Originally posted by asteroidboyI love threads like this, unlike most others, I've read every post in this one. Sort of a cheap version of a reality show.
I'm a newspaper reporter. For you J majors, don't bother with it, if you want to report. Just get some writing experience, and major in whatever you like. The editors don't care what your degree's in.
Good advice, my wife has been the editor/repoter/ad sales/layout person for a weekly newspaper and now a beat reporter for a daily. Pay sucks but she enjoys it. Her background is a B.S. in biology with a minor in art. What they want is people who can write in a coherent, nonpersonal fashion with some brains and the ability to find things out.
I'm a programmer/analyst. I think the kids in the church school class I teach think I'm probably that low-IQ submoron if I mention anything about wrestling. You should have seen their eyes roll when I had spent the previous day running through Ultimate Ric Flair and brought that up... :-)
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Originally posted by DrDirt
Originally posted by asteroidboyI love threads like this, unlike most others, I've read every post in this one. Sort of a cheap version of a reality show.
I'm a newspaper reporter. For you J majors, don't bother with it, if you want to report. Just get some writing experience, and major in whatever you like. The editors don't care what your degree's in.
Good advice, my wife has been the editor/repoter/ad sales/layout person for a weekly newspaper and now a beat reporter for a daily. Pay sucks but she enjoys it. Her background is a B.S. in biology with a minor in art. What they want is people who can write in a coherent, nonpersonal fashion with some brains and the ability to find things out.
Which, if you'll excuse my self-promoting, doesn't explain how I keep getting rejected for jobs. I think that it might come down to money... and I'd work pretty cheap, too. Ah well, I've just gotta keep plugging away, saving up enough to move.
I'm going to an open house for potential substitute teachers tomorrow. Feel free to talk me out of it. (No, really, I'm begging you.)
DEAN's Nuggets of Wisdom:
"A-Train could wear a Vampirella outfit and I would toast a load to it."
drjayphd, don't give up. We need reporters. The problem is that more and more content is just wire copy with less local reporting. Bad economic times have equalled bad ad sales which results in contraction. If you can afford to move and it's hard with what you would make, you can eventually find a job. Keep on trucking and good luck. And yes substitute teaching sucks but it often pays pretty well.
Have you tried trying to get on with a paper as a stringer...someone who basically works on a per job basis on commission. It can help you get your foot in the door with out either party (you or the paper) committing too much to the relationship.
At least some day maybe I'll understand why some day maybe you never can. Or something like that.
Originally posted by asteroidboyI love threads like this, unlike most others, I've read every post in this one. Sort of a cheap version of a reality show.
I'm a newspaper reporter. For you J majors, don't bother with it, if you want to report. Just get some writing experience, and major in whatever you like. The editors don't care what your degree's in.
Good advice, my wife has been the editor/repoter/ad sales/layout person for a weekly newspaper and now a beat reporter for a daily. Pay sucks but she enjoys it. Her background is a B.S. in biology with a minor in art. What they want is people who can write in a coherent, nonpersonal fashion with some brains and the ability to find things out.
Which, if you'll excuse my self-promoting, doesn't explain how I keep getting rejected for jobs. I think that it might come down to money... and I'd work pretty cheap, too. Ah well, I've just gotta keep plugging away, saving up enough to move.
I'm going to an open house for potential substitute teachers tomorrow. Feel free to talk me out of it. (No, really, I'm begging you.)
Keep plugging away at it. When I graduated college in 1991 there were no jobs in the financial field so I worked these part jobs for a year before I got a full-time job, supermarket cashier, bank statement mailer, and janitor at a banquet hall all at once. Yes, it sucked but I kept plugging away waiting for each opportunity to arise and grabbed each opportunity as it became available. Just remember that opportunities happen when you least expect it and you have to keep searching and trying.
Are you a professional halfwit or talented amateur?
I am an unemployed writer, specializing in punchy little humor pieces, trying to break into TV.
I tend to work a lot of call center jobs to pay the rent. Not right now though. Now I collect from the government teat. Probably will stay that way until I get back to NYU in the fall, where i'll get my highly useful degree in Film & TV Writing.
Maybe then I can finally be a bartender.
Pot will take you to Outer Space and the you'll be ALOOOOOOONE.
Originally posted by drjayphdWhich, if you'll excuse my self-promoting, doesn't explain how I keep getting rejected for jobs. I think that it might come down to money... and I'd work pretty cheap, too. Ah well, I've just gotta keep plugging away, saving up enough to move.
I'm going to an open house for potential substitute teachers tomorrow. Feel free to talk me out of it. (No, really, I'm begging you.)
The newspaper market sucks right now. Our editors just announced no more overtime. I think there are signs of an upswing in the bigger papers (some have had hiring freezes for the last year or two), but I think the mid-size and smaller papers are starting to feel the crunch.
Salami is right about stringing. Many big papers will only hire from their pool of stringers, because they already know if the person can write or not, it's less of a risk. So if you're looking to get on with a big paper, call the city desk and ask if they need any stringing help. A lot of the time, they will. Then take whatever shit job they give you, every world's largest pumpkin festival, ribbon-cutting, anything. Just write your ass off, because it's all about getting the experience at that point.
Make friends with the editors and other reporters and eventually something could open up. Getting a job at a big paper is HIGHLY political and depends much more on who you know and who's vouching for you than your actual reporting skills. Nepotism rules.
As for mid-sized and smaller papers, there are jobs out there (www.journalismjobs.com), but if there are no full-time positions, you might ask about stringing, too.
Of course, take all my advice with a grain of salt. I just got turned down by a bigger paper. In classic journalism fashion, they didn't actually CALL me with the bad news, I just heard from the grapevine that the position had been filled ;)
-- Asteroid Boy
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The suggestions of being a stringer are good. They normally get the crap jobs that are in the evening/weekend, etc. This allows you to work while gaining experience. Make sure you are Apple literate as many if not most papers don't use PC's. With the internet, the nice thing is you can just e-mail your article. The bad part out here is between $10 and $20 for articles printed and no expenses naturally.
I am currently unemployed at the moment. I used to be an associate administrator of network technical support (a phone tech). After much meditation and soul searching, I have decided to take advantage of my free time to follow my dreams and do things I've always wanted to do.
Right now I'm trying to finish up my business plan to open skating rink in my old home town. It's kinda crazy and lame but it's my idea.
"NOW YOU GET YOUR WHININ ASS OUTTA HERE!!" Sid Vicious after slapping Bret Hart
Originally posted by NEORight now I'm trying to finish up my business plan to open skating rink in my old home town. It's kinda crazy and lame but it's my idea.
This idea is neither crazy or lame. I wish you all the best of luck. Of course, being unemployed sucks, but I envy anyone able to persue their real dreams, and not just sitting at a crap-ass job like me.
-I happen to *like* my ball & chain, thankyouverymuch
I don't mean to threadjack, but I suppose this can be sort of related to what we're talking about since we're discussing unemployment in some instances. I came across this blog just today:
Basically, it outlines the supposed anti-India(n) sentiment growing among IT professionals due to more and more IT jobs being outsourced to India as of late. Of course, this is something I never spent one second thinking about until I visited it today. Should I be on the lookout for racist nerds?
I do know that I'm not racist against Indians, though. Every experience I have had with people from India (except for that one restaurant, but there's always that one and I don't want to relive it) has been a positive - from the service industry, to school, to the IT world. I've got nothing against people from India. It didn't seem to me that anyone in that last conversation was a racist either. I sure hope the blameindiawatch people don't think that you have to be for exporting jobs to India to not be considered a racist. I didn't really want to read much of their site, it was rather annoying after the third redundant comment. Hopefully they have better content that I missed.
Willful ignorance of science is not commendable. Refusing to learn the difference between a credible source and a shill is criminally stupid.
Guru, for as long as I've posted here, I've known you to be an open-minded person, so it's all good.
If you read the FAQ, you'll notice he compares the anti-Indian sentiment from the outsourcing to the anti-Muslim sentiment that came from 9/11, which I find to be a wee bit of a stretch.
Mild-mannered Blockbuster customer service representative by night, the newest member of the Power Rangers by day.
Working at Blockbuster's the harder job, of course. Fighting evil space villians is easy, you can just kick their asses. Dealing with pissed-off customers whom you can't blow up-- that's hard.
“You wanna mock people, or you wanna let me talk to Toby?” “I wanna mock people.” --Leo McGarry and Josh Lyman, The West Wing
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Originally posted by Nate The SnakeVideo store wage slaves REPRAZENT.
I, however, am a SHIFT MANAGER at my store. Which means...
Well, it means I have keys and have to put up with more shit.
You and Eke's responses are why I left Blockbuster. I was supposed to become a manager, but when I saw the stress that came with it (irate customers, no respect), I stayed as a CSR for as long as I could.
This is also why I am working overnights at Target. No customers to give you hassles, and no distractions from co-workers needing you to "hop on a register and take the next 20 people in line."
In 2 days, you will see the return of the Undertaker, the Dead Man that most of us have been clamoring for for years.
Also in 2 days, you will see most of us complain about the return of the Dead Man, the Dead Man that most of us have been clamoring for for years.
Damned (straight to Hell) if you do, damned (straight to Hell) if you don't.
I'll be the bottom rung damnit... Assistant Manager of McDonald's And a kick-ass dad too.
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