My current work environment
If someone were to ask me during freshman or sophomore year where I would see myself a month before graduation, my response would be completely different than what I am currently doing. Coming into college, I wanted to be a journalist for a sports team as my full time job. I took a print journalism class my senior year of high school and was hooked. I always had a passion for writing and played sports my whole life so I figured combining the two would be the perfect job. However, times have changed and I was wrong. Leaving college, although I am still attracted to journalism and love to write, am no longer interested in having it as a full time career.
Over the course of my college career, journalism changed in that it made a push toward being more digital as opposed to in print. The problem with this, for me at least, was that anyone and their mother had the power to write something up and publish it online. This is turn led to the creation of more content than ever and made print journalism jobs harder and harder to get into and less and less desirable. Why would someone pay for a copy of the newspaper to read a story when they can get it quicker and for free on Twitter or other social media platforms? Another effect of this was that it made job security not as secure. Since more people are turning away from traditional print newspapers they are making less money which means they have to lay more people off.
One of the positives of everything going digital, and something that is present in my current working environment, is that it allowed more topics to be covered. For instance, through an internship I had over the summer and at my current job now, I have been doing a lot of business writing. Three years ago I would have never pictured myself doing this type of writing but I currently am and I enjoy doing it. On top of that, I am also doing other marketing-related tasks at my internship—such as working in excel, outlook, and other programs.
On top of my marketing internship, I am also freelance writing for a magazine and the sports section of a website. I enjoy freelancing because it gives me the ability to still have the feeling of being published on a public platform that people will read. Another reason why I like it is because it’s not the constant grind of meeting deadlines and doing interviews over and over again. It gives me the enjoyment of choosing what I want to write about (and in some cases when I want to write).
Overall I am very satisfied with my current work environment. I am hoping that I will be offered a full time job with the law firm I work at now and can continue freelancing on the side to have some extra pocket cash as well as the ability to keep writing in different styles and covering different topics.