In sports writing there are really only two types of jobs you can have. You can either be a reporter or an analyst. A reporter is just gonna give you the facts, no opinion or anything, just how the game played out. The analyst on the other hand is mainly going to tell you why a certain team won or lost and discuss what the future holds for those teams. So obviously the more prestigious of the two is the analyst. In order to get to the point where you are able to voice your opinion for a publication you have to first make a name for yourself as a reporter. So basically, it is a ladder that you have to climb.
Other things to consider are what sport I would specialize in. Most sports writers do not cover every team for every sport. They pick a specific sport and in a lot of cases a specific team and write only about that. If I were to choose a sport to cover it would either be football or baseball, leaning more towards football. And if possible I'd like to cover the Minnesota Vikings or Minnesota Twins.
Another interesting scenario would be to write for a fantasy sports column or magazine. Fantasy sports have always been a guilty pleasure of mine so I find this job to be highly desirable. For the most part, the guys who hold this job tend to higher profile just because it takes so much knowledge of whatever game it is that you cover to be successful. You have to be able to predict how players are going to do based on how much potential you think a guy has. This definitely has to be the funnest job in sports writing. In a fantasy magazine I read, the writer bragged about how him and his colleagues actually got paid to do a fantasy draft at work. Something that many people around the country do in their spare time just for fun.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Why I no longer want to be an actuary?
In the last few posts that I have written, the subject of actuarial science was nowhere to be seen. The reason for this is that I realized that I really really don't want to be an actuary. A few things brought me to this realization.
First off, that god forsaken book that I bought for this blog. I can't believe I spent 20 bucks on that thing. Talk about snooze city. That thing has got to be just about impossible to read. The book doesn't try the slightest bit to spice the material up. It's almost as bad as reading an AP Biology textbook. So after reading through the first 20 pages, it just kinda hit me, the reason this book is so boring is that it's just a boring job that deals with very boring subject matter. I'd actually like to congratulate the writer for not glamorizing this career or trying to make it more exciting than it is. Had this book not been so boring I would maybe still be considering it as a possible career.
Secondly, It just doesn't interest me enough. Pretty simple really. I think math is all right and I'm decent at it but I sure as hell don't want to do it for the rest of my life.
Lastly, I've just seen too many movies that portray actuaries' to have really garbage jobs.
Example 1:Fight Club. They didn't flat up say Ed Norton's character was an actuary but whatever he was it's very similar. What happens in this move in a nutshell is Ed Norton hates his life so much mainly because of his job that he creates a second personality in order to escape his own crappy life.
Example 2: About Schmidt. Jack Nicholson was definitely an actuary in this one. The move brings us to the conclusion that Jack Nicholson's character has wasted life and really has nothing to show for it.]
Yeah I know these are just movies and I shouldn't take them as fact but still it's kind of hard to ignore. I mean have you ever seen a movie that portrays an actuary in a positive light?
So yeah, that's why I don't want to be an actuary anymore and why I stopped writing about. This will be the last post about actuaries.
First off, that god forsaken book that I bought for this blog. I can't believe I spent 20 bucks on that thing. Talk about snooze city. That thing has got to be just about impossible to read. The book doesn't try the slightest bit to spice the material up. It's almost as bad as reading an AP Biology textbook. So after reading through the first 20 pages, it just kinda hit me, the reason this book is so boring is that it's just a boring job that deals with very boring subject matter. I'd actually like to congratulate the writer for not glamorizing this career or trying to make it more exciting than it is. Had this book not been so boring I would maybe still be considering it as a possible career.
Secondly, It just doesn't interest me enough. Pretty simple really. I think math is all right and I'm decent at it but I sure as hell don't want to do it for the rest of my life.
Lastly, I've just seen too many movies that portray actuaries' to have really garbage jobs.
Example 1:Fight Club. They didn't flat up say Ed Norton's character was an actuary but whatever he was it's very similar. What happens in this move in a nutshell is Ed Norton hates his life so much mainly because of his job that he creates a second personality in order to escape his own crappy life.
Example 2: About Schmidt. Jack Nicholson was definitely an actuary in this one. The move brings us to the conclusion that Jack Nicholson's character has wasted life and really has nothing to show for it.]
Yeah I know these are just movies and I shouldn't take them as fact but still it's kind of hard to ignore. I mean have you ever seen a movie that portrays an actuary in a positive light?
So yeah, that's why I don't want to be an actuary anymore and why I stopped writing about. This will be the last post about actuaries.
More on Sports Writing
All right, so just recently I have come to the conclusion that I want pursue a career in writing sports. It just seemed like the right fit. It goes well with a lot of my interests and it's something I could see myself doing for many years. So now that I have established what it is that I want to do I have been doing some research here and there on different aspects of sports writing. Mainly things like what kind of a degree do you need, salary, and the typical work day of a sports writer.
I found most of the answers to my questions in this article that I read. After reading it just confirmed a lot of my thoughts on why I would want to be a sports writer. For example, the article states that a typical day for a sports writer consists of waking up around 11, doing research on whatever sport/team you primarily write about. Then you watch the game, write your story and your done. Sounds like a pretty decent day to me.
Some things that I was able to learn from this article were that in order to get his job you need a journalism degree, the average salary of a sports writer is 45k to 65k, and having some sort of background with your school newspaper is probably ideal. These were the main facts that I was hoping to learn from this article.
The only real bad thing that the article mentioned was that the market for sports writers is shrinking. And it also mentioned that most sports writers have to travel around the country a lot and it can be a bit of a grind. But for me, I like to travel so that really shouldn't be a problem. So all in all, I was pretty satisfied with what I read and received some encouragement from reading this article.
So now that I have established my desired career, I am going to start posting on the different types of jobs in this field and will probably write about current sports topics a well. I kinda get the feeling that this blog is going to move more in the direction of being a sports blog instead of a career blog due to the lack of material that I have left.
I found most of the answers to my questions in this article that I read. After reading it just confirmed a lot of my thoughts on why I would want to be a sports writer. For example, the article states that a typical day for a sports writer consists of waking up around 11, doing research on whatever sport/team you primarily write about. Then you watch the game, write your story and your done. Sounds like a pretty decent day to me.
Some things that I was able to learn from this article were that in order to get his job you need a journalism degree, the average salary of a sports writer is 45k to 65k, and having some sort of background with your school newspaper is probably ideal. These were the main facts that I was hoping to learn from this article.
The only real bad thing that the article mentioned was that the market for sports writers is shrinking. And it also mentioned that most sports writers have to travel around the country a lot and it can be a bit of a grind. But for me, I like to travel so that really shouldn't be a problem. So all in all, I was pretty satisfied with what I read and received some encouragement from reading this article.
So now that I have established my desired career, I am going to start posting on the different types of jobs in this field and will probably write about current sports topics a well. I kinda get the feeling that this blog is going to move more in the direction of being a sports blog instead of a career blog due to the lack of material that I have left.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Sports Writer?
The other day it just dawned on me that the perfect job for me is, sports writer. It just makes the most sense. It fits all the categories of my criteria.
Am I interested/passionate about this subject? Yes
Sports is a subject that I think and talk about frequently.It's something I'm very knowledgeable about and enjoy discussing with other people. So having a lack of interest would not be a problem.
Does it earn a decent income? yes
According to this article, the average income of a sports writer is 49 k per year. For me that's plenty.
Is there are a fairly high demand for this job? Yes
There's a fair amount of openings out there and wouldn't be extremely difficult to find a job.
I'm pretty sure that this is what I want to do. I know I said that actuary is what I probably wanted to be but I'm basically throwing that out the window. It just seemed like to much number crunching and the book I am reading,Actuaries' Survival Guide, makes the job sound really lame.
So from now on, I'll be posting about sports writers and how I plan on pursuing that career. I'll probably throw in one more post about this book about actuaries' I've been reading just because I already paid for it and don't want to let that money go to complete waste.
Am I interested/passionate about this subject? Yes
Sports is a subject that I think and talk about frequently.It's something I'm very knowledgeable about and enjoy discussing with other people. So having a lack of interest would not be a problem.
Does it earn a decent income? yes
According to this article, the average income of a sports writer is 49 k per year. For me that's plenty.
Is there are a fairly high demand for this job? Yes
There's a fair amount of openings out there and wouldn't be extremely difficult to find a job.
I'm pretty sure that this is what I want to do. I know I said that actuary is what I probably wanted to be but I'm basically throwing that out the window. It just seemed like to much number crunching and the book I am reading,Actuaries' Survival Guide, makes the job sound really lame.
So from now on, I'll be posting about sports writers and how I plan on pursuing that career. I'll probably throw in one more post about this book about actuaries' I've been reading just because I already paid for it and don't want to let that money go to complete waste.
Career in Pizza Hut?
The other day I was at work (Pizza Hut), talking to my boss about his career and I learned some interesting things Pizza Hut. He dropped out of high school when he was 16 and took on a full time job at pizza hut. By the time he was 20, he was the general manager of pizza hut making about 45k per year, a very respectable income. So with very little education, he was able to achieve this.
Well now he is quitting because his girlfriend just got a job in Minnesota and is moving there with her. The guy replacing him is a driver who has less experience than I do(less than 3 months). He too dropped out of high school and has little experience as a manager. His only qualifications are that he takes his job extremely serious and has great work ethic. So just like that he's going from minimum wage with tips to 45 grand a year.
What this made me realize is how easy it is to move up the ladder at this establishment if you really want to. If you put a lot of effort into the job and wait for the right opportunity, you can move up that ladder.
The main reason I'm writing this post is that in an earlier post I made a comment about how much it would suck to be stuck working there. It's not that I am seriously considering this as a career, I just wanted to show that this definitely is not the worst possibility and has plenty of opportunities to move up.
So yeah, despite all this it's still not really something I want to pursue but if somehow forced into a situation where that was my only option, I'd probably be able to make the best of it.
Well now he is quitting because his girlfriend just got a job in Minnesota and is moving there with her. The guy replacing him is a driver who has less experience than I do(less than 3 months). He too dropped out of high school and has little experience as a manager. His only qualifications are that he takes his job extremely serious and has great work ethic. So just like that he's going from minimum wage with tips to 45 grand a year.
What this made me realize is how easy it is to move up the ladder at this establishment if you really want to. If you put a lot of effort into the job and wait for the right opportunity, you can move up that ladder.
The main reason I'm writing this post is that in an earlier post I made a comment about how much it would suck to be stuck working there. It's not that I am seriously considering this as a career, I just wanted to show that this definitely is not the worst possibility and has plenty of opportunities to move up.
So yeah, despite all this it's still not really something I want to pursue but if somehow forced into a situation where that was my only option, I'd probably be able to make the best of it.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Professional Poker Player?
This is the job that I have dreamed about for the last few years. It is definitely more of a pipe dream than anything else but none the less, it would certainly be my preferred career choice. Poker has been one of my biggest passions the last few years. I play with my friends once a week and online a few times a week, I watch poker on TV and I read books about poker. So as you can see, I find the sport or card game(if you don't consider poker to be a sport) to be fascinating in a lot of ways.
But apart from the fact that I am extremely passionate about poker, there are quite a few other reasons for why this profession would suit me well. First off, pro poker players are known to be very lazy as am I. The job is not going to be all that physically demanding. The entire job can be done at home at your computer. As pathetic of a reason as that may be, it is definitely a plus for me. Another reason is that I am very competitive when it comes to sport so this job would fulfill that competitive side of my personality. And last, there is the potential of earning millions of dollars and becoming famous. I think this reason speaks for itself.
On the flip side, there are plenty of cons to this profession. Mainly, it is not gonna be easy to make a living off this profession. Millions of people play poker, but very few are actually good enough to go pro and make millions. The lack of a consistent income would make this profession a very risky option. Having to constantly worry about food being on the table is not exactly something I want to be associated with my ideal job.
So, I just thought I'd get a post in that discussed another option that I was kinda considering. Even though it is pretty unrealistic, I wanted to put it on the table and weigh the pros and cons.
But apart from the fact that I am extremely passionate about poker, there are quite a few other reasons for why this profession would suit me well. First off, pro poker players are known to be very lazy as am I. The job is not going to be all that physically demanding. The entire job can be done at home at your computer. As pathetic of a reason as that may be, it is definitely a plus for me. Another reason is that I am very competitive when it comes to sport so this job would fulfill that competitive side of my personality. And last, there is the potential of earning millions of dollars and becoming famous. I think this reason speaks for itself.
On the flip side, there are plenty of cons to this profession. Mainly, it is not gonna be easy to make a living off this profession. Millions of people play poker, but very few are actually good enough to go pro and make millions. The lack of a consistent income would make this profession a very risky option. Having to constantly worry about food being on the table is not exactly something I want to be associated with my ideal job.
So, I just thought I'd get a post in that discussed another option that I was kinda considering. Even though it is pretty unrealistic, I wanted to put it on the table and weigh the pros and cons.
The Book I am reading
The book that I will be reading for this blog is written by Fred E. Szabo and is titled Actuaries' Survival Guide. It's supposed to give insight into what kind of work an actuary actually does, how difficult there job is, and what kinds of people would enjoy this line of work. Some of the things found in the book are how exactly you attain a job as an actuary(classes and exams that are required to become an actuary), the working conditions and difficulty of the job, and advice and insight from over 50 actuaries. I'm really looking forward to reading the latter. I think some info about the job from an actual actuary could be really helpful.
I'm really hoping to learn a lot more about what an actuary does. As of right now I have a very vague understanding of what their duties actually consist of. All I really know is that they usually work for insurance companies and that they assess the risk of certain scenarios occurring. I also know that the job requires a lot math and that is the main reason that I am interested. I may be a little off on some of this but that is why I am reading the book. I would also like to learn more about how difficult it is to become an actuary. From what I have heard from people who are also pursuing this career, the course load can get heavy at times and the exams that must be passed in order to become an actuary are pretty difficult. Lastly, I liked know more about what kinds of people would be interested in this profession. Being that I am not sure of what I want to do, this is pretty important. I'd like to know how compatible I would be with this job. Math is one of my best subjects so I'd think that it would be a pretty good career for me. But maybe there are certain types of personalities that are more compatible with this profession
So yeah these are some of my expectations for the book and things that I would like to learn. I really do hope that this book will ultimately help me decide on whether or not I want to be an actuary. It should be an interesting read and give me a good idea of what it is like to be an actuary.
I'm really hoping to learn a lot more about what an actuary does. As of right now I have a very vague understanding of what their duties actually consist of. All I really know is that they usually work for insurance companies and that they assess the risk of certain scenarios occurring. I also know that the job requires a lot math and that is the main reason that I am interested. I may be a little off on some of this but that is why I am reading the book. I would also like to learn more about how difficult it is to become an actuary. From what I have heard from people who are also pursuing this career, the course load can get heavy at times and the exams that must be passed in order to become an actuary are pretty difficult. Lastly, I liked know more about what kinds of people would be interested in this profession. Being that I am not sure of what I want to do, this is pretty important. I'd like to know how compatible I would be with this job. Math is one of my best subjects so I'd think that it would be a pretty good career for me. But maybe there are certain types of personalities that are more compatible with this profession
So yeah these are some of my expectations for the book and things that I would like to learn. I really do hope that this book will ultimately help me decide on whether or not I want to be an actuary. It should be an interesting read and give me a good idea of what it is like to be an actuary.
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