Jezebel 
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New York, 8:06 AM
Sun Nov 8
22 posts in the last 24 hours
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10/12/09
10/11/09
(1) Why are they paying $725 in rent in Manhattan when they can live in a roomier apartment for cheaper in the outer boroughs or NJ, or another area where cost of living is lower?
(2) With journalism jobs, don't you usually start small at first (small town or smaller city)? I understand they have NYC dreams and all, but there's a difference between wanting to live in NYC and "OMG I need to be in NYC nownownownownow!" They can always come to NY in a few years when they have experience and more backup money.
(3) What are they doing to maintain their job skills?
10/12/09
While I am sympathetic to these girls, I also think they are going about this ALL WRONG.
10/11/09
10/12/09
10/11/09
When was the last time you heard of there being a glut of science teachers? Or research chemists? Or lab technicians? Etc.
I was kind of jealous of my college classmates who were majoring in journalism and could party/get wasted/high as kites every night of the week while I was stuck in the library studying and working. And the journalists in the crowd now will likely hate me, but that fact is that I'm very confident that I'm going to have a job when I leave grad school with a PhD.
My dad (who didn't finish high school) always told me "play now and pay later, or pay now and play later." I'm increasingly happy I chose the latter. Sorry, guys. I have little pity here. I worked my butt off, just I did/am doing it for the first 10 years of my adult life so I can set myself up for the next 40 years. I'm going to quote Jay-Z, "30's the new 20, I'm so hot still..."
10/12/09
10/11/09
I didn't need a Life Skills class. I needed a job market.
10/11/09
These days, I'll bet temp jobs are few and far between.
I don't think I thought the world owed me a living, but I definately lacked some life skills that only come with...well, living life!
Once more, if I was going to start a business, it would be full of little old ladies because little old ladies get sh*t done!
10/11/09
10/11/09
10/11/09
10/11/09
So to answer your question: 'round about 1930-1950. And yes, it would be awesome if parents would take that responsibility, but the sad fact is that a lot of parents don't know a thing about compound interest or how to parse an insurance plan. Take a look at all of the reasonably well-educated adults who got screwed in the housing market or by credit card companies.
10/11/09
10/11/09
10/15/09
10/11/09
10/11/09
10/10/09
10/10/09
Of course, the flip side of that was a rental vacancy rate of less than 1% and rents that went up and up and up. Most of the people I knew were materialistic as hell--and who wouldn't be, living in San Francisco driving a cute little Beetle and eating sushi every night? (I lived in the slums of Berkeley and drove an elderly Taurus, but still.) You could get a bewildering amount of credit without lifting a finger, and most people did. One memorable week, I got 23 credit card offers in the mail. I didn't accept any of them, but my credit limit doubled all by itself around the same time.
Point being: it has not always been like this. I was in exactly the right place at exactly the right time, through no effort of my own. It has a lot less to do with personal drive and preparation and a lot more to do with external circumstances than most of us would like to admit. We like to tell ourselves that if we bust our asses and plan carefully, we'll be okay--unlike these silly dreamers. This is a major fallacy. Your life plans have a hell of a lot more to do with the greater economy than anything else. I got lucky. You guys in your early twenties didn't. That's the real lesson here.
10/12/09
So I'm not sure I would hold up the dot-com bubble days as something to be all excited about either, because those came to a swift, sorry end, too.
That said, I get your larger point, and I completely agree.
10/12/09
10/10/09
10/10/09
Maybe I'm wrong, but in reading the NYT comments section I sensed a lot of jealousy - maybe that they got themselves some publicity, which is what it takes to go where they want to go. Just another day in the Naked City.
10/10/09
However...
Going into journalism isn't the same as going into education, even right now, sorry. I worked my ass off in college, everyone I worked with in our journalism department did. We do internships abroad and at home. We work for the newspaper. You couldn't complete the program by doing just the minimum. I felt fully prepared. I knew how journalism worked and I knew that I had to eat, too. So, instead of doing unpaid internships after graduation and hoping to get a job in journalism, I took a break.
In the past three years, only two of us have gone into journalism. Part of that I'm sure has to be because we're in Minnesota and the possibilities are limited right now. It's also the current times and the field. Journalism isn't going to bounce back from this. It's been tanking for a long time. Those jobs are disappearing and not coming back.
I found this article insightful and important to at least remind those with 410Ks that their kids ARE trying to find jobs and ARE somewhat qualified. The jobs aren't there right now. I don't think it's really fair to criticize these girls or assume they didn't try that hard because they're in debt. I mean, we're all in debt. Who are we trying to kid? You can work full time and still be in debt.
I do agree they should move to a cheaper city. They couldn't make $800 as a bartender in Minneapolis, but they also would have a more affordable living situation.
10/10/09
The things that you need to do to complete the program are the minimum. If your program requires you to do internships and write for the newspaper, those things become part of the minimum.
10/12/09
10/10/09
Sometimes I'm really glad that, unlike some of my wealthier peers, I've had to work since I was 14, and am already not supported by my parents. I expect to be poor for quite a while after graduation (lame job and then grad school is the plan-woo!), and I'm okay with that. I've decided I will be a lot happier if I don't worry myself with being too ambitious just yet.
10/12/09
10/10/09
I'm deliriously happy that I write for my money every day of my life because so few people ever get to say that they've supported themselves on their creativity, but this wasn't an unforeseeable outcome, for them or for me, even before the economy went to shit. As with any job that a lot of people dream of doing, the competition to actually DO it is and has been incredibly steep. And even when you do get a job, they don't have to pay you very much since so many people clamoring for the few positions keeps salaries low.
All of this is stuff that their j-school professors should have made clear to them throughout their education; mine certainly did. It's only responsible, and people need to realize the difficulties that they're going to encounter with the profession before college spits them out into the world.