So a really good friend of mine got a job at the Daily Pilot in Huntington Beach (it's an LA Times affiliate). She applied for the job in November.
I did too.
Why'd she get a call back and I didn't?
Because she has more internships (Press-Telegram, LA Parent magazine vs. my none)?
Because she's had a better variety (PT, LAPM, college newspaper, college magazine and a paper in Antelope Valley vs. Inyo Register, PT and college newspaper)?
Times like these make me feel really insecure about having majored in journalism.
I excelled in all my classes (OK, I got a C, but that's because combing through three decades of LA Times articles doesn't count as academic research to a stupid professor who can't even communicate her assignments clearly).
I've been doing journalism since I was 16.
I ran the college newspaper which is a daily for a campus second only in size to UCLA (whose paper, I might add, receives $2 million annually for its budget vs. the barely $150,000 we received, annually, based on ads alone).
I helped two Turkish men set up their own newspaper so they could disseminate news to their own community.
I'm now a copy editor/ page designer at the Signal Tribune. I was sorta offered a job at the PT twice (the first time I didn't act fast enough because I had family stuff to take care of; second time they passed me over then froze the position).
So why didn't the Pilot call me?
My friend is an amazing editor. She certainly knows her shit. That's why I hired her for the college newspaper.
So why is it all the people who worked under me are now getting better jobs than me? Three went to the Press-Telegram. Now this girl is at the Pilot. Another got an internship at the OC Register, which will most likely turn into a position somewhere within that organization. Another is working for a paper in Boston (a great sounding one) and already worked for two papers in D.C.
Am I just too good at training others? I want to teach but damnit I need real world experience first.
I don't know what else to do with my life, other than be a journalist. We always joke there is ink in our veins. If you cut me, I bleed black ink. That's how integral journalism is to my life.
So what do I do?
I did too.
Why'd she get a call back and I didn't?
Because she has more internships (Press-Telegram, LA Parent magazine vs. my none)?
Because she's had a better variety (PT, LAPM, college newspaper, college magazine and a paper in Antelope Valley vs. Inyo Register, PT and college newspaper)?
Times like these make me feel really insecure about having majored in journalism.
I excelled in all my classes (OK, I got a C, but that's because combing through three decades of LA Times articles doesn't count as academic research to a stupid professor who can't even communicate her assignments clearly).
I've been doing journalism since I was 16.
I ran the college newspaper which is a daily for a campus second only in size to UCLA (whose paper, I might add, receives $2 million annually for its budget vs. the barely $150,000 we received, annually, based on ads alone).
I helped two Turkish men set up their own newspaper so they could disseminate news to their own community.
I'm now a copy editor/ page designer at the Signal Tribune. I was sorta offered a job at the PT twice (the first time I didn't act fast enough because I had family stuff to take care of; second time they passed me over then froze the position).
So why didn't the Pilot call me?
My friend is an amazing editor. She certainly knows her shit. That's why I hired her for the college newspaper.
So why is it all the people who worked under me are now getting better jobs than me? Three went to the Press-Telegram. Now this girl is at the Pilot. Another got an internship at the OC Register, which will most likely turn into a position somewhere within that organization. Another is working for a paper in Boston (a great sounding one) and already worked for two papers in D.C.
Am I just too good at training others? I want to teach but damnit I need real world experience first.
I don't know what else to do with my life, other than be a journalist. We always joke there is ink in our veins. If you cut me, I bleed black ink. That's how integral journalism is to my life.
So what do I do?
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obd:
I did not mean to give you a hard time. rereading what I wrote, well, it sounds way preachy. I'm sorry. I just hate to see you discouraged.
obd:
no worries. I was waaaaaaaaay overcaffeinated (studying - a.r.e. section @ 1).