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How did you get started in journalism?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Football_Bat, May 31, 2010.

  1. YGBFKM

    YGBFKM Guest

    I can understand that, and I know people who have been on unemployment for a period of time based on such an argument. But even if that were the case for me, as long as I have other options, I'll never collect unemployment.
     
  2. spnited

    spnited Active Member

    So if youo can't find any job -- even a minimum wage job -- for 6 months, you would not collect the money you have coming to you?
    Tell me why?
     
  3. YGBFKM

    YGBFKM Guest

    What an individual pays in unemployment insurance will only last so long, and collecting an unemplyment check is just something I do not want to do. If I have to explain it to you, you wouldn't understand.
     
  4. spnited

    spnited Active Member

    So when you die, your survivors will not collect on your life insurance?
     
  5. BYH

    BYH Active Member

    Anyone who knows YGBFKM knows he is an insufferable Republican leans to the right, so I admire his consistency here. And I can understand his reluctance to collect unemployment, since I didn't collect it in 2000-01. It definitely crushes the pride to have to admit you, at the moment, need financial support.

    I think I was also reluctant to collect the last time b/c I worked for businesses that folded. Sure, they folded b/c the people who ran them were fuckin idiots, but the companies went broke. It's kind of hard to argue with getting the boot when there's no business left. This time, some asshole with a calculator at a multi-million dollar (at least) company decided it was easier to get people to write for free than to pay me. So collecting unemployment this time was a matter of pride, too.
     
  6. YGBFKM

    YGBFKM Guest

    I've been lucky enough to have savings I used during my last two stretches of unemployment. I realize some people don't have other options, and for them, collecting unemployment is necessary. But "my money" or not, if I can help it, I do not want to be dependent upon anyone outside of myself and my immediate family if I find myself out of a job. It's that simple.
     
  7. spnited

    spnited Active Member

    That's fine. Makes no sense to me, but it's Ok to think that way.
    I could live fine for a while if I were laid off, too, but if I can also collect $582 a week (NJ pays well), I'm taking it.
     
  8. Yeah, that's fine for that to be someone's personal preference. But as it was said before, there's no shame in collecting unemployment because you've been paying into it yourself. You're not having "other" people support you. It's unemployment insurance. I've collected some, but not nearly as much as I could have while out of work and I get the pride thing because I have some of it too, but I certainly took no shame in what I collected or think anyone else should.

    As for the any work is better aspect, that's fine in theory, but not so great in reality. Minimum wage won't pay a lot of folks' bills, so they would have to then choose to sacrifice their ability to pay even more than they would with unemployment. I think you get to a point where you have to start considering the "any job" situation, but I don't know that it should be an immediate one. There's a system you've been a part of and paying into. The whole label of it being someone else who is supporting you isn't quite accurate nor is it fair.
     
  9. imjustagirl

    imjustagirl Active Member

    Got a D-minus in Chem 105 my first semester of my freshman year, and the pre-physical therapy program told me I'd need a miracle to finish my requirements. So I looked for something that needed no science knowledge.
     
  10. spnited

    spnited Active Member

    D-minus is better than I did in Chem ;D
     
  11. The No. 7

    The No. 7 Member

    From California's EDD site: "The UI (unemployment insurance) program is funded by employers who pay taxes on wages paid to employees." Also, I believe employers must pay in more if they lay off a certain portion of their staff. I studied this in my accounting class, but I don't know the rules for all the states.
     
  12. Birdscribe

    Birdscribe Active Member

    Wanted to be a baseball play-by-play announcer since I was 10, so I majored in communications/broadcast journalism.

    Toward that end, was sitting in my Reporting for the Mass Media class one September afternoon when the professor -- an incredible guy who ran the paper at Cal State Fullerton and spawned a generation of "fucking studs" -- casually mentioned that a paper near my hometown was looking for stringers to cover high school football games.

    Knowing the area and figuring this wouldn't be a bad way to make some extra money, I took the plunge and called the prep editor. He didn't have anything for me that week, but sent me to a game the following week. Apparently, even though it took me an hour-plus to write my first game story and my stats were undoubtedly askew, they liked what they saw and called me back the following week.

    Then, the following week... and rinse and repeat. I stayed on after football season, then was brought on part-time to cover preps in one of the paper's seven zones. At this, I figured getting a job in journalism was easier than in TV or (certainly) doing play-by-play -- since I wasn't the son of a current p-b-p announcer.

    That turned into a 17-year career at five papers, until the business left me in 2002.
     
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