Q. For six months
I have been a reporter at a financial trade publication for a not-so-well-known news organization. I can potentially score a position at a similar financial trade publication for a very well-known news organization. The new job would have more prestige and a pay raise -- both
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of which I want. But I don't want to look like I'm emulating Larry Brown's career, jumping from team to team. I am in my mid-20s. What's the right move?
Tony A. One reason Larry Brown could hop to so many basketball coaching jobs is because he is a consistent winner. You brought him up; I just brought up his record. But it's worth thinking about.
I would not be happy if the promising candidate I hired six months ago left. I would not be inclined to give a good reference for that person and, if I had paid to move him to my city, I might want a refund.
If I were an outsider looking in, I would wonder why the journalist left so soon, knowing that it can easily take a full year to get up to speed on a beat and that the best enterprise seldom comes in the first six months. I would ask why he left so quickly, and I would wonder if he is impatient and would do the same thing to me.
All that said, if you have lined up the next job, a lot of the potential damage to your career dissipates -- provided you are darn sure you'll stay at the second job for a couple of years or more. You start to look like a job-hopper if you string short tenures together, and your career path starts to look choppy or fickle.
As you weigh prestige and pay, also consider what stories you would be doing in the next six months for your current publication and those you would be doing for the other publication.
Coming Thursday: She loves journalism and she loves New York City. But is New York the best place to try to start a journalism career? She has been getting all kinds of advice.
