New journalists, I graduated May 2008, and though I actually think this moment is even more challenging than then, let me share a few thoughts I wish someone told me then.

It’s ok to look at other industries. Your skills (writing, analysis, research) are portable.

We do want people to shuffle to growth industries. You can bring journalism thinking and support elsewhere.

But the economy is fucked and many of you are true believers, so let’s talk

Take a moment to write down what specifically you love most about the craft. Community service? Paid to write? Paid to ask tough questions? Maybe you just think it’s important and you’re pretty good at it?

Write it as a sentence and look at it. This should be your guiding light.

First order: find something, anything, that gives you some recurring money.

I landscaped with a friend and plumbed for an old boss. Just 1-2 days a week but this was so important for me for a year or so of the depths of the Great Recession

Second, you’re likely going to do some freelance writing, I sure did.

I did $15 (!?!) posts for a culture blog because they were frequent and I was desperate.

I sent out so many pitches for $75, $100 and $150 items. I didn’t know what I was doing. Find editors who are patient

Keep applying for full-time reporting jobs if that’s where your heart leads you.

This is why those (poorly paying) freelance stories help; you can slowly climb your way out.

Try to find a speciality, which is hard at 21, 22, 23 but anything helps, even as a start

Let’s talk about expenses. This was v scary for me; I felt v alone.

I found $300~ rent in a troubled neighborhood. I’m not sure I set foot in a restaurant until 2010. I deferred my student loans.

One caution: I did have a credit card but I avoided using it, paid down monthly

Find a tribe: I had several friends who were in a similair situation to me and that meant the world. We commiserated.

I did develop a lot of petty jealousy with them, so I had to keep that in check. Stay focused on YOU. Help when you can, it’ll help you later

Older journalists might be dickheads to you. Fuck them.

In ‘08/09/10 I got dunked on by so many experienced journalists who lectured me on not doing it “the right way.” Looking back those scars still haven’t healed. I’ve never felt fully welcomed because I came in the side door

I’ll save my “older journalist stories” for another time. Like the 30-something editor who told a bunch of other editors I (22-years old) did a shitty job on a $150 alt weekly cover story. (He didn’t help me)

If I remember correctly, I couldn’t pay my electric bill that month.

Launch something on your own the way you think it should be done.

In Feb 2009, scared, stressed and increasingly desperate, friends and I launched what later became @technicallym

Today we employ 15-people, send daily emails to 70k~ people and have made our community better

But you do not have to stay an entrepreneur.

By 2010, the economy was improving. My network and skills had grown. I likely could have kept trying to find the full-time reporting role I wanted.

I discovered I loved growing a media company but it helped me regardless of my goals

The point to young journalists: you will survive.

-Know what you want; stay focused on it
-Do what you need to do to pay rent (I landscaped)
-Forget people who do not have sympathy
-Find a way to do what you’ve been trained to do: make communities more honest

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