Is this a "calling" for you?

Yep.

Right now, journalism is that house in the Amityville Horror, hissing at Rod Steiger.

 

"Hi, this is journalism. I'm breaking up with you, I always hated you and I want the keys to my apartment back."

 

I've found this to be a calling. I tell people that I'd do this for nothing -- in fact, I almost do.
But one of my former co-workers said that they look for true believers, and try to brainwash them into thinking that we're doing the Lord's work. Then they can do to us whatever they want.
Low wages? It's your calling
Lousy hours and holidays? Sure
Perpetual fear of getting shitcanned through no fault of your own? But you love what you do

 

"By the way, I've maxed out all your credit cards and I'm keeping the ring..."

 

"...and don't forget to give me back my black T-shirt."

 

Definitely a calling, have never imagined being anything else. OK, maybe I thought about being a trucker when I was 12, but other than that...

 

If you treat it as a business and stand up for what's right for you, they'll remind you it's a calling and that numerous other people will be happy to do the work on the proscribed wage and schedule. And if you treat it like it's a calling, like there's nothing else you've ever wanted to do, they'll remind you it's a business as they're signing your meager buyout check.

 

Zing!

 

It's a calling for me, no doubt about it...this profession found me.

I did not go to college at all and get anything remotely close to a post-high school education. Just for the heck of it started as a stringer for a nearby paper doing high school football and basketball in 2003. Just under three years later, I had a full-time salary job after my three years of stringing with zero experience and I haven't looked back since...

 

hold on, hold on, food stamps are calling me.

i'll get back with you. food stamps await.

 

This kid clearly sees it as a calling:

"I'd rather have a roller-coaster marriage with journalism, filled with love and passion, than an empty relationship in law, PR or business, where there is money, but no sparks," wrote Jennings, a recent graduate of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, in an edition of UNITY NEWS.

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/jul/27/our-next-journalism-generation-is-fearless/

Personally, I think it's generalizing to say that there are "no sparks" in law or business (notice what I left out!). Unless the kid means just for him, but I don't feel like he did.

 

I want to add a postscript to Mr. Jennings' statement, now that I've a few minutes to ruminate.

I hope he and others understand that those of us leaving aren't just leaving for a money grab or because we don't have the patience to just "do what you love" through thick and thin.

A big problem is that we don't get to do the kind of journalism that excites his "love and passion." So when you're not getting paid AND you're not getting to do the kind of work you want to do with the resources and manpower and managerial support it takes to get it done, what's the point?

I'm leaving, and it very much has as much to do with the shrinking newshole and slashed travel budget and shackles on upward mobility in the profession as it does the better money in my next profession.

If the opportunity is there to do the kind of journalism I want to be able to do, I would definitely come back.