Response regrading jobs.

Well, considerably too harsh, but anyway.

Joshua, the hard truth here is that you're in a difficult situation. There are more people today who want to be print journalists than there are print journalist jobs, and that includes people who have done it for decades and are looking for another chance.

You might want to stay in electronic media. Print media is dying a not-so-slow death. Folks landing jobs as sports editor of a 10,000 daily are a lot more qualified now than they were in 1970 or 1980 or 2000, because there are more people going after fewer jobs.

 

Comma splice, Barfy, and no period. Y'all got any editors around there?

 

I was a sports editor. If you just sent in clips -- or applied online with no clips -- I may or may not have responded. I might have 200 applicants.

If you sent me an email, I probably did respond.

If Sports Barf applied, I would happily respond and tell him to shove his resume up his cover letter.

 

Listen to this post.

Some of the responses on here are unfathomably rude and pointless.

 

When I was searching for my first job way back when, the paper that eventually hired me advertised the opening in Editor & Publisher (does that even exist anymore?) and was overwhelmed with responses. The sports editor narrowed it to me and one other candidate because people he knew and trusted recommended us. Every subsequent hire he made during my years there unfolded the same way -- after getting dozens of responses, he'd stick to what he knew. Something as simple as having good connections can cut through all the noise and make a difference. Even though many things about the business have changed, I'm not sure that aspect of the hiring process is really all that different.

 

My advice is to go into corporate communications and salve any sports writing itch by being a blogger or freelancer on the side. You'll make more money, work normal hours, and yet still get to exercise that sports muscle.

 

Snowflake? Judging someone on less than a 100 words is pretty harsh... Is it wrong for someone who's never went in this direction to try and understand how the process works? I am actually dyslexic, and yes spelling and grammar are very hard for me, but for my station I have written some high-level stories and columns with minimal editing. Thanks for everyone's constructive input.

 

Just a thought, but maybe comments like the ones on this thread are a contributing reason to why we're dying as an industry. We don't all need to be assholes to someone looking for a reason why he/she never heard back for a particular job.

 

Also, to answer your question Joshua, not responding has become the norm not just in this business, but a lot of other professions. That doesn't make it right. It's just the way it is. People have become a bit too lazy to practice civility.

 

Yeah, no shit. It always cracks me up when people here take issue with how a person transcribes conversational thought. His questions and comments were far from unintelligible. He's not writing a fucking cover letter, he's asking questions of people on a message board.

 

That makes a lot of sense too, it's pretty much how I got my job in radio.

 

Amen!