According to the Liverpool Echo, ‘top’ graduates are facing up to low paid jobs in the media. Gosh. One of the people quoted is recent Oxford grad Pipper Rimmer. Pippa, maybe? A quick Google search reveals that Pippa Rimmer was a first-year linguist in 2002. Oh dear.
Journalism is not a career choice for anyone whose life’s priority is making vast sums of money. It certainly doesn’t pay well at the start.
All the same, at my last college reunion it wasn’t the journalists, but the investment bankers and City lawyers who could be heard wishing they’d had their time again, their lives suddenly burned. Francois Villon had it right:
Pouvre, qu’avoir esté seigneur
Et pourrir soubz riche tumbeau. [men in cheap cloth still live –
why play the grand seigneur
to rot in a tich tomb?]
Postscript: Following an email exchange with Ms Rimmer, I think I should make clear that I’m not attacking her, but the laziness of the journalism in the story in the link, including notably its inability to get her name right. Most grads choose media careers knowing they are not a route to riches. They choose them because they offer an interesting way to pay the bills.