Life After Journalism | Jesse J. Holland

"I had to have a hard conversation with myself about what I wanted to be doing in 20 years. And it wasn't writing daily, weekly or even monthly news." 

–Jesse J. Holland

MY BACKGROUND | I worked for the Associated Press for 25 years in Columbia, South Carolina; Albany, New York; and Washington, D.C. I am an author (fiction, non-fiction), public speaker and Distinguished Scholar In Residence at the John W. Kluge Center, Library of Congress. I teach journalism ethics at Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies and New York University; and creative nonfiction at Goucher College

ON LEAVING | It was about the number of hours in the day. I couldn't maintain journalistic writing I was doing during the day and the personal writing I was doing at night. And eventually, I found out that I cared more about the personal writing I was doing. When you stop putting the journalism first, it's time to move on. I also saw myself go from the youngest person in the room to one of the oldest people in the room. I had to have a hard conversation with myself about what I wanted to be doing in 20 years. And it wasn't writing daily, weekly or even monthly news. 

MY JOB SKILLS | I tell everyone in journalism now to have a side gig, because you never know when the journalism is going to go away. I started writing books back in 2005 as a side gig. And as I got better, it soon eclipsed the journalism. A long time ago, an author mentor of mine told me that I would have to decide between being a journalist and being an author because it was going to be impossible to do both with the same amount of skill. I told him with the arrogance of youth that I could do it all. Unfortunately, he isn't around anymore for me to admit that he was 100 percent correct.

MY CAREER CHANGE PATH | I went back to school. I had already published my first book, Black Men Built The Capitol, but I wasn't satisfied with what I had done and I had to go back to the Associated Press. Then I got into the Goucher College Master of Fine Arts program in Creative Nonfiction. For the first time, I truly immersed myself in the world of literature and creative nonfiction. Just like any other career, you have to know the players, the publishers, the existing networks and how to navigate them – just having the skills to write isn't enough. When I got my MFA, that introduced me to people who were able to take my writing to the next level. Going back to school also opened my eyes to the world of academia. I was able to start teaching in my program at Goucher, which led me to teach at the University of Arkansas, then Georgetown and now New York University. 

PERSISTING OVER OBSTACLES | One of the great things about being at AP was that I never once worried about job security. Giving that up was the hardest part of leaving journalism. Nowadays, I don't know what the next day will bring, so I don't have the certainty that being with a rock-solid news organization gives you. Luckily, I have a great support system at home in a wife who believes in my talent and has a great career of her own. There's no reason why we can't both pursue our dreams, so we are!

WORDS OF ADVICE | Life is too short to be unhappy. If you're not happy in journalism, you're not doing your best work anyway. Find what makes you happy and then find a way to make a living at it (or at least find a job that is less stressful than journalism to finance it!) -30-

During Black History Month in February, JSkills: Launch Your Life After Journalism is featuring Black journalists sharing in their own words how they used their journalism skills to launch new careers. To receive resources on making your journalism career change, sign up for our email updates.