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Escaping journalism: what are my realistic options?

  • 02-04-2017 7:18pm
    #1
    charlie fandango
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1 ✭


    I'm a couple of years off 30 and it’s time.
    Thinking of doing a master's this year, and now is the time to be looking and applying... but to what...
    I’ve been working constantly since college and have had a good degree of success - but the lack of decent pay/future prospects is getting me down and the nagging feeling that it's not for me has now reached a *you gotta get the hell out of this for your sanity* pitch. I don’t have the grizzled newshound disposition - I love writing and the creativity more than I love journalism.
    Can’t foresee a future in this game having anything approaching a comfortable lifestyle and it’s getting me down watching my friends thinking about buying their own homes etc.
    The joy I get from writing I can still get from freelance bits and bobs, I reckon.
    The plus points:
    I’ve a good BA in Journalism, and have a pretty good CV. In my college years I lucked into a job working for the city in fairly responsible, high-level office/admin experience on top of journalism.
    I also, amazingly, have 30k in savings and no debt.
    So my questions would be: what would be logical routes out of journalism that are open to me?
    Marketing/PR is pretty much all I’ve heard.
    A master's in advertising has been in my head for some time.
    If I could go back and of it all again, I love psychology, but it’s not realistic putting all those years into college, again.
    Any thoughts?


Comments

  • #2
    strawdog
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 422 ✭✭strawdog


    Not in a position to answer your question directly as I never properly got in to journalism tho I wanted to when I was younger. Like yourself I like writing and creativity, but I was lucky enough to realise a bit earlier on than you I didn't have the thick skin required or newshound mentality as you put it. What I would ask is how you felt when you worked in your admin job on top of doing your journalism study/work? Was there a balance? Were you able to write well?

    At this stage, unless you are fairly certain of a new path, it would be a little risky and costly to retrain or jump in a new direction straight away. What I would suggest is you could try and find, a reasonable hours, not too stressful admin job that would at the very least cover your living costs. With that amount in savings starting on a very good salary wouldn't be quite so urgent for you, at least for a year or 2. It would leave you enough time and energy to pursue your writing without it being tied to your income which might free it up and eventually lead to a more interesting direction. You also have the necessary resources should it become clear in that time that there is a direction you want to go eg for a masters. If all else fails you would at least have diversified your CV a bit and gained some other experiences.

    Effectively what I am saying is you might need to consider finding a way of splitting your passion from your income, for a time at least while you figure things out. Just one way of doing things tho....


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