Regrets, we have a few

[I Should Coco]

And as bad as the industry is, I wouldn’t do anything different either. Still in the business — just pivoted back to full time writing and reporting after two decades on the copy and design desks, and am glad to still be doing it. Even if the scope of our reporting, its impact and definitely its readership is much smaller than when I started, it’s still important locally.

 

[Alma]

1. The kind of people who get into journalism tend to be the kinds of people actually honest about regret.

2. You don't need a journalism degree to be a journalist and that becomes evident quickly in the field.

3. There's virtually no guardrails to who become journalism majors, and a lot of mediocre writers, talkers and editors are wooed into the field with promises of big jobs that don't materialize.

4. Internships are not generally handed out on the basis of talent and expertise - the way an A+ student might be the get best engineering job prep - but who you know and who the internship coordinator likes for whatever reason.

 

[MisterCreosote]

Romped the terra every second of my 23 years in the biz and wouldn't trade it for anything other than a lot of cash which I blew like the King of Medellin ... and regrets ... I have none.

I regret it every day.

 

[Songbird]

Regretting (insert whatever the regret is) takes away from the joy, down to the marrow of the bone, that one was having in the moment.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

1. The kind of people who get into journalism tend to be the kinds of people actually honest about regret.

2. You don't need a journalism degree to be a journalist and that becomes evident quickly in the field.

3. There's virtually no guardrails to who become journalism majors, and a lot of mediocre writers, talkers and editors are wooed into the field with promises of big jobs that don't materialize.

4. Internships are not generally handed out on the basis of talent and expertise - the way an A+ student might be the get best engineering job prep - but who you know and who the internship coordinator likes for whatever reason.

I would say 3, to some degree, negates 1...maybe I'm wrong today, but in my experience, the people who didn't have the skills but thought they could get the big high-paying jobs realized pretty quickly neither was possible and jumped to something more lucrative, like, say, ANYTHING ELSE. I will say, though, I know of people lacking in skills but infused with the belief they belong in the business and they've outlasted just about everyone else just by sheer attrition.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

Yeah, “BMAH” doesn’t have the same ring to it! And I’m pretty sure I’m a bit older than you (reached the big Five-oh this past February)

Ha ha you're so ****ing old! :D

Your friend,
Bitter Old ****ing Hack

 

[MisterCreosote]

Regretting (insert whatever the regret is) takes away from the joy, down to the marrow of the bone, that one was having in the moment.

I made a lot of good friends, including some people here.

But I also got two ex-wives and an alcohol addiction. And ceded a 10-year head start in a real career to every one of my potential competitors.

 

[cjericho]

My degree is a $40,000 piece of toilet paper.

My school on at least one of the toilet paper dispensers someone wrote, "State U degrees, take one."

 

[Baron Scicluna]

I don’t regret getting into the business. But I do wish I’d have been able to get out sooner.

Mostly, I regret having to miss out on family things because of having to work nights, weekends, holidays.

 

[MeanGreenATO]

I would argue that a journalism degree is still valuable. It’s just a highly specialized communications degree for a field with poor job placement/mobility.

But if you do get in the field, those classes can be pretty useful.

 

[BTExpress]

I probably never would have found tennis as a hobby without having mornings free for so many years. I definitely would not have found my wife working a 9-5 shift (not with her 8 time zones ahead and never online when I was). Every day I felt like I actually produced something that some people found value in. I've always had good supervisors who had my back and --- at least for the first 38 years of my career --- never punched a time clock.

Absolutely no regrets.

 

[Patchen]

Spent 25-plus years in newspapers before moving to comms. No regrets. It was a great job almost every day, meaningful, challenging and a fun work environment. I would do it again, even with the negatives and the way the profession declined. Could another job have been better? Maybe. No guarantees. I put a high value on being proud walking in the door every day and enjoying the job most of the time.

 

[JimmyHoward33]

I would argue that a journalism degree is still valuable. It’s just a highly specialized communications degree for a field with poor job placement/mobility.

But if you do get in the field, those classes can be pretty useful.

Eh. The classes were mostly idealism, ethics, the sort of Sorkin Newsroom lessons that everybody wants to save the world. Then you get in a corporate newsroom and find out yeah we’re doing this bc the publisher’s neighbor is in it and thats that. The classes were largely useless

 

[Cosmo]

I have no regrets, other than maybe the timing of my career. Right about when I made the move from Flagstaff to Lynchburg -- with hopes that the latter would lead to opportunities at a small metro -- those mid-level jobs started drying up. I was in a pretty bad place, making terrible money in a small city. But if I don't build relationships covering golf for that paper, I never get the job I have today. I fill a pretty unique role at our association, and without my communications/journalism background, I never sniff the job. I'm finally catching up on all of the stupid debt I accumulated through my 20 years in newspapers, but newspapers were an essential part of my path.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

Eh. The classes were mostly idealism, ethics, the sort of Sorkin Newsroom lessons that everybody wants to save the world. Then you get in a corporate newsroom and find out yeah we’re doing this bc the publisher’s neighbor is in it and thats that. The classes were largely useless

This is perfect. Journalism theory is both vitally important and completely bull****.

 

[MeanGreenATO]

Eh. The classes were mostly idealism, ethics, the sort of Sorkin Newsroom lessons that everybody wants to save the world. Then you get in a corporate newsroom and find out yeah we’re doing this bc the publisher’s neighbor is in it and thats that. The classes were largely useless

Those Sorkin-esque principles are a great foundation. Obviously, like any business, you have to deal with a lot of corporate politics. But having a strong basis helps navigate those situations.

 

[JimmyHoward33]

Those Sorkin-esque principles are a great foundation. Obviously, like any business, you have to deal with a lot of corporate politics. But having a strong basis helps navigate those situations.

my experience of navigating is side eying older colleagues as if to say “uhhh this is really how this works” and them shrugging “Yep.”

its not a TV show. Theres no crusade to so the right thing or expose the corruption. No one gives a poop

 

[Jake from State Farm]

I kept trying to get jobs as a writer and missing out
I switched to the desk and was hired right away
I don’t consider myself a failure as a writer
I was lucky to be able to write and edit
Hard to do that now when copy editing is becoming a lost art
As it turned out I liked the structure, even with a **** schedule, and I had grown tired of going on the road
I will hit five years retired in December
Got out of the business at the right time

 

[PCLoadLetter]

One thing about a journalism degree: they are not equal, and there's a massive difference from school to school.

I went to Oregon in the late 80s. It had a very respected J school at the time. It was probably viewed as the best on the west coast at the time, at least among public universities.

It was worthless. As I recall, there was a grand total of one faculty member who had actually worked in the business, and he'd been out of it for 15+ years. Everyone else was a lifelong academic who would lecture us about the need to "like, subvert the dominant paradigm, man." The equipment was antiquated, and was low-end consumer grade to begin with. I bailed and became a film major; everything of value that I learned in college came from my internship at a TV station.

On the flip side, I'm close to the program at ASU and it's outstanding. I've worked with much of the faculty before they moved into teaching. The best reporter in my shop teaches reporting there part-time. Our I-Team photographers teach videography there. Students leave that program absolutely ready to work in the business.

 

[swingline]

I have regrets about my now-over career.

However, I made some good friends in the business, and I met most of my lovers, girlfriends and STBX at various papers where I worked.

My life, obviously, would have been different if I made other choices. But it doesn’t work that way — and I got two terrific kids out of it.