Career what-ifs

[Deskgrunt50]

My what-if came from a parting of ways.

Second job was a start-up, covering all sports and recruiting at a big university, in print and online.

It was a blast. Great experience. But the pay was dismal and I, being full of **** and vinegar, starting butting heads with management and the main financial backer.

Some will say I was fired. I say I would have left anyway (I was fired).

A week later I got the SE gig at a small paper in a big chain. Two promotions later I was at one of the biggest papers in tbe chain in the 'burbs of my destination city/market.

Met my wife. Moved to a big role at a news organization that I love in the city I love.

Job won't last forever. But I'm damn lucky.

If I wasn't strong-headed and left (ok, fired) that second job, everything would be different. And I'm damn, damn lucky and happy.

Is there a point to the story? I'm not sure. It could have been a disaster. But it ended up perfect. Life's a roll of the dice, and I hit the horn-high yo on a quadruple press.

Tip your dealers. Hoping my next roll hits again.

 

[DeskMonkey1]

Well, I was offered a job at Gannett's Nashville design studio a couple of years back...

 

[jr/shotglass]

I guess if I were really smart, I would have been the one on our desk to jump at the opportunity to help shape the burgeoning website.

Ahhhh ... nahhhh.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

While working at my first job at a weekly, I landed an interview with a small-town daily. We arranged for the interview on a Saturday, because I couldn't get away during the week.

So I drove out to the interview at the appointed time. And lo and behold, the building was locked up. Banged on doors, ran a doorbell, nothing. Waited two hours, decided to leave. While getting gas, I picked up a copy of the large city daily, which wasn't available in my area and this was pre-internet. In it, I see another small town daily with an opening for a one-man SE shop. Applied, interviewed, found out a fellow member of my school paper worked there and he vouched for me, and I got the job.


Maybe, if I'd interviewed at that other paper, my career and life turns out differently. Maybe it doesn't.

 

[Doc Holliday]

This subject might be considered a spinoff from the very interesting "For those who left: any regrets?"

It was like a few minutes ago I was watching Happy Days and now there's an episode of Joanie Loves Chachi on.

 

[Doc Holliday]

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.

This is one of the most awesomely honest posts I've ever read on a message board anywhere in my whole ****ing life.

 

[dirtybird]

I have probably three
1. Out of college, I was offered a job in the middle of nowhere, one-man shop covering three high schools, getting paid $20,000 a year. The place wanted an 18-month commitment. My prospects were bleak, but I turned it down with the logic, if I couldn't get that job at will, I wasn't cut out for this. I'm guessing I'd have burned out quick and floundered without much editing.

2. Had to choose between two jobs a few months later. One was a half day's drive from home, but built a lot more around phones and roundups. One was on the other side of the country, but was going to be heavy on features and getting out of the office. I chose the latter with a tiebreaker of the pay being basically the same despite one being in a considerably more expensive state. It's made travel much more of a thing and I've not even gotten a sniff from one of the jobs in my home state.

3. I was two months from quitting the business. I lived in a town I grew to dislike at a paper that was a mess and my job search gave me the sense I'd topped out. Planned to move to the hometown and look for a day job. Then a friend called and told me someone who had a job he'd pitched me for suddenly had to leave for family reasons, and I could come cover something I cared more about in a better town for a good boss. I got it and still am in this profession.

 

[I Should Coco]

Might have told this story on here before. It's more about the road taken, but anyway ...

I was in a comfortable rut a couple years out of college, working days covering news for suburban Chicago weekly papers in the area where I grew up, while stringing high school sports for a daily paper Fridays and Saturdays.

We see an ad for editor at a weekly paper in the U.P. of Michigan. Mrs. Coco says, "Apply. See what happens. It would be a fun road trip if you get an interview."

We were young and didn't have children, so it was a fun road trip. And not only do I hit it off great with the owner/publisher of the paper, but while we're there we eat at a Chinese restaurant and the fortune cookie says, "A significant move is in your future."

Moved up to the U.P. and haven't lived in Chicago since. A great metro area to visit, but ...

We kept the fortune cookie paper, just for laughs.

 

[Bronco77]

It was like a few minutes ago I was watching Happy Days and now there's an episode of Joanie Loves Chachi on.

I guess it's better than following up "Three's Company" with "The Ropers."

 

[studthug12]

Don't really have many. The only one that sticks out to me is taking my hat out of the ring for a job covering D-I football and baseball in Alabama - not the Crimson Tide. But, I told my wife, 'Hey I am going to get offered a job covering football and baseball in Alabama!' Her response: We're not ****ing moving to Alabama.

 

[maumann]

I turned down a gig at a 1,000-watt radio station in Winter Haven, Fla., after graduation to back to the Bay Area where I went to high school. Unfortunately, not many entry level jobs in a top-10 market, so I did a lot of odd jobs, like working as a security guard.

My father was a long-time IBM executive and pulled some strings to get me an interview with IBM, a job that was all about guaranteed, would have paid handsomely and probably set me for life. And I completely blew the interview. All I talked about was how much I loved journalism instead of how excited I'd be in a 9-5 office job.

Dad was furious, and even after I finally made it on my own, he still fumed about what he had to do to set me up. I finally made it up to him when I got him infield credentials to the Bristol race a few years ago and let him tag along as I interviewed drivers and wrote stories. I think he realized I was happy doing that instead of wearing a suit.

Of course, I needed several strokes of luck to wind up there. But that's another story.

 

[Human_Paraquat]

I began working for my small hometown daily right after high school, while attending the local community college. About two years in one of the full-timers leaves and the SE offers me the job. I was enjoying newspaper work way more than college, and didn't feel I was getting much of a useful education. So I took the gig, stayed for a couple of years, and eventually went off to school. That university did not have a J school, but I landed various part-time roles at a metro daily and have stayed in the business to this day.

I have often wondered if I'd have been better off turning down the full-time gig, or even going off to a four-year school out of high school. I obviously learned a lot about the business firsthand in those newsrooms, but I missed a lot of life experiences.