Written by Tsz Kit, Law
Feeling drained and unmotivated about work? Is the pressure of work too high? Over-time working? All the sleepless nights seem to be the normal working routine, transforming into a ‘working robot’. These are the inner voices of most employees who work regularly in the media workforce.
More that, Is it a standard of working overtime in media industry? This has been aggressively discussed by workers from the media industry, and the unbalanced treat between salary and working hours is like a sacrifice of working in media. Therefore, quitting or switching job is an act of escape from the cage.
Don’t be afraid of quitting a job you don’t enjoy
As we know, media industries include different types of jobs, which are based on communicating information, art and entertainment to the audience. Your choice of job is part of creating a successful career journey, and happiness from colleagues and self-motivation will increase your passion to work. The good news is that there are lots of working opportunities in media industries, which are easy for job-hopping if you don’t feel comfortable in what you are doing in your career. According to research, regarding the frequency of modern people quitting their job, job-hopping is a common situation of workplace culture nowadays. The decision of quitting a job is YOUR personal decision, and it will always be the right time to quit if you are unhappy with what you are doing at work. Moreover, switching jobs is just an opportunity to try different kinds of jobs, which helps to understand which type of jobs suit you best.
Situations while working in media industries
The atmosphere in media industries is fast-paced and highly competitive, and pressure from multiple tasks every day is making people exhausted and frustrated. Industry competition is fierce because employers would like to see employees produce high-quality writing on time.
As we know, the tasks within a media career are mostly about writing and making ideas. What if you are out of ideas on a task, you feel lost and stressed in the consequence of the incomplete task. Therefore, the invisible pressure of working in media is coming from the huge amounts of workloads, and anxiety of producing high-quality writing pieces. Instead of the pressure, the frequency of repeating tasks as part of the workload can knock over your passion. As from a former worker in media industry, Hook said, “We all used to come up with innovative ideas, but now we don’t. The bravery in work has disappeared.”
Moreover, there is a wonderful statement mentioning media careers nowadays by Sioux Bailey, the recruitment consultant of PFJ Media Recruitment. It states “It is increasingly difficult to get away with being a one-trick pony in the media sector. It is as tough as ever to get into editorial jobs, and will be super tough without any working experience of working as media career.” Therefore, is your expectation of working in media industries close enough to the cruel reality of media career?
Following the development of media industries, internet is the base of new media, and printed media is getting smaller in the market. Digital media is more likely taking the lead in media industries, such as social media platforms, and cloud computing. Therefore, having a knowledge of using the new technology would be an advantage of entering into the media workforce. For example, working in content creation of media, you need to know the use of online publications and editorial websites as you need to publish your piece of work on the internet, and printed media no longer exists in the industry. It’s all about digital.
At last, there is no expectation in your mind of finding the ideal job which won’t stress you out. The key for getting comfortable in a media career is to find a passion for your job, and keep updating yourself with any new aspects in order to keep up with the fast-pace of the media industry.