To ex-journalists who have made career changes...

The issue I used to run into was that the people doing the hiring thought a sportswriting job was so cool that they were certain I would quit the second I had the chance to go back to sports.

 

I've cleaned the sports references off my resume and have applied for a few jobs with the new version. No responses yet, since these applications came over the last 2-3 days, but hopefully that helps.

Has anyone gone back to school? I keep thinking about it to upgrade my skills and was told one of the schools I'm looking at will have an opening for an assistantship in the fall. But overall I'm still hesitant because the general view is that grad school is a Bad Idea for the kind of jobs we have.

 

Go back to school to do what?

 

I was looking at a program called integrated marketing communications. I was told that there would be an assistantship open in the fall that I could apply for, which would get me a tuition waiver. Seeing as I like the social media work I do part-time, I'm already getting some marketing experience and want to make the full switch. I thought about making social media my career, but that seemed too narrow of a focus.

 

It's not just sports but newspapers. Unless they have experience, folks outside journalism have no clue what you do. They really think you "get to go to games."

So saying you oversaw coverage of the Super Bowl means nothing to most hiring managers.

But if you say you developed the plan directed a staff of six writers, three photographers and two web producers in live coverage of the Super Bowl, generating $200,000 in ad sales in a 12-page live section and 1.2 million web hits, that may resonate.

 

I think even the most ignorant hiring managers know newspapers are in hospice care. That's one thing that shouldn't need to be spelled out.

 

I went back to school. Got a law degree. It was a huge mistake. Enjoy what I'm doing now, but my finances are a wreck. Would've been better off pursuing some opportunities I had doing niche journalism or PR.

 

Frantic, I wonder if you'd agree with me, but one of the toughest adjustments for me to that profession - and this is probably true of many of them - is the long-term planning and organization it requires. Whereas the newspaper comes out each day, and you kind of turn the page, litigation may last for years. I'm likely to get a call out of the blue or email out of the blue at any moment asking for some document from months ago, and I should know where it is. That wasn't easy at first - it still isn't, though I'm getting better - for someone raised on the daily news cycle.

I also have struggled with technology - newspapers kind of have their own word-processing systems that the rest of the world doesn't seem to use. People have been alternately amused and frustrated with me (though they are nice about it) for not knowing how to use Microsoft Word, Excel, and other programs that today's college kids and the rest of the working world knows like the back of their hand.

 

To your last point, I have become proficient in countless operating systems in newsrooms over the years, but I am rightfully mocked by those closest to me for my daily struggles with technology outside of producing a newspaper.

 

I had to take a pretty extensive Excel class when I started at my current gig about five years ago. It's crazy the shit you can do with that program. I have to do power point presentations all the time... If I can learn it, anyone here can.

 

My issues were more with the collapse of the legal market while I was in law school. The value proposition changed significantly between fall of 2007, when I started, and spring of 2010. I graduated without a job. Ended up landing a low-paying gig at a local prosecutor's office after the bar exam. The daily crush of court as an entry-level prosecutor is actually pretty similar to the constant motion of a newsroom. That part of it I loved. But they pay was nearly as bad as my last reporting gig, and now I had a mountain of debt to go with it. I've moved on to a law-related gig that pays a good bit better - but still nowhere near the salary that law schools sell you on - and I'm finally starting to see the light on being able to pay my bills. I have a small home-based practice on the side, too, but I'm not a full-time lawyer anymore.

I definitely had to adjust to using a normal word-processing program after years of using the CMS systems in newspapers. That happened for me in law school though - mainly because of the journal work I did.

 

I took drastic moves to get out. First joined the Peace Corps and when I returned, it was at the tail end of 2009 -- the economy at its worst. After a year of bouncing around (field supervisor, tour arranger, camp worker, ghostwriter, cook) I accepted a 12-month gig copy-editing at an overseas newspaper.

I'd applied to every federal job I was interested in and qualified for (I wanted the writer/editor gig at the Department of the Interior, on a national park) and then lowered the bar to anything I was qualified for, which included office administration.

As soon as I got to Jakarta, I got invited to an "oral assessment" for some job - had to go back and look it up. Seriously, in a year, I'd easily applied to over 300. Anyway, it turned out, it was for foreign service but I couldn't afford to fly back and take it then, so I deferred a year, after I finished in Jakarta.

Not knowing if I'd pass but knowing even if I did I still would have tons of clearances, I lined up an AmeriCorps gig for when my Jakarta contract was up. I passed the OA but clearances took forever so I am glad I did that.

Toward the tail end of the AmeriCorps gig in Minot, I finally got my invite for the job, and I'm not leaving until they force me out at 65. Even then, I have an option to work temporary gigs post-retirement.

Wouldn't have predicted this route or recommend it to the average Joe, but there are plenty of former journalists in foreign service. I work directly with a former MSNBC producer, a former Newsweek writer and a NatGeo journalist. (We did an outreach panel the other day and there were six of us, the second largest panel after the Peace Corps one, of which I also participated.) Also several former attorneys, bankers and retired military.