Career what-ifs

[Bronco77]

This subject might be considered a spinoff from the very interesting "For those who left: any regrets?" Have you ever had a career opportunity, either long ago or relatively recently, that you turned for whatever reason but always wondered how it might have worked out?

I don't spend time dwelling on any job changes I did or didn't make in newspapers, but there were a few opportunities very early in my career that would have sent me down much different paths. I'll provide details if/when there are a few other responses.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

Not me, but an old friend of mine has a classic.

Many years ago he was working as a news anchor in Macon, Georgia. A startup news operation wanted to hire him as its main anchor. My friend's agent convinced him it would be a bad move and a career dead-end, and that taking a news director/anchor job in Idaho was the way to go. My buddy went to Idaho.

The startup hired their second choice: Bernard Shaw. It was CNN.

 

[SnarkShark]

A small paper I was interning at one summer offered me $22,500 a year to go full time and not go back to college for my last two years.

Took every ounce of my strength not to laugh in the SE's face, as he presented the position as some grand opportunity. SE was also the most verbally abusive person I've ever worked for. Rarely targeted me, but he hammered one guy every ****ing day, and his whipping boy happened to be the nicest guy in the office.

**** that ****head. Best decision of my life.

 

[wicked]

Something slightly different... Had to hand in my playbook on my third job. I'd been job hopping, and it doubled as a nice, humbling moment.

Alas, that sent my career on a slightly altered trajectory. I wouldn't be where I am today had I stuck around. I take solace in the fact that they've cut loose lot of good people over the years.

 

[WriteThinking]

A few years ago, at the peak of my three-year struggle following the loss of my last regular full-time newspaper job, I got offered a part-time, long-term temporary job in the county Human Resources department. Sure, it was just temporary, part-time and pretty much an entry-level position, but I was told forthrightly during an impressively open interview process that getting this gig in HR was a huge step that could and would definitely lead to bigger and better things within the county. Getting in in HR meant you could get in almost anywhere, should you ever wish to do so. Apparently, it's almost like a reference -- an official one.

A week later, however, I got an offer for job, that wasn't temporary, at a county library that was closer to my home than the HR offices were, and because library work had always been something I thought might appeal me, I was interested in that, and, essentially, had to make a choice. I went with the library job, and it was good and fine. But ever since then, I've kind of regretted not following through on the HR offer. I believe HR work really is a good option, and, as my interviewers said, can open all kinds of doors in all kinds of businesses, and now I wish I had that experience that I would've gotten in that job, and seen where else it could have taken me, or if, indeed, it would have led to a lot of other offers within the county.

 

[jr/shotglass]

At 25, I think I was fairly set as a preps/college writer at my newspaper. Then we had a sports editor change, and I was positive that the new guy was going to phase out local coverage in favor of pros/majors. We had not had a permanent desk man to that point -- pretty much anybody who walked in the door that evening could have the dummies tossed to him. So I offered to take over the full-time slot duties for a healthy bump in pay.

Financially, it set me up well. Professionally and happiness-wise, I wonder if I wouldn't have been better off staying on the beats.

 

[MisterCreosote]

I turned down a dream news editorship in my dream destination because my ex didn't want to move too far away from the guys she was ****ing behind my back.

 

[PaperDoll]

No, which is a little sad considering I'm a professional job hunter. But I've always been better at finding jobs that fit others. Maybe, like WriteThinking, I should have gone into HR instead?

I occasionally wonder what would've happened if I'd taken the spot I deferred and went to social work school after my first year as a sportswriter. But I think the all-in, 110-percent, job-first attitude comes from me, not sports journalism... and it's easy enough to follow a similar path as a social worker!

Within the business? I'm surprisingly OK with the f---ed up situation I'm in. I have one job which covers my bills in a place I want to live. I'm very very lucky... until I get axed. But that could happen any time, anywhere.

 

[CD Boogie]

When I was in my mid to late 20s, a friend whose father was a producer on NYPD Blue said I should submit some screenwriting samples for use in the show. Stupidly, I said I knew nothing about screenwriting and so never submitted anything. It probably would have come to nothing, but I still think about it from time to time.

 

[playthrough]

Right after college I interviewed at the paper in tiny Milledgeville, Georgia. Spent several hours there but turned down an offer to cover a game that night, as I had to drive back north for some reason. Dumb move -- they obviously wanted to test me on not only writing but initiative, and I failed by leaving. So I didn't get the job and went back to my college town to chase another opportunity, which came through and while there I got together with the now-wife. So who knows -- if I stay and cover that game, maybe I get that job and my entire life is different.

The wife had an interesting offer a decade ago to be the editor of a startup city magazine in Greenville, South Carolina. We spent a long weekend there exploring the offices, the city and houses, but our 1-year-old was with us and we weren't able to coordinate babysitting with my parents, who were in Charleston. So the whole weekend was kind of compromised and ultimately she didn't take the job. But we felt for a long time afterward that if we didn't have to worry about the kid and were able to focus over that weekend, we'd have made the move.

Those are the only "what-ifs" that come to mind in 20 years. We've made three interstate moves for work, so our general motto has been "let's just do it." Some gigs were better than others, but it's always been interesting.

 

[Rhody31]

I think about where I'd be if I hadn't been let go on a regular basis. With what I was doing at the time, I likely would have landed the job at the paper I wanted to and would have had enough support to chase innovative stories and ideas that don't get chased today, reaching the local celebrity status I desire like a MFer.
I'd also be working like a mad-man, traveling far too often and not raising two beautiful girls.
Yeah, I think about the what-ifs. But I also hear plenty of people tell me how lucky I am to be at home with the kids. At first I thought it was just something people said; now I'm starting to believe that there are a lot of (mainly) guys with adult children who wished they had that time back instead of being at the office.
Would I go back? Of course. I'm a junkie.
But I can't imagine not getting goodnight kisses every night when I put my kids to bed.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

I was four months into my first full-time gig when the major metro in my hometown needed a new state capital bureau reporter. The state capital was an hour away from my new gig. One of my old teachers was also full-time at major metro and said he could get me in. I decided to not backstab the hand that gave me a boost into the business and said, "nah. I owe it to these guys to not jump so quickly."

I'm a ****ing idiot.

 

[Bronco77]

I have two, both from the start of my career in the early '80s (my apologies for the length).

First job was at a 35,000-circulation paper, and after two years there, I was frustrated. The women's sports information director at my alma mater (this was when Division I schools usually had separate men's and women's departments), who'd heard of my frustration, called and asked if I'd be interested in working for him as a grad assistant. It would have meant entry-level experience in college athletics, along with a free master's degree. But I wasn't ready to give up on newspapers, and my parents, who still held a lot of sway over me at that age, were against it. So I turned it down, and a guy I'd worked with on the school paper accepted it. He's now an assistant AD at a Big Ten school. Not that I would have advanced to that point, but it's still a "what-if."

A year later, I was still at the same paper and had become friendly with the father of a high-school athlete I'd written a feature on. The dad was an executive at Deere & Co. -- corporate headquarters were about a five-minute drive from my apartment -- and he offered to help me land a position in Deere's communications department (which handled all sorts of goodies along with PR back in the day -- it wrote and edited owner's manuals, annual reports to stockholders, the quarterly in-house employees' magazine, among other things). The guy estimated the pay would have been about $18K -- doesn't seem like much, but I was earning about $12K at the paper. I hesitated at first -- still thought it was a bit early to give up on newspapers, and I didn't really want to make a long-term commitment to living in Moline, Ill. (which was short-sighted in retrospect; after a few years with a corporation such as Deere, I probably could have landed work anywhere). After thinking about it a bit more, though, I was ready to tell my Deere contact to put things in motion. But then, out of the blue, came an offer from a considerably bigger market in a warmer climate, and I accepted. No regrets ... but I still do wonder, from time to time, where going to work for Deere & Co. might have led.

 

[swingline]

Regrets, I've had a few
But, then again,
Too many to mention ...

 

[BrownScribe]

Mine isn't really a specific opportunity, but I wish I hadn't been so determined to stay in my home state and close to family. Especially right after college. Wish I had been open to pursuing jobs outside the state. In that regard, I also wish my university had a J-school, maybe I wouldn't have been so clueless about the logistics of the business. Honestly, my advice to anyone still determined to be a journalist when they graduate is be willing to move anywhere for your job. Stay home and you really limit your options.

 

[swingline]

BrownScribe, being single opens up your options to move anywhere. Being tied to a GF or BF or child limits what moves you can make.

My advice, if you want to be a journalist these days, stay single.

 

[Roscablo]

When I was about to graduate college the school's SID office, which I had gotten extremely close with over the years had an opening for an assistant. I inquired with the SID just to see if I had a shot if I applied. He said good things but said an intern who'd worked for them as long as I had been hanging around as a college paper reporter was going to get offered it. I immediately thought, and this was just before the newspaper world would get killed by the internet and other crap so no real inclination of what it would become, that I should have gone the SID route from the start. A little later while I was covering a D-II program regularly for a decent sized metro, their SID actually told me he tried to get me a job in their department but there was no budget for it. Always wondered what if in the SID regard.

On a newspaper level my career was more roller coaster because of my wife's career and training than anything that happened in the industry, although as mentioned in the getting out regrets thread it did save me from layoffs almost every step of the way. But we had moved for her after I had been at my favorite gig ever for about two years. It was a 20,000ish circulation paper where I was a part of a four-person sports team. I mostly covered preps but I had freedom to do most anything. Just two months after we left one of my former colleagues moved on for bigger and better things. They offered me the assistant sports editor spot. My wife wanted me to strongly consider it. She even kind of wanted me to take it. It was pre-kids but it was a five-hour drive from where we had moved and schedules wouldn't mesh up even when we had time off. We would have never seen each other and I decided it was better to support her than go after my own dreams.

Obviously I would have had even more freedom and control a little higher up and I had had some successes in the previous spot. I do think it would have offered the possibility for a quick move up somewhere had I done it. I eventually became a news editor for that previously mentioned decent sized metro in our new town and never covered sports again. My wife is transitioning jobs now and has had a fairly easy time with her career moves while mine have always been a pain in the butt. I brought up this opportunity as an example. And she pretty much told me I should have taken it. So who knows what if. Career and family wise there. I wonder more if in terms of timing. I don't think I made the wrong decision at all in terms of family.

 

[KJIM]

Mine was an internship. After I'd already accepted an internship at a radio station, the one I really wanted -- with the city's sports association -- offered me a spot there, but I felt I'd committed to the radio station and turned it down.

Two weeks into the internship, the station went under, fired all the paid employees (meaning I got to stay) and came back in a new format.

Learned pretty quickly I didn't want to work in broadcast.

 

[WriteThinking]

No, which is a little sad considering I'm a professional job hunter. But I've always been better at finding jobs that fit others. Maybe, like WriteThinking, I should have gone into HR instead?

I occasionally wonder what would've happened if I'd taken the spot I deferred and went to social work school after my first year as a sportswriter. But I think the all-in, 110-percent, job-first attitude comes from me, not sports journalism... and it's easy enough to follow a similar path as a social worker!

Within the business? I'm surprisingly OK with the f---ed up situation I'm in. I have one job which covers my bills in a place I want to live. I'm very very lucky... until I get axed. But that could happen any time, anywhere.

You sound a lot like me, PaperDoll.

Also during the aforementioned three-year stretch of difficult employment/unemployment, I got an offer for a Social Services clerical/administrative job with the county that was located in an office right in my hometown. I had a great interview with them, and the rapport was mutual. Both sides knew we were interested in each other. The only problem was, like a lot of county opportunities, initially, it was a long-term temp position (which is a very good way to go if you need work, so not to dissuade anyone from walking away from such opportunities if they're needed). But I had already worked a couple of temp jobs, and I made it clear to them in the in the interviews that what I was seeking was a regular, non-temp position, that I really didn't want a temporary one.

They called my up at home afterwards, trying to convince me to go for the offer, saying it could, potentially turn into something permanent. And I knew it really could have, depending on what happened with the opening/absent person involved. But I'd just decided I wasn't going to chance that, and didn't want anymore temp jobs, and stuck to my guns, and turned it down.

I still think about that office sometimes -- it was a Children's Services job -- and I've always had an interest in social-services related work, so that was another direction I might have gone, but didn't.

 

[User 11148]

In the early spring of that last year I was a writer, I was approached by the SE of a SoCal daily (not the LA Times or the OC Register, but not a bad one, either). His mother was a subscriber of ours and had mentioned to him she liked my stuff. He and I met when he was visiting her, and in a couple of weeks he called to tell me the plan was to bring me in to cover either (my choice) their Southern Cal beat or their Raiders beat. This would have been in March, when I was seriously pondering getting the hell out. He told me he'd call in a day or two with the details. Sure enough, a couple of days later he called, but not with a formal job offer. Per him a temporary hiring freeze was on, so he wouldn't be able to make the offer for a month or so. Nevertheless, he assured me that the job (I'd decided on the Southern Cal beat) was mine.

For all I know this was all a load of b.s. I didn't think so at the time, but it didn't matter. Within a week or two, I made the mental leap of checking out of the business. I don't think I even called him to let him know (I honestly can't remember now).

The few times I've thought of that time, I'm amazed at how different my life -- forget the career -- would have gone had I stuck around a few more weeks, then taken the gig in SoCal. Had I done that, I doubt very seriously I'd have gotten together with my wife. We'd dated and broken up before, but about the time I was getting out of journalism, she was heading back to grad school just a few miles down the road from where I was heading. That reunion doesn't happen if I'm in SoCal (rather than South Carolina).

I absolutely never regretted not taking that path. I just know that, as the man said, the path I took has made all the difference in the world.