I've been in my current reporting job for about six months. My beat is good, but the newspaper needs major repair.
Another newspaper sought me out and offered me a job this week.
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It's a better paper -- one I could see working at for most of my career. I want to accept the job, but I was wondering how bad it looks to leave a job after six months.
Also, will I ever be able to get a job in that paper's corporate chain?
Ready, Set ...
You're not going to make everyone happy on this one. I get cross when someone leaves after less than a year. Other newspaper editors do, too, so some have clauses that say new hires who leave in less than a year or two have to reimburse moving expenses.
If all newspapers get cross when people leave after a short stay, I wonder why some tempt people to do just that.
The downside of staying is that this other newspaper might not come calling in the future. I doubt that, but nothing is as sure as a sure thing, so it can be risky to decline.
If you jump after six months, you absolutely have to stay at the new paper for a minimum of three years to re-establish a track record with some consistency and loyalty in it.
Will the corporation you now work for let you come back to one of its other papers someday?
That will depend on how you leave, when you decide to come back and how good the memories are then.
Coming Wednesday: She wrote a post-interview thank you for the editor, but not to the copy editor she also talked to and now wonders how to recover gracefully.
