Experience going into your first gig?

[spud]

Just a curious question, but I'd be interested to know what your experience base was heading into your first sports writing job. What did your resume look like? How much writing had you done beforehand, and how big was the circ at your first job? Did you feel like you earned it or did you just fall into the position?

Excuse me if this has been done before, but the search feature on this site sucks.

 

[Shaggy]

First sportswriting job? I had no experience. That's why it was my first job.

 

[spud]

First sportswriting job? I had no experience. That's why it was my first job.

I'll qualify this -- first sports writing job out of college... to support yourself. Surely you weren't hired at the Podunk Weekly with no previous experience.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

When I was in high school, I did prep agate at a major daily and they let me write two girls' soccer gamers.

When I was in college, I interned at three major papers (two as a writer and one as a copy editor) and I freelanced for a paper in almost every Big 8 city usually for football siders or volleyball or women's hoops or the stuff where they didn't always travel.

My first job was at one of the papers where I had interned.

 

[enigami]

I was sports editor at my college paper, a major D-I school, but had zero internships and only 1 non-college clip, stringing for a top-10 daily. Got hired at a 24,000-circ daily in the 'burbs of a major market. I would've done much better with at least one internship on my resume, but my writing was solid enough that I'd say I earned what I got.

 

[Angola!]

I worked on my college paper for a year and a half and was a part-timer at the local paper for a year. Said local paper hired me after I graduated from college.

 

[mike311gd]

I had three years' experience in college radio, television and the newspaper, and I was the president/general manager/ editor-in-chief at all three. I had more than 150 clips from the newspaper in every section. It was good enough to get me a part-time job at my local paper out of school, then a full-time gig a couple weeks later.

My resume was packed because of everything I did in school from music director at the radio station to sports editor and copy editor at the paper in college.

I felt like I earned more than what I got at my first job. I was wrong, and wish I knew it then.

 

[Highway 101]

One year stringing in HS
Five years at major college paper — two on football, one on hoops
Two major metro internships
One job offer out of 75 applications — 100k circulation.
Hired.

 

[imjustagirl2]

Two and a half years of college newspaper work.
No internships.
No daily newspaper experience.
Took a year off after college, worked as a secretary.
Got back into it, sent stuff to three papers, got offers from all three.
Took one job, stayed there for 5 years at a 12K PM. Loved it.
Got a job at a paper roughly 15X larger after that.
Still here.


That's it. Paltry.

 

[TrooperBari]

I had five years of near full-time stringing at the local 30K daily and four years of beat writing at college papers (volleyball, basketball, soccer). Had plenty of clips, a news internship at a weekly chain and decent references.

First gig was being Sports Guy at a 3K weekly. Hardly glamorous, but it beats working in a credit card factory.

 

[slappy4428]

SPent five years between my stint as sports writer in college and sports writer in the real world... News/copy editor...

 

[Kaylee]

Didn't work on the school paper in high school.
Didn't work on the school paper in college.
No internships (didn't know there was such a thing.)
No journalism major.
Walked into the 12K paper during my freshman year and volunteered to do anything.
Got hired full time six months later.
Moved up from there...not sure how.

 

[earlyentry]

Half semester at college newspaper on basketball beat. Had a radio show for a year-and-half..
Major in communication, not journalism, in 2006
Nine-month internship at 45,000 in sports department
Freelancer for Rivals
Next? I'll apply to local weeklies but hopefully a daily or just continue adding clips at Rivals.

 

[dargan]

One year in high school.
Sports editor of my junior college paper for the year I was there. Also was a high school football/basketball stringer for a 70,000-circ close by.
Covered football and men's basketball and also served as sports editor twice in the two years at major four-year I graduated from.
Three days after I graduated, got a full-time at a 32,000-circ. Preps galore!

 

[zeke12]

HS paper editor.

College paper for four years, reporter, SE,ME.

Three interships, two at major metros and one at a mid-sized daily.

Grad school.

Podunk Press as a one-man gang.

PR for about six months.

Desk at a mid-sized daily.

Damn, looking at it all makes me feel old.

Road less traveled and all...

 

[Walter Burns]

Weird story...when I was in college, I wanted to be a sportswriter. Got a gig working for a 35K daily part-time during the summers and doing some correspondence work for them while in school. After college, I got a news copy editing gig (Dow Jones didn't offer sports gigs at that point) and parlayed that into a news reporting gig. After five years as a reporter, got moved into a sports copy editing position. Spent a little more than a year there before landing in a sports editing position at a smaller paper.

 

[awriter]

Four years at my college paper and worked part-time for three years at a 40K daily near school. After graduating, spent a year as a part-timer at my hometown paper -- a 150K shop in a major market.

 

[Sam Mills 51]

Never worked newspapers in high school.

Was told by a good friend in college that I should write for the student paper, but couldn't walk into games with a music instrument in one hand and pen and paper in the other. Stand by that decision to this day ... had waaaaay too much fun.

Worked the wrong crap jobs to stay employed for two years out of school.

Finally got chance to string for hometown paper, dealership got rid of me because they didn't like it, ate stringer money for six months. Went into newsroom on Saturdays to learn Quark, and take the odd call.

Went to a nearby paper for my first full-time gig. Went back home six months later when they offered me a chance to go home.

Hope to write a better ending to this story ... :(

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

Strung high school football and soccer ( as well as a couple of Pop Warner games . . .shudder) for a local weekly while in junior college.
Two years on well-regarded student paper at four-year college.
Interned at fanboy magazine for my college
My dumbass should have tried for more internships, but I was too busy trying to graduate ASAFP.
Got lucky in first gig out of college, as an agate boy for hometown paper. Legends say the original hire failed the drug test. Lucky that homtown paper was a 75,000 circulation.

Got further lucky when an old friend from junior college turned up as sports editor of another local daily, where I managed to accomplish some things.

Can honestly say I would have given up a long time ago if I wasn't fortunate enough to have friends with a knack for pointing me in the right direction and helping open the best doors I could realistically hope for.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Wrote features, covered intramurals and some minor sports game coverage for my once-a-week college newspaper. Never covered a football or basketball game in college.

Never had an internship, never worked part-time during the school year at a paper, or for my hometown weekly in the summer.

Sent out resumes all over my school state, my home state and several remote regions. Got one positive response from the remote region, got hired over the phone, loaded up my car a month after graduation and never looked back. Someplace I still have the rejection letters, and the one positive one that helped determine the next 30 years of my life.

I now realize how ill-prepared I was, and how lucky I was to be hired. But it was a different world back then.