Made me want to leave the industry altogether
Pros
- Had one decent manager for a few months. - Got to cover a couple of genuinely good stories.
Cons
- The most toxic company I have ever worked for. - Impossible targets. - Offensively low wages. - No training when you start. At all. Even if it's a trainee role. Training for senior exams may or may not commence about a year into the role, but before that, you better know it all and be ready to hit the ground running. Even better if you're a mind reader and know exactly what your editor is thinking. - They're happy for you to work loads of unpaid hours and there's never the opportunity to claim the time back; I'm pretty sure I was working below minimum wage at one point because of all the unpaid time I did that I never managed to claim back because of toxic management guilting me into feeling inadequate. - Prior to COVID-19, the editor-in-chief wouldn't allow almost anyone to WFH, even on late or early/ weekend shifts when there was NO ONE else in. But, they were all too happy to shut offices when they could make a saving. They don't care about people's well-being at all. - You'll be writing mostly puff pieces. Even if you write a fairly decent piece, this will get "edited" by overworked content editors to somehow include numerous typos and incomplete sentences. They'll then slap on an embarrassing cringe headline. - If you respect yourself and the industry, just don't work for these people; you'll burn out and they'll discard you. If they do, don't despair: you'll likely make more at a minimum wage job anyway while you land on your feet. And you'll be far less stressed.