Ask the Recruiter

ASK JOE A QUESTION

To get your question answered on this page, send it to Joe. Please include your full name in your message. If you prefer that your surname not be published, please indicate that. Sign up to receive Ask The Recruiter by e-mail: * Click here (sent Monday-Friday at 8 a.m.)

I began hunting for a newspaper reporting job last week and, having just graduated, I have been surprised and thrilled by the amount of interest a few newspapers have already shown in me. I have an interview tomorrow with a 60,000-circulation newspaper in my home state. The job (I believe) represents a great size/quality publication to begin my reporting career, but at the same time, nothing too new from what I have already experienced as a journalist. Also, since I interned with the same newspaper in college, I gained insight into the newsroom, which I believe has some management issues and has the potential to be an occasionally unpleasant place to work. Almost 1,200 miles away, another newspaper in Texas also has shown strong interest. The Texas paper is much smaller (30,000 circulation), but it's in a new and exciting (not to mention warmer) place, and after speaking by phone with an editor, it seems to have a much more open and progressive managerial style.

I know I will probably be at my first job for only a few years before I want to try to move to a bigger paper, so is it foolish to be thinking about pursuing a job at the paper with half the circulation? How big of a difference would the newspaper's size be when I eventually look for my all-important second job? For my first job, I'd like to be in a location and workplace where I am happy, but not if it means I am doing harm to the career that I have worked so hard to develop.

Thank you again for all your advice.

Indecisive

Beware that the new almost always seems more enticing than the familiar. You have seen the 60,000 paper with all its warts. From your vantage point, the 30,000 paper doesn't have any blemishes. This is the dermatological equivalent of the grass being greener.

Joe Grimm

   So, do your homework. Talk with people who have worked a while at that 30,000 paper. Find out what its problems are. ALL newsrooms are, at times, challenging -- especially in these times.

And then ask where people go when they leave that 30,000 paper. Find out whether, after a couple years at that paper, you might just be moving to the one that wants to hire you today.

If you decide to go with the larger paper, negotiate for the kind of opportunities that will make you happiest and help you grow. Maybe they'll throw in the ear muffs.