Degree or no degree.

[philnm06]

I recently got an opportunity to cover all sports in my area, it is for a fairly new publication so the pay isn't great to start but I will be contracted within the next 6 months. My boss wants me to work for the magazine full time but I had planned to go back and finish college. I know these opportunity's don't come around very often and as and I am new to the industry I am seeking advice on what I should do. Thanks in advance for your reply.

 

[MartinonMTV2]

Based on the problems with your post, I'd say pick school.

 

[JJHHI]

Disagree. If you can make a living writing for the magazine, do it. It will give you a chance to find out whether this is what you want to do for the long-term, and you will learn things doing the job full-time that you could never learn in a classroom. If you find out this is not for you, at least you won't have wasted your time and money getting a degree in a field you're not interested in working in for the next 30 to 40 years. You can go back to school at any time.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

10 years ago I'd tell you to go to the job. With the newspaper business being what it is, I'd say stay in school.

 

[TrooperBari]

Having a degree certainly won't hurt you, especially if at some point you tire of the business — or the business tires of you.

 

[dkphxf]

Stay in school. You don't want to go out and start working and realize you want to go back to school. You can always freelance for the publication.

 

[Stitch]

So you get to cover all sports and be contracted within six months? What does that mean?

I'd worry about the publication if they hired you as a staffer. This sounds mean, but your writing needs work. There were far too many errors in your post for you to be a credible writer.

 

[Tucsondriver]

Follow your heart. If the magazine takes a dump you can always go back to school. If you're young and you think the magazine work would be a fun experience, give it a shot. If it seems like it's going to be a sweatshop and you're just doing it because you think it's a rare opportunity, don't do it. You may end up being a college grad working at Subway in a few years, but that beats being a dropout working at Subway.

 

[Mira]

When will you finish your degree? Can you take a couple classes and work full-time at the pub?

School will always be there. The job? Probably not ... especially with what's occurred in our industry. Gaining experience is critical.

 

[YGBFKM]

A college degree won't make you any smarter than the average homeless guy on an interstate off ramp, but unless you want the road of life to be a ****ing obstacle course, finish school ASAP.

 

[wicked]

The experience of college meant more to me than the actual degree. This is coming from someone who was a non-traditional student and graduated at 26. School will always be there, but there is no point in wasting your youth on a dying business.

 

[MartinonMTV2]

Someone has already said this, but judging by the writing in the post, either he's going to wash out before the end of the probationary period or the place is so bad that he'll be embraced.

Go to school.

 

[txsportsscribe]

Someone has already said this, but judging by the writing in the post, either he's going to wash out before the end of the probationary period or the place is so bad that he'll be embraced.

Go to school.

quit being such an ass

 

[LongTimeListener]

This job might sound like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to you now, but one just like it will be there when you're done with school -- and in fact the very same opportunity is likely to come up once they've rid themselves of the person they hired once you turn them down. An employer who would advise you not to finish school in this environment is one that is not to be trusted. Even if you find a way to stay in the business forever, at some point you are going to run across a job you don't get because you don't have a degree.

 

[MartinonMTV2]

Someone has already said this, but judging by the writing in the post, either he's going to wash out before the end of the probationary period or the place is so bad that he'll be embraced.

Go to school.

quit being such an ass

You must be a bad writer, too, if that bothers you so much. Someone else already gave him the same advice, and it's good advice.

 

[Stitch]

I haven't heard anyone wish they didn't go to college. I hear the opposite regularly.

 

[MartinonMTV2]

I haven't heard anyone wish they didn't go to college. I hear the opposite regularly.

I think people make the mistake of listening to people proclaim they never had a degree and got by. Times change.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

At my last shop, we'd have interns and paid part-timers who were in school. The SEs would always tell them that school came first, before the job. They were very flexible in scheduling for them, and would even tell them that if they needed off to study for an exam, to let them know.

In other words, stay in school. Especially since it's a fairly new publication with sucky pay, odds are whoever they do hire won't be staying too long. By the time you get your degree, whoever they hire to replace you might leave, and you can have the job anyways.

Plus, if they like you that much already, they can give you some freelance work, and you won't have to regale us with stories from your impovershed college years {cross-thread}

 

[Frank_Ridgeway]

I have no degree. I would say your age and the circumstances determine whether it's a good risk.

I was 19. The place I lucked into had people in their mid-20s who not only could teach me, but they had their own ambitions to work at larger papers, and they moved up at approximately the right time for me to replace them. So by the time I would have graduated from college, I'd covered a preps beat, a minor pro beat, a major pro beat and then been a copy desk chief. Then, two years at a mid-major and on to a major metro at 24. Equal parts hard work and luck.

It was really a very small window when I had an advantage over most people my age. By the time you are 27 or so, other people now have had five or six years of pro experience and caught up to you.

Three decades later, the lack of a degree has not been a factor in newspapering. I do sort of wish I had one now, though, when I look at other careers.

I'd do it if you think you can learn from the people there and can move up quickly. Their ambition is as important as yours, because if they aren't better than you are and they aren't going to move up, you aren't going to get enough opportunity to make it worthwhile. The window closes quickly -- you want a short but productive apprenticeship.

 

[FishHack76]

As my dad always says, "In life, you always want options." A college degree gives you options in your life. Just having your high school diploma doesn't really do the same thing.