Tuesday, December 5, 2006

When do we jump ship?

Hey all,

I've been meaning to post on here for like forever. I figure that since I'm at home and on my pre-holiday fun vacation (as I couldn't get any time around Christmas or Thanksigiving off from work) I should post.

I'm currently living in Arizona and working at medium-sized newspaper as a page designer. I like my job for the most part, but I can't stand living in the desert. Too darn hot and far too many old people. Anyway, for now and next few months, I'm happy and can tolerate living there.

Here is the dilemma I bring to my fellow Medill people: I don't want to live in Arizona forever, and I'm not sure how long I should stick with journalism hoping for that big break to a place I'd actually want to live. Times are tough in the industry. Jobs are cut left and right, and those who find themselves jobless are applying for positions that are more lateral moves thus making it harder for those kids who want to move up to bigger papers and hopefully better locations. Do we wait for that big break that might never come or do we find a backup career to replace our journalistic aspirations? Thoughts?

1 comment:

Soni Khatri said...

I don't think we necessarily have to "jump ship." As a designer, I think there are tons of places we can go. I'm thinking of starting to take web design classes in January (money permitting), that's one way of staying within "journalism" while also making money and being able to work up to get to those bigger newspapers. For me personally, I'm about to jump ship, or have partially. Working at hearst has definitely made me NOT want to go back to newspapers because of the schedules etc, but also because i know i can do more with my design skills, working at magazine or working at a creative service department at a company (wes and i were just discussing this!). i think with that type of experience, i'll be able to move around the country a little more and end up back in cali. hope you're having a good vacation :)