[theawl.com]
Sorry, Sam. You get zero sympathy from this journalist.
Do what the rest of us did when we graduated from J-School…get off your ass, get in your car and find a damn job. Most of the world isn’t “handed” a job…they have to actually FIND a job. I’m curious about what is actually taught at Harvard that you are just figuring that out, on the cusp of graduation. At my cheap, state school, it was drilled into our heads EVERY SINGLE DAY by all of our journalism professors that WE had to find a job…and it wouldn’t be easy. And all of us did find jobs(except for the marketing girls who just married rich guys and it turns out that was the best career path of all).
Yes, I know. The world has changed. And you are LUCKY, you big goof. All the 40 somethings, toiling away in print in a dying medium are rightly panicking. Their kids are approaching college age, their 401Ks are gone and the future is bleak. YOUR future is wide open. Employers aren’t hiring them, they’re hiring YOU.
I’m not sure if the internets reach Harvard, but you might have heard about something called THE INTERNET. Print is dead. I have NO idea how content is going to be delivered to folks in the next two, five or 10 years…but the thing is, Sam…YOU will be delivering it. Get a job with Twitter (they’ll be doing some sort of news, soon), get a job with The Awl, call Murdoch and be his web czar,figure out how to edit and become a backpack journalist…whatever.
My point is, the world is open in front of you. If you really want to be a journalist, step out and explore.
@__: The salary shouldn’t be the thing at 23. The opportunity is the prize. And hopefully Sam is smart enough to realize that.
And Sam, if you are reading this…I am not attacking you personally. Graduation without a job is the beginning of your career, not the end of it.
So get out there, slugger and make us all proud!
