There is life in Journalism and outside it. What's your vision?

Media Career Development Specialist, Lekan Otufodunrin writes on the need for journalists to have a vision for and mission for their career.

In her last email message for 2021 titled Pain Pushes Until Vision Pulls, Thoela DeBoSe, a former Washington Post Reporter, wrote that her vision for 2022 is to relaunch her Career Change BootCamp online course so that she can help as many journalists as possible make a successful career change.

Being able to state her vision as clearly as she did was huge for her when she remembered how hard it was to have any vision when she was a journalist.

“I was too busy trying not to make a spelling mistake, meet the deadline, respond to questions about my story, and so on…I was overworked and underappreciated, with little time to reflect on what I wanted for myself. In other words, I kept getting pushed around by pain,” she recalled.

Tired of living a visionless life because of the hectic nature of her job, she decided it was enough one day.

“There has to be a life after journalism and I’m going to find it. That vision pulled me towards the life that I have now as a career change coach and entrepreneur,” Theola stated.

Many journalists are where Thoela was years ago. They are more concerned about living up to the expectations of their jobs than having a clear vision of what they really want to do whether in journalism or outside the newsroom.

They are unhappy about how time-consuming and soul-draining journalism practice has become for them, but they feel trapped that they can’t find the time to think of the way out of their predicaments.

To avoid ending up miserably after giving your all to journalism without getting much in return and eventually be forced out like many others, it’s necessary to have a vision of what one wants to achieve at whatever career stage and life.

There is a saying that if you don’t know where you are going, you will not know when you get there. Anywhere you get to will look like where you are going but it may not be your destination.

There is an assumption that you will get to somewhere, but you may not even leave where you are. You may be stuck in a spot but not know it as journalism makes us do, and may be left behind by our contemporaries or be overtaken by our juniors.

As we begin 2022, we all need to have a very clear mission and vision to make a success of our careers and life. For those who don’t have one, it’s time they realised they are on a ‘journey to nowhere’

Journalism will end someday after years of rigorous and passionate work and you will wonder what you spent the years doing.

Those who already have a mission and vision statement should constantly review it, based on prevailing circumstances and be diligent to do whatever it takes in order to accomplish it.

You must intentionally take time off your hectic schedules to have a road map for your career journeys. You must have a destination in mind where you want to get to. You can enjoy or endure the jolly or bumpy ride of journalism, but you must have personal dreams of what will make you feel fulfilled.

You must know when to stay or move on.

You must have a personal definition of what success is and what makes you happy.

You must not be limited by the goals of the organisation you work for or the demands of your editors.

You should be inspired by the challenges and successes of the people and organisations you report to in order to have your personal mission of how not to end up just a reporter, but someone who makes a difference in what he or she chooses to do.

You must constantly ask yourself what you want from your career and life and go for it.

My journey to becoming a media career development specialist began 10 years into my over 35 year’s career. Because I discovered my interest in training and mentoring journalists early enough, I have gradually been working towards it along with my regular journalism work and I am glad I am having fun and getting paid for what I really want to do at this stage of my career.

If you need help with reviewing your journalism career journey and deciding what next, Theola is surely one of your best bets to reach out to and follow online. Her JSkills initiative, Life After Journalism and Career Change training are rich with resources you can learn from.

At Media Career Development Network, which I head, we also offer resources for maximising your media career and exploring alternatives.

I look forward to hearing what you learnt from Theola. I will also be willing to work with you to become what you really should be and want to be in your career choice.

You can send me an email at info@mediacareerng.org or send me a WhatsApp message +2348050498530

Welcome to 2022, your countdown started on Saturday, January 1. Time waits for no one.