My experience working at Athlon Sports

 Finding a job

Finding a job isn't the hard part; there are plenty of jobs that are looking for workers every day. The hard part is hearing back from the company to which you applied. I started applying for jobs at the end of January of this year, and getting rejected, and receiving an email back from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal telling me that their company is on a deadline and that they will take a look at both my resume and portfolio once the deadline is over, has been very overwhelming and stressful. In April, I applied for Athlon as a freelance writer to cover Michigan State University athletics. I was very excited and felt relieved that I finally found a job, however, there were things that I didn't know would come with it, and I struggled with that caused me a little stress and frustration. 

Working for Athlon

My boss, who was also my editor at the time, was a genuinely sweet and kind person; I had barely any issues with him within the first week of working there. As soon as I had my accounts set up to write articles so I could get ready for work, I immediately got to work and published my first article. My first article was on women's Gymnastics that had made it to the championship for the first time in 37 years. When my work was first published, I quickly shared on my social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky, etc. I felt as if I accomplished something so huge and have gotten the opportunity to dip my toe into the professional world of Journalism. I worked each and everyday and even set up my own schedule because I'm still writing for my school's newspaper, and I also had a women's history class. There were times when I felt very exhausted and tired, but I still loved my job. Alone, I have typed up a total of 20 more articles because that's how much I love sports. However, my paycheck and the number of views that I have gotten from all of my articles, and only four of them had good views, said otherwise. 

Being the only woman covering MSU with men

I know, some of you looked at the heading and maybe thought to yourselves, "Why are you making this about gender?" Simple, because it's my experience, not yours! There were times when I did feel like I was facing more criticism than anyone else who was covering MSU (Michigan State University: Spartan Athletics), being told to look at someone else's work who had more experience than I, but had only published so little. It was this guy who had more experience in the journalism field, so of course, for him, writing and having these articles published back to back was a breeze. As for me, not so much. Every single time I wrote an article, there was always some kind of problem. Or, there was a time when I stayed up all night and wrote about four former Spartan players who got drafted into the NFL. I was excited, and after I was finished, I messaged both the group chat and my boss about my work and when he had the time to take a look over it and have it published. The next morning, I woke up around ten O'clock and found that the same guy that I mentioned previously had written the same thing around six in the morning. Instead of my work being published, his got published instead.  I messaged my boss and asked if he hadn't seen my previous message from last night. He messaged me back, told me he would take a look at it, and claimed that he had mentioned it to his boss, and his boss liked the other guy's better. When I asked why, his answer was simply, the guy was just better. Now from the outside looking in, some people would say that I am too emotional about this and that I should get over it, but when you are in my shoes and have worked constantly around the clock stressing yourself out to avoid another message from your boss about a problem, you would be frustrated just I was. 

Constant Criticism 

Even though I loved creating content, having it published on the Athlon Website, there were a few hiccups along the way. There were times when I had articles that were old news, and I had to remind myself that I needed to write articles that were happening. Another thing that came up was the plagiarism, even though I was told that it was not quite that; however, it kind of in that manner just a few words changed. I was highly confused because I did not understand it, plus plagiarism is a big word in the writing world, so in my mind, I felt like I was being accused of something, but then again, I wasn't.

Publishing women's sports

It really doesn't make me feel like the main stories from Athlon were all men's sports, and even though there were a small number of women's sports being published, some of them were more drama and less accomplishments. That is what I was noticing, I mainly worked on women's sports, and only a few had high numbers. The rest not so much, I wrote about women's gymnastics and their 37-year wait, which made a pretty good number, not the expectation of 1,000 total, but it was pretty high. The second one was women's basketball, a former Spartan graduate who did not make the WNBA draft, but she has gotten the opportunity to join the Phoenix Mercury for training camp. Once again, did beautifully but did not reach the expectations of a few that it was supposed to reach. Softball, Tennis, and Golf hardly did anything; the numbers for those sports were very low. I expressed my frustration about it and how it just didn't make any sense. I work hard every day, I publish about two, if not three, articles a day, and it felt like a slap in the face, and also just felt as if I wasn't working hard enough. I would eat a lot, grow tired more quickly than usual, and become increasingly irritated, mainly with myself. I remember my boss telling me that he is all for writing about women's sports because the company doesn't really cover women's sports much, and that most likely, my views from those articles are not going to be great. 

Men's sports did better in views. 

That's when I started to write more on men's sports, and those numbers still weren't reaching the expectations, but it was better than the views that I was receiving from women's sports. I covered more men's basketball. Football, baseball, and golf. I even covered the athletic director stepping down and leaving Michigan State. I even covered a former football coach who was fired for assaulting women and is now trying to sue Michigan State to pay his legal fees. I even wrote about a former Spartan who's heading to the NBA combine. All those articles had better numbers, but once again, it wasn't good enough to reach the expectation of 1,000. 

Finally making top story. 

After making adjustments and creating more content that was solely focused on men's sports and staying on top of the latest news, that's when my stories became top stories on Google. I was shocked yet very happy because all of those doubts that were in my head and the feeling of not doing enough all went away. Even though I have made a few mistakes in a couple of my articles, which made numerous die-hard Spartans upset, to where I was criticized, I try to let that not affect me but just to take note to be more cautious and careful to where it doesn't look like my writing is click bait or I'm making things up as I write within the article because I am not. 

I found out May 31st is my last day. 

With me finally finding my rhythm and making my stories make "top story' on Google, my boss sent me an email towards the end of May, and it was not the email that I had hoped. He told me how much he appreciated all of my hard work at Athlon and how it has been an opportunity to work with me, however, my last day working for the company will be May 31st. After reading this email, I was immediately upset yet confused because I didn't understand why I was getting let go so early. I just got hired, and I have been working very hard now, but all of a sudden, I am being let go? He told me that it wasn't my fault at all and that he's the one getting fired, so he's not firing me personally. Since I am considered to be an independent contractor and I signed a contract, when my boss got let go, I got let go as well. The reason for it was that we did not reach the status quo, and that everyone, including the guy that my boss constantly praised for all of this hard work, was in that same boat as me. 

Pay Check

One thing that I've learned is that no matter how hard you work and the amount of effort that is put in each day, that paycheck is going to say something different. In April, I have 16 articles published (even though I have written more, but those did not get published). In May, I had 8 articles published (once again, I had written more, but towards the end of May, those did not get published as well).  For April, I earned around $4.00. Only 6 out of 16 total had good numbers in views. As for May, all eight of my articles did great because each of them made top story, based on all eight, I made about $10.78. Yes, I know, it's very crappy. However, my boss did tell me that he had just rounded up my check and just gave me $20.00. It's still not much, but it's better than nothing. 

All in all, this is my first professional job that I have ever had, and obviously, it was not easy. Would I make this a career? Just typing up articles all day without interviewing the actual person I am writing about? Absolutely not, I love interviewing the actual person and getting answers from them. Of course, just like any other reporter, I do look up sources and get enough knowledgeable background on them, and I only do that when it comes to writing down and asking questions. One thing that this job has taught me is, I am a creator, I write my own stories, and my goal is to work in broadcasting and become successful.