How Soon

[<Filter 3>]

Hey Guys,

I've been waiting for an oppertunity to get into a top 100 market for a year now. I've finally made it, but it has been 3 months and I can't stand it. Promises that were at my date of hire were not fulfilled, plus I never shoot anything. I get a pkg everyday, but this station relies on file vid for everything. I'm worried I'm not going to develope as a visual story teller. I don't want to seem like I'm jumping from job to job, but I want to know how quick is to quick to leave when things aren't working out?

[<Rad>]

Either Jump quick... or tough it out for a year and a half. It's OK to tell perspective new employers that you made a mistake. They'll ask about a 3 month stay somewhere, but will accept a resonable answer. Just make damn sure you stay a while in your next position.

[1911A1]

If you're not happy, get out. I have a friend who took a job at a place where he really didn't want to work. About a month later, something opened up at a shop where he did want to work and he took it. He's been at that job ever since.

[Shaky & Blue]

I stayed in one job for five months and bailed. It didn't really hurt me, although it did piss off the ND and burned a bridge I doubt I'll ever cross again. But hey, when you're paired with a psychotic reporter who is having problems because her medications are being adjusted, who pounds on the dashboard of the car while screaming obscenities when she gets upset with you, you gotta do what you gotta do.

[Lenslinger]

GET OUT NOW! But only if you can do so gracefully. Otherwise, stick it out until you can exit without burning a bridge. Take it from someone who's a firebombed a couple, it ain't without regrets.

Then again...if you've ever volunteered for jury duty on a Monday morning, found yourself wishing for a forty hour illness, or considered staging a traffic accident to avoid the coming workday - it's time to seek alternative employ. Your chief photog wants a reliable employee he can always count on. Chances are if you're wandering the halls with a thousand yard stare and a picure of your old anchor-team, you ain't him.

Just be up-front about it. The station won't crumble without you, but you'll feel alot better about your time there if you're still welcome in the building years from now. Unless your current shop is an absolute swill pit (a distinct possibility in our business), do refrain from any pissery or bombast. That way, no angry voodoo dolls with your face on them turn up on eBay - forcing you to fess up to your future father-in-law and lose out on that fancy honeymoon he had planned for you. Hey, it could happen.

Let's review:

Do your best to leave on good terms.o steaming dumps on the boss's desk, no wildlife in the sat truck, no embarrassing Polaroids mailed to sister stations. Do your best to preserve your good name, it's the only one you have. That said, if the place you work at is some heavily-logo'd dungeon from hell where every staffer wallows in misery and wants to rob you of very life-force, you owe it to yourself to seek higher ground immediately.

After all, this ain't the priesthood. It's local television news, for godssake, hurried scribblings polluting the public airwaves, show-and-tell for adults, the filler between the soap commercials and the Arbor Day PSA's. No one's gonna roost you out of bed one morning at gunpoint 'cause you didn't give that slave-driving station 125 percent of your soul! I mean, it's not like you're stealing cable or something!

Now, THAT would be wrong.

[ July 29, 2004, 11:22 PM: Message edited by: Lenslinger ]

[Shaky & Blue]

Originally posted by Lenslinger:
No one's gonna roost you out of bed one morning at gunp[oint 'cause you didn't give that slave-driving station 125 percent of your soul! No, they use a pager.