Sad story.
Wonder if the author has considered technical writing? Not as creative or glamorous, but nevertheless a pay check.
And pays more.
As a former journalist who left to pursue another field, even in the smaller papers many are losing their jobs.
It’s smart to have another career path available if you are in the journalistic realm just in case.
Frankly, I am not overly surprised he can’t find any work in journalism. It’s bad out there.
HOWEVER, he could find work even in journalism if he really wanted...just with a major pay cut. Like many laid off reporters, he probably said no way to PR writing since it’s the ‘dark side.’
But, it is hiring and pays the bills.
He says he applied for that.
From the rest of the article...I wonder if this unemployed journolist ever told the UC people he was taking work under the table? Just because a person succeeds in landing a job promulgating lies for a particular point of view does not mean that they can automatically be a "Communications Director" or a "Technical Editor"......
JOURNOLISTS are accustomed to spouting lies that could arguably said to be coming from their keesters rather than from their brains. It's IDEOLOGY and a contempt for the working person that makes them think they are better than others and can rightfully "shape and mold the minds of the masses".....I hope this man never gets a job putting his thoughts on paper or ether again! Dig a ditch, dump some trash, but no dissemination of false ideas.
My thought exactly. There are bunches of opportunities for folks that can use the English language and interpret a style guide. They exist in the consulting field where I am as well as in the training space.
“Wonder if the author has considered technical writing? Not as creative or glamorous, but nevertheless a pay check.”
What a coincidence. I collected my last unemployment check last week, too. Of course, it was also the fourth check since I got let go, and I found a new job starting 32 days after leaving my old one.
What is an even bigger coincidence is that I am a writer, too — with twelve published books (at least by the end of this year). Of course writing wasn’t the day job. Writing was a sideline weekends and evenings.
The old day job was as an engineer in the Shuttle program. The new day job is as a technical writer in the oil industry. (And the pay is essentially the same.) And yeah — writing for the day job is as creative as writing for publication in the popular press. And anyone that thinks that the writing business is glamorous needs to look up the meaning (and origins) of the word glamor. It is fun, but real fun is meaningful work.