The excellent AngryJournalist.com, the dumping ground for unfettering whining from inside the industry, is also a source for hope: If you read at least 10 posts from the complaining class, you’re bound to find at least two that make your job sound less shitty. Let’s see what can lift your spirits.

I’m confused.

I spent my undergraduate career doing the things I loved; holding every post at my student weekly, blogging daily, and building a legit clip portfolio at a daily paper with 150,000+ circulation (and a popular website) in one of the biggest cities in the country; producing news video and helping produce demos for local bands; all to find that my assembled experiences aren’t what most mags, daily’s, weekly’s, alt. weekly’s, etc., etc., are looking for in a new hire.

My mentors say it’s a great time to be a Web 2.0 journalist. I say it’s confusing as hell, no matter what, who or how much you know.

I’m angry that I may have wasted hours getting my cover letter and clips together to apply for an editor job that pays, umm, I don’t know, BECAUSE THEY WON’T FREAKING LIST A SALARY RANGE! DOE my ass. Is it $35K? Then you’ve wasted a lot of my time and a little of yours. Is it $50K? Then now we’re talking.

When editors put off editing a feature for weeks, and then when it is about to run, return it with a completely new lede that has no factual base whatever because “it needs a battle.”

Jackass.

They hired someone else to do my job and moved me onto another publication with the same company, but the new person doesn’t do anywhere near the standard of work I did. I really liked what I was doing before and was better at it than the new person but that doesn’t count for anything.

i’m angry because in my newsroom, we’re nearly all young and still learning. and we’re nearly all on cadet pay gradings still. BUT we’re expected to work to the same standard as the one or two other journos who have been there for 10 or more years, have the same contacts, etc. we get no feedback about whether we’re going well or not unless you stuff something up, and then it’s probably at least partly BECAUSE of the lack of training and feedback we’re given. yes it’s great to get experience doing lots of different things, but don’t pay me cadet pay and expect me to do the same work as someone three or four grades higher!

I’m angry that my own news blog - designed to avoid the pratfalls of our pathetic corporate website - has been shutdown by its host because someone tagged it as a link farm…. arrggghhhh!