A few months ago, I was presented with an opportunity. The local daily newspaper was in need of a new business reporter and they wanted me. You see, last summer I was an intern there and once my internship ended, I did some freelance work for their new monthly business magazine.

Apparently they liked my stuff. So I had drinks with The Boss and listened to the pitch: I'd be writing for both the daily business section and magazine, so I would get a lot of clips. Plus, daily newspapers a good references in the future. And they were going to pay me more money.

Now, I had been working for The BBJ for about three months or so and I was settling into a groove. And I liked it. Is The BBJ where I want to work forever? No. But then again, is the daily paper? No. The question was which job would help me get to where I want to get. (This was the fork in the road implied in the title.)

I chose the right path. The local daily announced last week that they have to lay off 10 percent of their staff (this came down from corporate). This meant 13 total employees, four from the newsroom. On top of that, they will be dismantling their press and printing the paper in another county starting next year. If I had taken the job, I would have been the most recent hire, and thus probably not very confident in my job security.

Interesting twist: the guy who did take the job survived the job cuts, even though his position was eliminated. He took over the cops beat. (THAT guy was smart enough to see that the ship was sinking and took the buy-out.) 

Did I mention that the monthly business magazine they started last year, the one I did freelancing for, wasn't making enough money so they shut it down this month?  

So if I had made a different choice months ago, I would probably be the new cops reporter at a quickly shrinking daily paper. 

I like my job.

Ike