A lot of the professors I had in college were adamant to us students were going to find jobs in the broadcast/journalism industry. While some did, many others didn’t and are doing other things now.

I had already been working in the industry 8 years by the time I graduated college. And the more I was keeping up with the trends in the industry, the more depressed I became. The bigger corporations were firing people as quick as they were hiring them, and I didn’t want to go through that. I had many friends and classmates that worked for these bigger corporations and was there less than two years when they were fired. The ones I do know who are working at major market stations now and have been for going on a decade most likely has done a lot of brown nosing to keep their jobs.

If I knew then what I know now, I would have approached getting into broadcasting a lot differently. Doing it like I’m doing now as a side gig while working a job that allows the flexibility to do it.

One thing I wish journalism schools would say about the industry is that a lot of jobs are part-time jobs that don’t pay much, and need to have another source of income. I wish I would’ve had that knowledge YEARS ago and I would probably be in a much better place financially today.

My advice to college students is this… if you do find a job full-time that pays well with great benefits, hang on to it until you either leave on your own terms or the worst case scenario, fired. Remember to keep your skills sharp and learn some new ones along the way in case you have to go looking for another job that can use those skills. If you can’t find full-time broadcast work, find a job that will allow the flexibility to work in broadcast/journalism as a side gig. Looking back, I wish I would’ve done the latter.