On the job « Holly Setter- Uncensored

On the job

23Jun09

The last you heard from me, I was in the transition week between college and full-time employment. I was all geeked out about starting my job; bragging about how lucky I was to find a job in journalism, particularly a full-time reporter position and kind of waving off all of my obligations.

Now I’m over a month in.

Expecting me to say that I no longer think this is the opportunity of a lifetime? That I’m overwhelmed by the responsibilities of the big-kid world and disillusioned by the workload?

If that’s the case, I’m sorry to disappoint you.

I love my job. Is it exactly what I thought it would be? No, of course not. Would I want to change it? Not on your life.

Over the first month, I’ve met students, teachers, administrators and parents from almost every school district in the county. Well, that’s to be expected as I took over the education beat. City councils have seen my face around as well. I’ve covered budgets and state-wide news. Concerts and 4-H kids.

Through that I’ve met some really great people. I love sharing their stories.

It’s come with long hours — 12 hour days were the norm last week — something familiar to journalists all around. Working at a small paper means that everyone chips in with everything; my time waiting for return calls is spent typing up the local court news or a local woman’s weekly column on health questions.

I take all of my own photos. I like to think of it as diversifying my talents.

Getting this job at a small-town paper that covers the entire county was probably the best thing that could have happened to me for my first job. Why? Covering the entire county usually means that I’m not pulling teeth to get my daily two stories. Covering a network of small towns means that I can form the personal attachments to the communities and the people who live in them that allows me to overlook the long hours and low pay.

Having this job will, in my opinion, give me the best chance at keeping the burn-out at bay.

The only thing I regret a little is that, as it stands now, the paper isn’t really Web-integrated. We post our top three stories online daily, with only the lead story’s photo. Our archives are only searchable for two weeks.

But the editor seems interested in exploring the Web so I’m hopeful that I’ll be there for the Sentinel’s online integration.

Oh, and just as a point of pride, I covered the recent flooding of the Ionia fairgrounds at the B93 Birthday Bash over the weekend. The story also made the national news, via USA Today among others.