Keeping a hand in the game

Like anything else, I assume - make contacts, schmooze, "network."

 

I saw (yesterday, in NTN's Tuesday-night Showdown) that the top is 180? That right?

 

Yeah, 180.

Mine was 97th percentile. GPA will hurt me - 3.3, mostly because of course overload on my part, which was dumb. Nearly a decade in the newspaper business may help overcome that, though.

Probably looking at somewhere like Georgetown, Northwestern, Michigan, Duke, Virginia, Cornell or perhaps Vanderbilt, USC, UCLA or Minnesota, which are also good schools, if I decide to take the plunge.

Considering that I still would consider a career in newspapers, I know it's an expensive whim. But I feel like it's something I have to do right now, for myself and my family. I can't wonder, "What if?" later. Right now, I'm just a dime-a-dozen sports writer.

 

politicalspeechwriterjobs.com?

 

Not far, actually.

Google "political speech writers." You will find some things that help.

 

you don't need to spend $120,000 and rack up a mountain of debt for either of those jobs. and although you might be able to get the contacts for those jobs through law school there is certainly no guarantee. it sounds like you should keep stringing while taking entry level jobs in publishing or an internship with an agent or something. or get a PR job with a low level politician. if you write speeches well you'll be snapped up quickly. it's a rare skill and there are few people who are good at it.

not that anyone asked, but i just graduated from law school and am now studying for the bar exam and it's in less than three weeks and I FEEL LIKE MY FUCKING HEAD IS GOING TO EXPLODE. i almost wish it would go ahead and pop because then i wouldn't have to take the fucking test. especially real property. it's fucking killing me. i can't get it straight. my real property prof was a card-carrying communist and i hated him but i don't think that's the problem. fuck me. fuck. fuckety fuck.

/feeling a little better thanks to that rant.

 

Leo - Yeah, I get all that re: the cheaper route available to those jobs. But I'm not completely sure that those are EXACTLY what I'd want to do. And I'm in no mood to again start at the bottom and work my way up for peanuts. I want the credential of attending a top school, and the options that come with it, whether it be at a firm, getting back into newspapers, whatever. Maybe that seems shallow or flighty, but I'm trying to come out of this sports writer pigeon-hole swinging. I just don't feel like there's a big future in what I'm doing now in our industry, kind of like I've taken it as far as I'm going to and I'm a dime a dozen.

 

Stringing is the best way to keep your hand in while getting out of the biz.

Talk to the local major metro, and, if there are any minor-league teams nearby, talk to the SEs of papers in that league's markets. You might get a gig or two that way.

I make some nice coin stringing (both print & broadcast). It's a good way to keep your hand in it while getting your paycheck from somewhere else.

And, because of the state of the industry, I worried about being tossed out on my can supporting a family of four because I was 45 and "too expensive" (uh, I mean, the company "wanted to go a different direction"). Now, I don't, but I can still keep my hand in the till.

 

Agree with crimsonace. I've known several guys that have actually made a living just stringing for different papers. I still work full-time in the biz, but I have done stringing work between jobs and plan on doing so if/when I move out of journalism.

 

WJ, one of the great myths of our middle class society is that you can do anything with a law degree. this is what most people don't understand: after you graduate from law school if you pursue a non-legal career (in a field you weren't in before law school), you're starting at or near the bottom. maybe you get a tiny bump in pay or slight boost on the ladder because of your j.d. but you have no experience in your new field. your law degree means very little.

whether it's speechwriting or publishing or being a legislative policy analyst your law degree carries very little or no weight. sure, sure you know how to think and you have better reasoning skills than other entry-level candidates. but you have no experience in those fields. just because you have the law degree doesn't make you qualified for anything other than an entry-level position in a non-law field.

there are exceptions, of course, if you have the right contacts. but most people who toss around the whole 'i'm going to law school and i can do whatever i want with my j.d.' are missing the point. the j.d. opens doors but in most cases those doors are also open without the j.d.

 

leo - Good points. I don't mind being a lawyer for a few years, though. At least with a JD from a good school, you're guaranteed a good income while you try to make contacts to eventually move out of the firm life.

It's strange - for being such a competition to get into law programs, it almost feels like you have to apologize to friends and acquiantances for choosing that field. I guess because it kind of feels like the default line of work for smart people who don't know what else to do. So people look at it skeptically.

 

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