Your first job

[YoungGun7]

I'm a senior, about to graduate in December, and was wondering what you guys and few gals first job was out of college? Did any of you get lucky and get to cover a major college right out of the box? what was it like?

Also, by November when I begin looking for a job, some of you need to be moving on around that time. :) mostly you on the east coast.

 

[shockey]

copy boy, ny daily news, 1978 -- 9 p.m.-5 a.m., mondays and tuesdays off, $165 a week, including night differential.

i was in heaven.

 

[budcrew08]

I'm a senior, about to graduate in December, and was wondering what you guys and few gals first job was out of college? Did any of you get lucky and get to cover a major college right out of the box? what was it like?

Also, by November when I begin looking for a job, some of you need to be moving on around that time. :) mostly you on the east coast.

I got my first job as a news reporter in my hometown a month after I graduated from school (in 2004) About 6 months later, I shifted over to sports when someone in that department left. The paper was about a 10K p.m. daily, and it was a great starting point.
Don't be afraid to take a news job at a place and then try to slide over to sports if the opportunity presents itself.

 

[Jones]

Castrating pigs.

 

[John]

Castrating pigs.

A skill that has no doubt served you well over the years.

 

[Jones]

You ever need a scythe wound burned shut with a blowtorch, John, and I'm your man.

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

Went back to my job as a forest ranger for a year, after spending 10 days in graduate school.

 

[pallister]

Young Fenian, smarter than your average bear?

 

[John]

You ever need a scythe wound burned shut with a blowtorch, John, and I'm your man.

Funny you should mention that. I was out back working on my lawnmower yesterday and one of those scythe-wielding sumbitches from Children of the Corn came after me. The zombie-looking mother****er grazed my leg with the damn thing moments before I drove his ass into my wood chipper, Buscemi style, but now I got a big ole gash on my leg that sure as hell looks infected.

 

[Bob Slydell]

Weekly in 1996, making $19K.

Major college beat, good one.

 

[SuperflySnuka]

Graduated on May 22, started at a 40K daily state paper on June 4. Making roughly $25K plus freelance. Not bad. Great position, but wish me luck landing the beat I'm hoping for...

 

[write then drink]

mid-1980s

covering preps at a small daily in the middle of nowhere

$10,400

loved every damn second of it

 

[ZummoSports]

worked at a twice-weekly local newspaper on the news side...six months later, I landed my first sports job at a weekly.

Wouldn't have been able to slide into sports however if not for that first job. Someone I knew at the other paper told me of the opening and that's how I got it. In a lot of cases, one job leads to the next.

 

[FlipSide]

Got to cover colleges because they were familiar with my work as a stringer. I'm at my third paper now, and each time I was hired, they knew me beforehand.

 

[Bump_Wills]

Sports editor of a 3,000-circulation M-F paper in a northern town (a hey a na na na na) in 1991. Made $18,200.

 

[Chad Conant]

Covered exclusively preps at a 10k in 1997. Made about 23 with OT included.

Didn't get a college beat until the job I'm in now.

 

[chazp]

Computer programmer, making 26K. Didn't get into the newspaper biz until eight years later.

 

[Totally Krossed Out]

Preps and Juco at a depressing small town in the middle of nowhere, making 22K in 2002. Learned tons until I couldn't take it anymore. Moved East with a few bucks to my name and lucked out in landing on my feet.

 

[TrooperBari]

I'm a senior, about to graduate in December, and was wondering what you guys and few gals first job was out of college? Did any of you get lucky and get to cover a major college right out of the box? what was it like?

Started out in 2004, 3K weekly in the Midwest as the junior member of a two-person staff. All high school sports, plus calamity coverage and school board and city council coverage in two of our five towns. Pay was $9/hour, though I never got overtime because I was the sports "editor."

It was ... educational. Having to do everything (write, edit, paginate, shoot photos, sell ads part-time) gives one a different perspective as opposed to jumping straight in at a larger daily with a college beat.

 

[FuturaBold]

The summer after my freshman year of college I was hired to answer phones, read copy and basically fetch coffee for the news folks at a small weekly in North Carolina. The education reporter quit in early June, and a lot of her work landed on my plate. They gave me a camera, my own IBM PC and I was hooked. I came back as an intern the next summer, then got hired as their sports editor after I graduated from college, making about 15K in 1993-94...

Loved it, learned a lot and still owe a lot to the family that owned that paper and gave me my "first shot"...