Monday, July 30, 2007

I haven't fucked up and I couldn't be happier

Okay, so it has been a week. Long enough to gauge basically whether you think you're going to be happy somewhere.
And I think I'm going to be happy.
I'm starting to come to grips with how things work. I'm being given good stories to cover now, rather than just the guttershite that no one else will touch (I'm bound to get bullshit tomorrow, I've just jinxed myself), and people keep coming up to me and saying I'm doing well.
Now unless that is the same as in football where they offer the coach their full support and then (in time honoured tradition) the coach is sacked inside a week, I think I'm doing okay. Today big David H - who is something of a legend - told me he was impressed with the run I was getting and the actual COS (not the fill-in last week) met me enthusiastically when I waltzed in (50 minutes early, as usual).
Anyway, I wasn't expecting encouragement so I was glad of it and it made me feel good is the point I'm making... rather than in any way bragging. Just so we're clear.
Okay, so some of the stories they try to get up - do get up - are a bit on the whacked side, but the point is I'm having fun despite them.
And I'm learning a lot and my style is developing and I'm even interviewing more thoroughly and harder than I ever have before. (The first bit of advice I was given was, "You'll be used to pumping out a lot of copy. You don't have to do that here but you will have to be thorough. Ask everything. If I ask you a question about something I expect you to know the answer already". Fair warning, really).
It's good for me. It's a challenge and I'm enjoying it. (Even when the challenge for the day is combining rainfall figures in farming communities with wildflowers. Yes. I did it, too).
What's more I get the impression they need more people, so if any of y'all think you want to give it a go too, then I totally encourage you to send the Ed your CV.

1 comment:

my name is kate said...

To be honest some of your stories have terrified me. I am leaving journalism and moving to Rural Suffolk to write a book.