Can experience make up for a degree?

[Mira]

I worked as a sports reporter (without a degree) for 12 years before losing my job last year due to the downturn in the industry. The paper where I worked has made at least four rounds of staff cuts over the past three years.

Though I was able to work as a sports reporter with no degree, I wholeheartedly agree with Piotr's assessment. If you want to get a job outside of the journalism industry, the degree will come in handy.

I finished my B.A. in May and hope it leads to a new (PR, marketing, communications) career at some point soon. Prior to losing the paper gig, I took a class here and there to inch closer to finishing the degree.

 

[murphyc]

Personally, I've always viewed it as the degree helps you get teh foot in the door for the first job; your work and networking is what lands you the next gig.
COP, if you dropped the second major, would you have enough credits to graduate and get a degree? I graduated as a double major (Advertising and Journalism) but have never used the former. However, the credits from those classes allowed me to graduate a semester early to take my first job.

 

[Tarheel316]

Get the degree.

 

[flexmaster33]

I would consider you along with everyone else based on your newspaper experience, but I would say go back and finish up those three credits within the next school year...silly to be that close and without the diploma and for some out there it will mean more, especially if you jump to another job field.

 

[Jim_Carty]

Get the degree. In this economy, you will absolutely lose out to people who have a degree. Employers are looking for any reason to cut candidates from a competitive pool. It may or may not hurt you when you're looking for your absolute first, entry-level job at a very small paper or a weekly, but it could definitely hurt when you try to make your next move.

 

[tagline]

Get the degree.

 

[COPrimeaux]

Ok, let me address all these comments:

First of all, hondo, it isn't a lot down the road, but it is now. HBU just jacked up their tuition by 10%.

Ace, you're misunderstanding me. It is the Christianity credits that I'm short. If I could get the Christianity degree then I could get the Christianity/Mass Comm degree.

murphyc, I looked at that option. Let me explain: When I first started at HBU, they were a mandatory double major school (except for Nursing, Education and Music). A couple of years ago, they changed to a single major and massively restructured basically every major. I, however, had already filed my degree plan and was locked in and exempt from any changes. I explored the possibility of dropping to the new Christianity minor, which I do have enough credits for, but doing so would make me subject to the new Mass Comm major (now know as Journalism and Mass Communication, or JMC). In order to get a degree with that new major, I'd need five additional classes instead of the three I need for Christianity.

RicKStain, I'm not about to defend my financial situation to you. It is what it is.

Stitch, don't ever disrespect me or the work I've done. Yeah, I had planned for my situation. You know what I didn't plan for? My family having to pay thousands of dollars in medical bills when my brother was run off the road by another driver, losing his best friend in the process and almost dying himself. I also didn't plan for a sinus surgery that I had to have this last semester. Insurance only covers so much. Also, I never made any kind of comment about refusing to move. So don't you dare tell me my heart isn't in it.

Also, for those of you who are so adamantly claiming that I will one day be looking for a job in another field, if you're not happy with your lives, that's your problem, but I refuse to become as pessimistic as you. I get laid off at one paper, I'll go look for something somewhere else. But I'm not going to go home and cry about the economy and give up on what I love to do and what I'm good at.

Everyone else, let me be clear, I will get that degree. I've worked too hard to leave empty handed. But right now, it isn't a possibility. I don't have the money. I didn't just quit because I was tired of going to school.


So what it sounds like to me is, yes, in the short term, I can get a very small start without the degree, but at some point, sooner rather than later, I need to complete my degree. So exactly as I suspected. Thank you so much to those of you who had useful insight.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Also, for those of you who are so adamantly claiming that I will one day be looking for a job in another field, if you're not happy with your lives, that's your problem, but I refuse to become as pessimistic as you. I get laid off at one paper, I'll go look for something somewhere else. But I'm not going to go home and cry about the economy and give up on what I love to do and what I'm good at.

We're not "pessimistic." We're realistic. The average person changes careers multiple times. There are Pulitzer Prize winners who didn't begin in journalism. There are Pulitzer Prize winners who left journalism for other jobs. Jobs at think tanks or Fortune 500 companies or big city law firms.

It is irresponsible in 2010, at age 22, to be this stubborn about your career path. Irresponsible, but typical and fairly standard. No one is saying not to go for it 110 percent right now, to follow your passion and see where it leads you. But you are doing yourself a disservice if you don't prepare for some contingencies. I would be saying the same thing if you were going into banking or architecture or law.

The best thing you can do for yourself, career-wise, is lose the idea that you are following a "calling." You seem like a nice enough kid, but you have to realize that you are a dime a dozen right now. Every two weeks, it seems like someone comes on here and posts about how they can't imagine doing anything else, they are more dedicated than the next guy, they'll do whatever it takes to get to the top. There's nothing special about you at this point. In fact, were I hiring, I'd be more interested in the candidate who did try other things and gain some more well-rounded experience, over the guy who pursued sports writing come hell or high water from age 14.

 

[Ace]

Ok, let me address all these comments:

First of all, hondo, it isn't a lot down the road, but it is now. HBU just jacked up their tuition by 10%.

Ace, you're misunderstanding me. It is the Christianity credits that I'm short. If I could get the Christianity degree then I could get the Christianity/Mass Comm degree.

murphyc, I looked at that option. Let me explain: When I first started at HBU, they were a mandatory double major school (except for Nursing, Education and Music). A couple of years ago, they changed to a single major and massively restructured basically every major. I, however, had already filed my degree plan and was locked in and exempt from any changes. I explored the possibility of dropping to the new Christianity minor, which I do have enough credits for, but doing so would make me subject to the new Mass Comm major (now know as Journalism and Mass Communication, or JMC). In order to get a degree with that new major, I'd need five additional classes instead of the three I need for Christianity.

RicKStain, I'm not about to defend my financial situation to you. It is what it is.

Stitch, don't ever disrespect me or the work I've done. Yeah, I had planned for my situation. You know what I didn't plan for? My family having to pay thousands of dollars in medical bills when my brother was run off the road by another driver, losing his best friend in the process and almost dying himself. I also didn't plan for a sinus surgery that I had to have this last semester. Insurance only covers so much. Also, I never made any kind of comment about refusing to move. So don't you dare tell me my heart isn't in it.

Also, for those of you who are so adamantly claiming that I will one day be looking for a job in another field, if you're not happy with your lives, that's your problem, but I refuse to become as pessimistic as you. I get laid off at one paper, I'll go look for something somewhere else. But I'm not going to go home and cry about the economy and give up on what I love to do and what I'm good at.

Everyone else, let me be clear, I will get that degree. I've worked too hard to leave empty handed. But right now, it isn't a possibility. I don't have the money. I didn't just quit because I was tired of going to school.


So what it sounds like to me is, yes, in the short term, I can get a very small start without the degree, but at some point, sooner rather than later, I need to complete my degree. So exactly as I suspected. Thank you so much to those of you who had useful insight.

You are the one who spent $100,000 working toward a journalism/Christianity degree from Houston Baptist. That's a pretty bad decision, in my opinion, if you aren't planning to use the Christianity part.

You asked the question. You got a pretty resounding answer. Don't get chippy.

It's tough to get jobs out there these days. Your resume needs all the help it can get.

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

Also, for those of you who are so adamantly claiming that I will one day be looking for a job in another field, if you're not happy with your lives, that's your problem, but I refuse to become as pessimistic as you. I get laid off at one paper, I'll go look for something somewhere else. But I'm not going to go home and cry about the economy and give up on what I love to do and what I'm good at.

Every individual makes their own decisions. As Ace said, don't come asking for advice, and then take issue with the advice that displeases you.

You think a less-than-rosy outlook regarding the newspaper business is "pessimistic"? Fair enough. Stay on the path that you were on before you came asking for advice that you rejected. More power to you.

 

[Dick Whitman]

But I'm not going to go home and cry about the economy and give up on what I love to do and what I'm good at.

Also, you need to realize that you are probably about 1/100th as good at it right now as you think you are. That's not a slam. We've all been there.

 

[BobSacamano]

I approach every article thinking I'm absolutely awful while wondering how I tricked someone into paying me.

 

[COPrimeaux]

Look, I didn't say I'm great. But I know I have skills. I've done enough things badly to know when I do something well.

And maybe pessimistic is the wrong word, and for that I apologize.

But I can't go into something expecting to quit down the line. If I did that, why would I do it? So I'm going in there with the mindset of this is what I'm going to do with my life. I mean, that's the only way I can approach something. That's the only way I know how. I have to go into it thinking "Yeah, this is going to work out." Maybe that's led to more than my share of disappointments, but I feel like I've gotten more satisfaction out of my successes as well.

I didn't reject any one's advice. I appreciate all of your input, I really do. I just wanted to clarify that I'm not saying I'll never finish school. I just wanted to know is it impossible to get started in a career without the degree. That's all.

I'm not trying to be some cocky hotshot. I'm not. I never said I was better than the last guy or the next guy. But I know that I don't suck.

And it sounds like I should explain how I got to where I am. I didn't always want to do this to be honest.

I went to a magnet high school for engineering. I did computer aided drafting for all four years and while I enjoyed the drafting part, there were other aspects of it that did not appeal to me. But I felt called to vocational ministry.

I knew nothing about HBU. But I figured, "Houston, so it's in town, check. Baptist, so surely there must be a Christianity degree, check. University, institution of higher learning, check." I applied and got in.

I didn't find out until I was there to register for my first quarter (we didn't switch to semesters until a couple of years ago) that it was a double major school. Well I didn't know anything else really except engineering, and they didn't have engineering at HBU. I did some music in high school, so I tried being a music major as a composition and percussion performance.

Yeah, that didn't work out so well. At the high school level, I was good. At the college level, however, I suck. At least according to the HBU School of Music.

So the next year, I tried being a Biblical Languages major, studying biblical Hebrew and Greek. I never got to Greek. As fascinating as I found the subject, it just kicked the crap out of me. I do remember the words for king and horse, though, if anyone wants to know what they are...

Meanwhile, I had been doing side projects with the closed circuit TV station that we used to have at HBU until it was completely destroyed by Hurricane Ike. That got me into the Mass Comm program, and once the studio was destroyed, the only thing left for me was the Collegian, the newspaper, where I finally found my niche. And it became clear that I was a much better writer than I was a theologian. So you see, I have done several different things.

But whatever, I apologize for sounding like an arrogant punk. I know you all mean well. And I do appreciate your advice. Sorry for wasting your time.

 

[RickStain]

You're not wasting our time. You just need to understand that every one of us has been 22. You've never been 28. So maybe we know what we are talking about.

 

[COPrimeaux]

Sigh... is it even worth it to mention the fact that I'm 24, not 22? Just kidding.

I get that you know what you're talking about. That's why I asked for your opinion. I just wanted to make sure that I was being understood clearly.

But let's be honest, comments such as "Three classes shouldn't cost that much." don't help me at all.

But doesn't anyone want to know what the Hebrew words for horse and king are? I came up with really clever mnemonic devices or them.

 

[Dick Whitman]

But whatever, I apologize for sounding like an arrogant punk. I know you all mean well. And I do appreciate your advice. Sorry for wasting your time.

Looks like you at least completed your class on history's martyrs.

Look, going all in for something you love, and also planning for the contigency that you may have to alter your route, are not mutually exclusive life plans. It may feel noble to you to expend every drop of energy on your sports writing right now, but I'm here to tell you that it won't love you back nearly as much as you love it. I think that, subconsciously, a lot of people feel that if they sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice, and dedicate themselves completely to a path, at the exclusion of everything and anything else, that that somehow the cosmos will reward us.

You may wake up at 30 in a few years and realize that covering Bumbledorf East vs. Bum-Dumb Tech is not exactly as fulfilling as it seemed at 24. We all grow and mature.

 

[COPrimeaux]

But whatever, I apologize for sounding like an arrogant punk. I know you all mean well. And I do appreciate your advice. Sorry for wasting your time.

Looks like you at least completed your class on history's martyrs.

Oh yeah, one thing I'm definitely good at is falling on my sword...

 

[Ace]

COP,

I don't think that folks are suggesting that you will get a sports writing job and decided to quit. I think they are suggesting that you might get a sports writing job and have the paper fold or be laid off.

And that has happened to a lot of people on this board alone.

 

[Dick Whitman]

COP,

I don't think that folks are suggesting that you will get a sports writing job and decided to quit. I think they are suggesting that you might get a sports writing job and have the paper fold or be laid off.

And that has happened to a lot of people on this board alone.

Exactly. And the OP seems to think that there is some kind of nobility in not being prepared if and when that moment comes. There's not. Just wait until you have a wife and kids.

 

[COPrimeaux]

COP,

I don't think that folks are suggesting that you will get a sports writing job and decided to quit. I think they are suggesting that you might get a sports writing job and have the paper fold or be laid off.

And that has happened to a lot of people on this board alone.

No, I get that, Ace. I didn't mean quit from a particular job. I mean quit the industry altogether if I get laid off or something.

And ****, you know what, if all I could get is covering Bumbledorf vs Bum-Dumb Tech, I'd still do it. It's sports. I read a thread just now about how covering Little League sucks. I've been getting Little League assignments from a small newspaper nearby recently, the Fort Bend Herald. I'll take it. I get to go watch sports and then write about it. I can't think of too much better.

Btw, I live with my fiancee. I know what you're saying. But I just want to reiterate, that I am going to back and finish. It's going to happen. Just not at this moment.