What is wrong with my plans?

Well, I don't particularly know what is wrong with my plans as of yet but I can not think of a title to adorn this post.

You see, this post is about outlining my plans for the next six months as far as my career in the big, scary world of 'journalism' goes. Now, why the hell would you care about my plans three google bots and people accidentally here when you typed in 'midget porn' into your search engine?

Chances are that you don't care. Fair enough, I'm just taking this opportunity to think aloud...through my fingers for some reason.

Okay, so here's the plan. At the moment I do not have my license or a car. Now, transportation happens to be one of those things you can't do without in journalism (unless you're a yuppie reporter in a dense metropolis). So what I need now is a part-time job doing anything at all. This involves waiting tables, making coffee, digging ditches and working sales.

This would be the 'stable-income' part of the plan. I need this stable income if I am to support my plans of being a freelancer during this period.

My reasoning behind this is that it allows me to work in a professional environment, without having the kudos and cred to do so. You see, I'm just a recently graduated journalism student, and whereas I can get a job with my portfolio I'm just holding back a little before entering the workforce proper.

When I enter the machine of the daily, weekly or monthly publication (as is my plan) I don't particularly want to go through a learning curve while I'm trying to find my feet in the newsroom. No doubt I will still go through this curve when I enter the newsroom, but it won't be nearly as steep having done part of my traineeship out there in the real world of freelancing where your words are taken at their merits.

Once I have acquired enough money through my part-time job and freelance work, with my portfolio bulging at the scenes I will head out and work at a regional paper.

Now, so many of the journo students I've met down the years baulk at the idea of going out to whoop-whoop and working at a paper out there. Myself, I'd rather be out there than in the concrete jungle and here's why.

My reasoning is simple. Even you won't have the prestige of working at a masthead, you'll actually be doing a lot more work at the regional paper than you would at the masthead. You'll be doing a lot more work in terms of actually designing the layout (or 'dummy') of the paper and be tacking down stories which aren't handed to you on a plate.

If you want to find a story in a regional town, you've really got to fish for it. You've got to draw upon all of your resources and skill in order to track down the scoop because in a small town the slightest thing may make the news but the truth is well-hidden.

After all, in the city everybody has their eyes and ears on everybody else.

Anyhow, that's my plan, If you can spot any glaring inconsistencies in logic (as I'm prone to do), please drop me a line and tell me all about it.