Why I Quit My Dream Newspaper Job After 4 Months

I'd venture a guess that's actually from a Craigslist ad, somewhere. Probably not under the "dog walker wanted" section, though.

 

That was also on the ad listing for my last newspaper job.

 

Twenty years ago, I thought I was one.

Yet now into my 40s, I have made it 20 years in TV news. Once I tried to operate like Mike McD but now I am Knich from Rounders. I make a good living. Impart some wisdom. My kids eat.

See this all the time from the younger people I work with. In TV, nearly all of them come from affluent backgrounds. This means they can survive the low pay for the first few years but very very few have the inside fire to truly be great in my business. Most become disgruntled after two years, quit and get a low level PR job at the mall or the hospital.

In our information/content business, what may be a dream job is often a mirage. Yet if you're driven and curious, as a journalist should be, this remains an exciting time. Content is needed but the methods of delivery are evolving.

The twenty somethings that fill my FB feed make me roll my eyes. Most bitch in a passive-aggressive manner about the furnishings in their high end apartment or the barista was 60 seconds slow to say hi. Yet there is one of these young women who was like this until she gave birth to a daughter six months ago that cannot swallow on her own.

When she posts, I find myself near tears.

I'm constantly tempted to share each of Her posts with the whiny former colleagues of hers and say STFU you whiny little bitches.

But I camnot.

They'll just discover it in their own way.