First job out of college

[PEteacher]

The "Too picky?" thread has me curious.

 

[MU_was_not_so_hard]

Pizza Hut.
Our circulation was much better than any of these. Boy, did we influence society.
Seriously, though, 38k.

 

[ballscribe]

250K, give or take.

 

[armageddon]

The "Too picky?" thread has me curious.

Not to be a jag or anything but do the results tell us enough if we don't know the nature of the job?

I know folks who got high-profile writing jobs at smaller papers who did well and were happy and moved on quickly. I also know folks who got clerk-type jobs at very large papers, looked down their noses at the folks at the smaller papers and eventually came back down the ladder.

When asked about that first job they were proud to give the name of the paper but never, ever said what they did there. :

 

[BTExpress]

70,000 paper in Charleston, S.C.

Twenty years (and one move) later, I work 20% as hard and make 500% more money.

 

[Hed bust]

Dallas Times Herald
(now defunct)
Editorial assistant, promoted in 6 months to some reporting.
Still have the bylined clips

 

[slappy4428]

I started at an Ogden paper in Minnesota.
I then moved to a paper in Michigan that wound up being closed by Dean Singleton. I worked at an auto website that closed and a Scripps paper that closed.
Who knew Ogden would look so good?

 

[WSKY]

I'm still working at the school paper, I guess its about time I move on since I graduated several years ago.

 

[Cadet]

Can you put an "other" category up? Not everyone started out at a newspaper...

 

[Chi City 81]

Started out as SE of chain of weeklies in 2003. Now I'm at a 40K daily.

 

[HejiraHenry]

I was working at a radio station when I graduated, but soon moved to a weekly.

Within a year, I was at The Tennessean, which at the time was probably 125K.

 

[spup1122]

I was working at a radio station when I graduated, but soon moved to a weekly.

Within a year, I was at The Tennessean, which at the time was probably 125K.

I started as news director of a radio station, then moved to a daily. A small daily, but print nonetheless.

 

[HejiraHenry]

I was working at a radio station when I graduated, but soon moved to a weekly.

Within a year, I was at The Tennessean, which at the time was probably 125K.

I started as news director of a radio station, then moved to a daily.  A small daily, but print nonetheless.

Funny thing about radio ... it never seemed as "real" to me as print.

 

[txsportsscribe]

Dallas Times Herald
(now defunct)
Editorial assistant, promoted in 6 months to some reporting.
Still have the bylined clips

i still have the final sunday and final monday issues of the times herald. didn't actually work for the herald but would use a computer at their sports dept. to do agate work at nights for the old southwest conference for one of the nicest guys i've still ever met in sports, bo carter.

 

[spup1122]

I was working at a radio station when I graduated, but soon moved to a weekly.

Within a year, I was at The Tennessean, which at the time was probably 125K.

I started as news director of a radio station, then moved to a daily.  A small daily, but print nonetheless.

Funny thing about radio ... it never seemed as "real" to me as print.

I know what you mean. I could only give a snippet of what I wanted to say, and most of the time, the only information I had was from a phoner. I wanted to actually SEE what was going on, not just hear what someone said about it.

 

[TrooperBari]

Started out at a 3k weekly after stringing for yonks at the hometown 30k.

 

[PEteacher]

Wow. The guy/gal who started at "New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal" ... damn

Otherwise, the curve seemed exactly as I thought, with me being right on top of the bell curve, starting at a 30K daily.

 

[Cadet]

Dallas Times Herald
(now defunct)
Editorial assistant, promoted in 6 months to some reporting.
Still have the bylined clips

i still have the final sunday and final monday issues of the times herald. didn't actually work for the herald but would use a computer at their sports dept. to do agate work at nights for the old southwest conference for one of the nicest guys i've still ever met in sports, bo carter.

I'll second that one - Bo Carter is great.

 

[Jeffrey_Martin]

Barre-Montpelier (Vt.) Times Argus, about 10K circ., 11 years ago. Made 18K and was psyched - for about three months.

 

[hate-d-mah-old-prepjob]

(Wichita Falls, Tx.) Times Record News 30K daily almost eight years ago. Made 21K, but rent was just $400 a month for a three-bedroom house (plus I lived around the corner from my parents). Ah, the good old days.