Q: There are job-hoppers and then you have your -- what do you call them-- stay-putters? non-budgers? That's me. I've been a reporter at a 25,000 circ. daily (it's small but one of the largest papers in the state) for nearly a decade.
Why did I stay? Life is complicated. My spouse was unable/unwilling to move and my paper has been a good employer-- letting me come back part-time after I had kids.
But now, finally, at age 40, I'm ready to move on. I'm belatedly motivated for typical career reasons -- I want to work with people who will help me become a better reporter and partly for personal reasons -- I just don't want to live here anymore.
I have good recent clips, recent awards, excellent evaluations and I speak and write Spanish fluently. But I'm worried that editors looking at my résumé will pass me over in favor of younger applicants with classic, "onward and upward" career tracks. A former co-worker warned me several years ago about getting trapped and lately that comment has been haunting me.
Do you have any suggestions? After so long, I'm obviously rusty at this job market stuff and I'm not even sure what kinds of papers I should be looking at.
Thanks so much for your invaluable site. It's great, even though those 23-year-old career-plotters who write to you make me nervous.
Stuck?
A: Speaking of 23 years, that's how long I've been at this paper. So, I know where you're coming from.
It is possible, even admirable, to stay at one paper, but it is not good to get stuck in one place in your career.
Mobility is not strictly a geographic quality. As you approach this mid-career change, key on what new things you have achieved recently. If not much has happened, get busy on it and don't try to move until you've got a springboard to leap from.
It could be multimedia, newsroom leadership, computer assisted reporting -- something to tell a prospective editor that although you have been in one place, you have not been stuck.
