Agreed: Journalism is the Best Job Ever

 (from www.stuffjournalistslike.com)

Last week journalists got some pretty disparaging news – journalists had one of the worst jobs in country. In fact, according to CareerCast.com, only four jobs are worse that being a journalist - oil rig worker, enlisted military soldier, dairy farmer, and lumberjack.

Long hours, bad pay, stressful deadlines – these were all reasons that put journalism near the bottom of the list but these I’m willing to make a bet that 98.9 percent of journalists knew these things before penning that first news story. If you became a journalist for fame and fortune, then you’re going to be miserable.

Jeff Bercovici of Forbes.com posted a story titled “Forget That Survey. Here’s Why Journalism is The Best Job Ever.” In the story, he lists several reasons why you can’t beat being a journalist, including meeting interesting people and celebrities, getting paid to read, and always learning on the job. He also argues a lack of jobs is somewhat proof that people still want to be journalists.

If journalism was such a dreadful job, newsrooms would be empty and newspapers and websites would just be blank pages. Everyone with a byline made the conscious decision to be a journalist. It’s not like someone looking at the want ads is deciding between being a reporter and an oil rigger. Sure, the job is stressful and rough and the industry is going through a tough transition but ask your local journalist if he or she would rather be doing something else. I’m betting the answer is no.