| Topic Name: |
30-Somethings let's talk |
| Message Name: |
I'm 30 and it HAS changed. |
| Date Posted: |
05/17/2005 |
| In Reply To: |
That's right!
There is no hard and fast rule that says you have to be 20 years old to get started in this business. That's absurd!! I know many very successful journalists who started when they were 28 or 30. Some started even later. Life is an adventure. Live your dreams, whether you are 20, 30, 40 or beyond...if this business is what you want, you can do it. If that means starting in a small market--get started--no one cares where you started...just take that first step and then hit the ground running! |
| Message: |
I look back on when I was 21, with a full-time internship at a top-notch middle market station. In 1997, they did not hire on-air reporters with less than two or three years experience back then.
"Go to a small market and we'll look for you in two years."
So I did, working through some good shops, some bad ones, before landing in a decent position making decent money.
Only around 2000 and 2001, stations like the previous one began to hire people with a year of experience in Market 150 or even straight out of school.
By 2003, I found myself "middled". Made too much to work for 30K, even in a larger market, but because of my market number, I couldn't get a sniff from any shop paying 55K (what I was looking for).
I don't suck at my job (I'm in sports and I usually get a call from an ND about a job every three or four months), but none of them could pay what I need to leave small market sports behind for the next step.
So...I'm just leaving sports, for news. Start the new job soon. Better pay, more respect. For the first time in 9 years, I actually landed a TV station that gave me MORE than I asked for. So, the "good" ones are still out there, just for fewer positions.
TV news is like minor league baseball -- if you aren't where you want to be by 30 or 31, it just may not happen. I wanted to be a Top 30 sports guy (with the necessary pay). That didn't happen -- so I'm after a better path.
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