How I got out of the business...

I am not about your age.

(I keed ... I keed)

 

Ask a teacher you know how much fun W made their profession.

Thank God McCain and the GOP lost.

Thank God.

 

Man, you continue to inspire me to get out. You are a good motivational speaker. I do respect your story.

 

I am conflicted now moreso than ever.

I got out almost 16 months ago not because I saw the writing on the wall, but because of a family situation. I resigned two jobs in 120 days to be with them - with no job and nothing else lined up.

I found a job outside the business after almost four months out, but still work weekend overnights for crappy pay (think journalism is the only job with crummy hours and crummier pay? PM me sometime and I can find worse that doesn't ask "Would you like fries with that?")

I know I sound ungrateful - I'm still working and I'm not as scared to death about having a warm place to sleep or food to eat as perhaps I should. But this situation has been horrendously unfulfilling ... to the point where I took a part-time gig on a news copy desk on top of my "daytime" job. So second shift two days a week, and 12-hour overnights the other three days. Still doing holidays, and I've had one - ONE - f_cking weekend off this calendar year. Some life outside the biz, eh?

I've never detested my life more than I do now. The family I wanted to help doesn't get it. He won't listen to me because I'm his (step)child and don't possess the RN degree my mother does ... never mind that he refuses to view me as an adult. My mother is a micromanager who has the most narrow view of how things are done. She's open-minded about a lot of other issues in life and for that I am grateful, but if you don't do things her way - even if there's clearly another approach and another method that works without sacrificing safety/quality/efficiency - you are just wrong in her eyes. Never mind that it has yet to dawn on her that her professional dream that she chased - moving a sick husband who shouldn't have been moved - has been my professional hell. Absolute living hell.

I want out - immediately - but the economy doesn't make jobs anything near a decent bet should I leave my current situation. I don't doubt that journalism has been cannibalized by crooks and idiots almost as greedy, ignorant and inhumane as the bastards on Wall Street, but it's not greener on the other side for everyone.

 

Sam, are they job you are doing today require a college degree?

If not, keep searching until you find something that requires a degree.

If the job you are doing today can be done by a Joe off the street with six hours of training, then it is a job you do not want.

Do you live in a major city or near one?

 

Mizzou . . . You didn't leave the business.

None of us leave the business, the business is leaving us.

 

``I am big. It's the pictures that got small.'' -- Norma Desmond, Sunset Blvd.

``I am good. It's the papers that got shitty.'' -- Typcial SportsJournalists.commer. ;D

 

It's all good, Mod. I was just joshin' with ya.

 

It's not a MAJOR city. It's a decent size, though ... certainly has more than one stoplight and restaurant options are a little better than McDonald's and the truck stop.

My current job which provides benefits and more salary does not require a degree, but I might have a chance to move up because I'm more educated and a little older than a lot of their employees in those spots - if nothing else, it's the experience in the company, combined with a degree, that will open more doors for me than some. I'm earning my stripes now, but I dunno how far that will allow me to advance. I've been given the impression that my age, solid work history and background will help - but I'm not holding my breath.

I got the part-time news desk gig because of significant experience ... enough so to help them in trouble spots. The funny part is I talked with some other papers around here - answered ads and such. No dice, and all had major, major problems. The paper where I am saw my experience, got a little help from a fellow SJer (thanks again!) and the editor was willing to bring me on. Granted, part-time, but given the economy and the fact that my benefits job is much more recession-proof and, in a sense, it's actually a better situation.