Q. For two and a half years, I've been reporting at a small daily in upstate New York. It was my first job out of college and I've had some success; I was promoted to the City Hall beat after 16 months and I've won two awards through the statewide AP writing
contest, one in 2006 and another in 2007.
I've been feeling restless lately, and I've wanted to look for a reporting gig at a bigger paper in a new city for a while now. But I kept putting off the real work, thinking I'd wait and see whether I would win another award and hoping a third would help me secure a good job at a 75,000-100,000 paper.
Awards were announced yesterday and I didn't win in any category, which was a disappointment. It was also a wake-up call. I've come to realize the restlessness I've felt has transformed into complacency, and that in turn has hurt the quality of stories I had at my disposal to submit in the first place (and also the quality of stories available for my portfolio, which I know is more important). Even though there is so much I can write about here, it has been tough for me to get motivated. I feel like I'm suffocating at this small paper in this small city -- but at the same time, I feel extremely guilty that I am not realizing my full potential here since I should be doing the best possible work no matter where I am.
That I can handle. I've finally begun the process of job searching -- and in the meantime, I'm thinking of ways to breathe new life into my position here so that my best work could be just on the horizon. I know it could take months to find a new job, though, and that's what has me in panic mode.
Have I made a mistake in waiting so long to start looking for a new job? I can't help but feel like the clock is ticking -- like the standard is two years at a paper this size, and that anything else might raise some eyebrows. If I am here at this paper for three or four years, are recruiters going to wonder why? Is that going to count against me?
Unnerved in UpstateA. No wonder you're suffocating. You are worried about too many things.
Your prospects should not be hurt because you have stayed at this paper for two and a half years. It sounds like you are showing some consistency by sticking with this job as well as growth through your promotion and awards. Did you wait too long to start looking? That's impossible to know. This is an awful job market and we don't know whether you missed anything.
Stop worrying so much about contests. They can be used as a yardstick and can be fun to win, but they are not as important as you make them out to be. Yes, do your journalism for the right reasons and do it well, but do not let contest judges become the de facto judges of your progress.
Keep trying to defeat this complacency you mention. You will not advance until you beat it. Keep working for a better, next job. Your career strategy seems to be overly numeric. Don't focus on circulation size, months of tenure, numbers of awards, et cetera. Open up your goal-setting -- and report your way to a better job -- as soon as you're able, but not to beat a deadline you might be imagining.
Q. My "awards" section is getting a little old -- not much there to update recently. If I decide to continue to list major awards that are 10 years old (no, not a Pulitzer, but other big, national stuff), do I need to include the clips for those awards in my clips package that goes along with my résumé?
A. No, you don't need to provide the clips of awards you mention.
Coming Wednesday: He worked for the collegiate press, has written some columns and attended law school, but lacks "real world" experience. Can he break into newspapers?
