Reasons why you shouldn’t be a journalist

It's really important that you weigh up all the pros and cons of being a journalist before entering the profession or taking on expensive courses geared toward a career in journalism.

Journalism is not an easy job. The hours can be very long, unpredictable and often unsociable and the pay you'll take home at the end of the month is very low in comparison, even at senior or higher levels.

It also requires skills and abilities that might be right out of your comfort zone and if you're not prepared to adapt and challenge yourself, then journalism might not be a suitable career for you.

I'm not telling you this to try and put you off being a journalist if that's what you really want to do, but it's important that you get a real understanding of all the upsides and downsides of the job before you go spending lots of money and hours training to be a journalist.

If you haven't already read my post Pros and Cons of being a journalist then do take a quick glance when you get a sec as it'll give you a good overview on what you're letting yourself in for being a reporter.

But if you're thinking, I definitely do want to be a journalist no matter what the job entails, then try and visualise yourself in these fairly realistic journalism scenarios and ask yourself honestly, could I do that?

• Imagine being thrown in at the deep end following a brutal murder, even that of a child or elderly person, and having to knock on people's doors in the neighbourhood to ask questions about the victim and get quotes. Would you be able to do that even if doors were slammed in your face or you were told to clear off with words like, 'you're a vulture' or 'the body isn't even cold yet'. Could you remain unphased by this sort of verbal lashing and just move on to the next door until you got your story?

• If you turned up at the local court and the person in the dock turned out to be someone you knew either as a good contact, neighbour or a person who you knew from your local community, would you be able to cover the court case fairly and objectively?

• If you were queuing at the cashier's desk in your local supermarket and overheard two people nearby talking about something interesting that you thought could make a good news article, would you be able to turn around and ask them to fill you in with the details? Having the ability to politely stick your nose into the conversation of strangers is not something everyone could do, but could you?

• Imagine the same scenario happened while you were on your lunch break or day off. Would you just walk away thinking, 'I'm not working right now' or would you still enquire about what was going on? Journalism isn't a 9-5, Monday to Friday job, even though you might only get paid for those hours. No editor would thank you for missing a potentially great story that you heard about just because it happened in your free time or on your day off. I'd add to this however that you must make sure you at least push to get your time back for any work you do in addition to your salaried hours and I know most good editors would totally agree with me on that one.

• If you had a great working relationship with the Mayor, a public official or stalwart of the community for instance who had been accused of being involved in a sex scandal or some sort of financial swindle (eg) would you be able to pick up the phone and interview them to get an accurate and detailed story that was totally balanced and unbiased or would your personal view of that person cloud your judgement?

• If that same someone above was attending a totally unrelated community event and your only chance to get a response to the accusations against him/her was to shout out a question from the middle of a crowd of people, would you be able to do it?

• Would you be able to ask a question at a press conference in front of possibly hundreds of more experienced reporters and camera crews? A bit like the press conference scene in the 1999-film Notting Hill when Hugh Grant's lovesick bookshop owner character Will Thacker braved the press scrum to confess undying love (well, sort of) to A-list celeb Anna Scott (Julia Roberts). Do you have the guts to stand up and ask even a rather prying question in front of other journalists?

• Imagine you had a great news story but you needed further information and/or a decent quote or two but every time you called someone they slammed the phone down on you the minute you mentioned you were a reporter. Would it make you want to give up or even more determined and persistent to nail the tale? As a journalist you sometimes have to be like a dog with a bone to get the answers you need for a story. Is this you?

• If you were 200 words off finishing the front-page news story and being yelled at by the editor that the deadline was in 10-mins, would you crumble under pressure or rise to the challenge?

Now the above scenarios are by no means an exhaustive list of the type of situations you may be thrown into as a journalist nor are they unrealistic either.

There's also no telling how many times one or more might happen on a day-to-day basis either as news is rarely predictable.

During my career as a journalist I have been put through all and more of these types of situations and lived to tell the tale. Question is, would you?

So like I've said, think very long and hard about all of your personal skills and abilities and about your character too before setting foot down the road to be a journalist.

It's the intention of my blog to be fair and straight with you about all aspects of journalism and not to give you duff advise or some unrealistic fairytale that would be of no help at all.

Journalism is a great career but only if you have a true passion for the job and a fairly tough edge to your character that won't make you crumble and run for the hills, even when the going gets real tough.