Help with possible life-changing decision

[BertoltBrecht]

sp, guaranteed.

 

[tapintoamerica]

Take the gig. As much as I hate to admit it, this business we're in is dying. The quality is still there, but corporate greed has devalued what we do. At the rate things are going, as soon as you'd arrive at a point where you'd make $60K, the suits would start to target you simply because you make that much. And then you'd be out.

 

[zeke12]

Also, wear sunscreen.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

I'll get back to something someone else asked -- how do you feel about sales?

I'm inclined to go with the crowd saying the the sales job and string on the side... but for me, I can't imagine a job I'd hate more than sales. Some people love it, but I'd take assistant crack ***** before sales, no matter what the pay difference might be.

 

[friend of a friend]

Does assistant crack ***** get benefits?

 

[BertoltBrecht]

PC, to be honest, I don't know much about the job, just nepotism at its finest.

 

[Some Guy]

Hank and McLovin make good points, but Meat Loaf's right

You only get to read sentences like this on an Internet message board.

 

[Tom Petty]

If you can handle sales, make the change.

And do stringing for whatever paper needs a high school game covered.

One will feed the stomach, the other will feed the soul.

which one puts the kids through college?

 

[The Last Boy Scout]

Well, take the $60K per year sales job and invest it wisely for five years. But assume you'll eventually get laid off. Wanna work at another company? Sales jobs can be found anywhere, and if you're good enough to pull that kind of coin, you'll likely find more work and possibly not have to move.

Or, keep your likley **** $25K per year newspaper job, barely make ends meet for five years. But assume you'll eventually get laid off. Wanna work at another paper? Now you've got to take what little money you have to relocate to who the **** knows where for a wage just as ****ty at a paper probably ****tier than where you're at now.

Meat Loaf is right. Who gives a **** if you love what you do? Bill collectors don't give a **** if you love your job. Be practical.

 

[Tom Petty]

Well, take the $60K per year sales job and invest it wisely for five years. But assume you'll eventually get laid off.

sounds like a newspaper job to me ... except he's not making 60k, and he's not investing in anything other than ramen noodles.

 

[Buckeye12]

I would never advise anyone to get into this profession.
Take the money and run like the wind. String if you want to keep a toe in it. Almost all papers are looking for stringers, they can pay them even less than us, which is incredible in itself.

 

[User 4755]

I always laugh when I see a bunch of miserable journalists tell someone to jump off their bridge.

Be very careful. Depends on if it's inside sales or outside sales, and what kind of product it might be. I worked in sales for a year because of the promise of "big" money. That was a rich one. The first place I was absolutely sucked. Daily morning meetings reporting what you sold yesterday in front of all the other sales people. Cold calls, a lot of them. Managers on your ass constantly to sell more. Seven-day work weeks, 14-hour days. People you'd sell your product to would back out of their contracts before the three-day cool-off period ended (which is a law in every state that I'm aware of), and would just use you to get a cheaper price from someone else. Eventually I went to another company with a better product and sold a lot more and worked a lot less as well, but it still wasn't an easy job, and I walked away from that because there were easier ways to earn a living. I've had some good friends in sales who could sell anything to anyone and lost their jobs on a whim.

Sales is a tough business, which is why there are hundreds of openings on a regular basis. One week your check may allow to live like royalty, but then for a month you might make just enough commissions to qualify for food stamps. Hell, I could go sell real estate tomorrow if I wanted, but I like having a life. If you think you have it bad in newspapers, those people are really on-call 24/7. There are a lot of better jobs out there.

 

[JR]

Danny has hit the nail on the proverbial head.

What are you selling? Product or service?

Does it consist of introducing new products to an existing customer base or are you starting from scratch?

Is it 90% cold calling? If it is and you've never cold called, you'd better be Super Salesman because there are a lot of veteran sales people who hate cold calls.

And Danny's right. Sales driven companies have NO mercy. You'll get about three months grace period and if you don't start hitting your targets you're outta there.

Go rent Glengarry Glenn Ross and see if you still want to be a sales guy.

 

[Stitch]

Do you have sales experience? If not, why is the company guaranteeing $60k for someone who doesn't? Nepotism or not, it sounds a little weird.

 

[212areacode]

This one is easy... how much do you love this industry? If you can leave it for $60k... I won't say you won't regret it... but I'll say... you didn't love it.

 

[In Exile]

What makes you thinks sales, in the long run, would be any more secure than this industry, and why do you feel this industry is letting you down by not paying you 60K a couple of years out of the shoot, and wheen has the writing life ever been anything but a leap of faith, ever?

Instant gratification generally isn't in the job description.

 

[NoOneLikesUs]

Take the job and the money.

As for your journalistic aspirations, buy an Internet domain and some server space. Start a blog.

 

[BertoltBrecht]

What makes you thinks sales, in the long run, would be any more secure than this industry, and why do you feel this industry is letting you down by not paying you 60K a couple of years out of the shoot, and wheen has the writing life ever been anything but a leap of faith, ever?

Instant gratification generally isn't in the job description.

I think they have the same security. This industry isn't letting me down, I just don't make a lot of money. I bust my tail to go to another shop where I definitely will not make $60K. I didn't get into journalism for the money, but now that job is looming over my head.

 

[In Exile]

Not to be harsh, but in a different era, inflation adjusted, I would have given anything to be making the money you are making now... by age thirty. And I wasn't. But I had also turned down several opportunities to make that inflation adjusted 60K at your age - and I turned them down because I figured doing something that, at its core, I didn't respect would eventually kill me, literally, because I'd drink/drug/eat/screw my way to death. There will always be opportunities to make money (really, just look at all the idiots who are rich), but if this is what you want to do, once you get out, you might not come back.


One true story. Last night I took my daughter and wife to a minor league baseball game. I'm doing really well, far better than I could ever have imagined, but circumstances (complicated) have temporarily conspired and I'm in between things and don't want to go into debt and have to be real, real careful for a while. Last night I didn't eat at the game so my daughter could get what she wanted - glad to do it, but I hadn't been in that position in years.

Really depressed all day, things look sort of bleak. Actually thought, for the first time in a long long time, what I would do if everything dried up. Then out of the sky, dream assignment from nowhere. A true half of life is just showing moment. Not big $$, but a validation payoff. Highest highs, lowest lows. But I'd rather be depressed for a day than for a life.

Think hard, read something that made you want to do this, then decide. And when you do, go all in. But good for you for asking what other people think, and revealing yourself a little.

I'm not sure a salesman would have done that.

 

[JR]

What makes you thinks sales, in the long run, would be any more secure than this industry, and why do you feel this industry is letting you down by not paying you 60K a couple of years out of the shoot, and wheen has the writing life ever been anything but a leap of faith, ever?

Instant gratification generally isn't in the job description.

I think they have the same security. This industry isn't letting me down, I just don't make a lot of money. I bust my tail to go to another shop where I definitely will not make $60K. I didn't get into journalism for the money, but now that job is looming over my head.

Let it loom.

Family connections notwithstanding, a sales job can be (depending on the company and your product) extraordinarily stressful, possibly more stressful than a journalism job because you don't get instant gratification.

Where I am now, we've had three sales people in the last three years canned. All apparently seasoned pros but they didn't produce.

You have to be incredibly self-motivated to be in sales.

Trust me, it's not for everyone.