moved on to another small newspaper owned by the same company, one with a really storied history as probably one of the youngest editors in its history and oversaw a major revamping that people seem pretty pleased about. There are frustrations, but I work with some amazing people and under the gun we put out a decent product.

On the flipside, I'm not sure if I've waited too long to entertain dreams of moving to a bigger paper and going back on the sports beat or at least moving into a chain where there's some advancement, but I might be able to live with that. The money is rotten, the hours are long, and family doesn't understand why I do it for the life of me... but there's always a lot of satisfaction when deadline passes and I can see work I enjoyed all around and know it makes a difference to some people.

 

Not necessarily bad, but not what I was hoping for going in.

I was an SE of a small daily at 24, but I overestimated my abilities. I assumed that because I was running circles around the competition, I'd be at a significantly bigger paper within a few years. That never happened.

Sure, I got a rush from prep football Fridays or a well-received preview tab. And still nothing, at least from a work aspect, beats the feeling of getting a scoop or a great story.

But in the end, what's the point? A job won't love you back. And while I knew about the low pay, the time factor -- admittedly something I wasn't aware of until I was hired -- has really put a cramp on my social life and made finding/sustaining a romantic relationship extremely difficult.

Would I do it all over again? Hell no.

 

I have succeeded in some areas. Failed in others. Overall, I wouldn't change a thing because I wouldn't be where I am, having interacted with the people I have interacted with. I'm fortunate in that I did and am doing what I've always wanted to do. Not many people can say that they've actually gotten paid doing what they wanted to do in life. That's a blessing.

 

Told my wife, and honestly feel this way, that I wouldn't change anything up to the point where we met, good or bad, because we met courtesy of my job.

From that point on, though, I would change several things. Truly having someone loving you back makes you realize how much the job doesn't do that.

Also, just because a few good twists and turns through the years have come out of lousy decisions by bosses, I don't give them any credit. Their intent was not outcomes that would be good for me or mine. (Just to head off any of the occasional "That jerk actually did you a favor when he..." nonsense.)

 

I'd have to say my career has been pretty good. When I started covering preps, at least I was doing it for a big newspaper. Then when I went to a smaller newspaper, I was covering MLB. Did that for 11 years, and did it so that I got all the good without the bad (I only traveled to the good stuff), but still covered 120 games a year, did spring training, a couple All-Star Games, a World Series, etc.

Then I got laid off and spent about five months wondering what I'd do with myself, and looking in the face of jobs that really sucked. Dilbert jobs, I called them. (cubicles, water coolers, etc.)

Then I got really lucky and got a job working for a major online sports site, still covering MLB, but this is even better than the job I had at the newspaper. (More money too.) Now I write features, travel a little, and don't worry about deadlines or notebooks or game stories. I just write what I want to write. It's pretty sweet. I'm actually producing more than I did at my old job, in terms of raw volume, but it seems so much more fun and easier because I'm not worrying about the little stuff or having to crank out running game stories and stuff.

I have to say I consider myself ... the luckiest man ... on the face of the earth...