Thursday, July 16, 2009

Wine, books, and hot baths

I used to have a co-worker who was a smart, attractive young lady. One Friday, as the day was winding down, I said to her, "So, hot date this weekend?"

"Yeah," she said. "With a hot bath, a bottle of wine, and a good book." In her mind, no date at all was better than a bad date.

And in this era of job hunting frustration, keeping your current job is sometimes better than just jumping for the sake of jumping.

I know that many of you have reached the end of your rope; sending out an endless amount of tapes only to have the only offers be for one-man-band jobs in bad markets with bad companies. Sometimes you can hear your biological television news clock ticking. It's telling you that you have to move now or you'll be stuck forever. But in many cases, jumping to the wrong station can land you in the same situation, or worse.

Patience is not a virtue among those in our profession. I never had it either, and was often too quick to jump. Whenever I made a quick decision, it turned out to be the wrong one. I was desperate to move, so I grabbed the first offer that came along, putting on my rose colored glasses and ignoring the red flags when I should have drawn a bath and cracked open a bottle of zinfandel.

When making any decision, take your time. Step back and try to honestly assess whether you'll really be better off... or just be in a different place.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here's a situation: What do you do if you're station is about to make all reporters one-man-band.. and you have an out in your contract come January?

Do you take what you can get, knowing the quality of your packages may suffer if you stay?

Randy Tatano said...

Well, if you've got six months till your out in January, better start looking right now.

Even a lateral move to a station with photogs is better than staying at a one man band shop.

And yes, your packages will suffer.