Steven F. Huszai: Why I Became a Journalist 

I recall a project in high school where my fellow students and I were tasked with coming up with potential careers we wanted after graduation. In the tenth or eleventh grade (whenever this assignment came across my desk), I was not thinking about college, working a career, and becoming an adult. 

At the time, I was concerned with basketball practice, watching movies and playing video games with my friends, and girls. There was no time left to think about life after college or adulthood. 

By the time I was in my final year at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania I still had no idea what I planned to do after school. With only mere weeks until graduation, I couldn’t even see a glimpse of what my future held. 

That was until one day I was leaving my history class and noticed a piece of paper hanging in a common area. It was titled “Careers for History Majors.”

There were plenty of career ideas I felt would be unsatisfying; others felt out of reach. But one stuck out — Journalism. 

The “Frontlines of History”

I should rewind a moment. If it wasn’t clear I studied history, specifically American history in college. History was my favorite topic as far back as middle school. I relished reading books on former kings and historical figures, analyzing maps of far away places, and understanding how the human race evolved throughout the ages to where we are today. 

Working in the media was the career for me. It took almost my entire time as an undergraduate student to realize this fact. And it made sense to me the moment I saw it. 

Steven F. Huszai

During my history courses I studied economic policy, agricultural advancements, geography, religion, migration trends, and plenty of other topics. I learned plenty, forgot most of it, and enjoyed my time in college. 

Yet, while studying and reading countless books for my independent study project (and during my history coursework) I realized most of what I was reading were newspaper and magazine articles. If those authors could write stories in the moment for future generations to read, why couldn’t I? 

Working in the media was the career for me. It took almost my entire time as an undergraduate student to realize this fact. And it made sense to me the moment I saw it. 

My history classes in college did not revolve around multiple choice tests to measure which dates I memorized. They consisted of reading loads of material, distilling that information in 15-30 page papers, and trying to prove or defend a thesis I developed. 

Reading and writing was half of what I did throughout my four years in college. The transition to writing for a newspaper or magazine seemed simple and organic to me. 

By writing for a newspaper I could be on the “frontlines of history,” a phrase I use still to this day to defend my career path and journalists still in the field. 

Persistence, and a Dash of Luck

Upon graduation I was met with some resistance finding a job though. I worked a menial factory job with my dad for a few years in order to pay my bills. But in my free time I refined my resume, cover letter, and hit the internet for any possible jobs in media across the country. 

In the beginning of my job search, I was eager to move anywhere and start my career path. I emailed hundreds of newspaper editors for an entry level reporting job. But I realized I had zero clips to send along as writing samples, especially since I didn’t write for my high school or college newspapers.

While living at home, I took advantage of two local opportunities to collect clips through an internship — where I basically had to pay to write music reviews, since I was unpaid and needed to pay for parking in downtown Cleveland — and a two-day long interview process for another Ohio paper. 

But from the first time I saw my name in a print newspaper, I was hooked. 

The rush of seeing my name beside a story (in print or online) is still thrilling to this day, and a reward few careers offer. 

Clips in hand, I continued emailing hundreds more newspapers until I finally landed a job working at the Shelby Daily Globe. 

My editor at the time told me a few months after working there, she decided to take a chance on me because she saw something in my character and writing abilities. She knew I was raw and needed coaching on my skills as a reporter. 

She also told me I was the only person who they interviewed for the position who she actually wanted to work with, since a few of the others were “icky.”

Reporting on a Rewarding Career Path

I wrote at the Shelby Daily Globe, and later the Wooster Daily Record, from 2008 to 2018. Both newspapers are located in central Ohio, within an hour drive from my hometown of Cleveland.

Working for a small, daily newspaper in my home state was a vastly rewarding, and educating, experience. 

I credit my time as a reporter as the time when I matured into a real adult. Through my work, I learned how communities are organized and built; how different organizations within them work together (or don’t). 

I learned about how cities interact with the state and federal governments, plus how they act within a given region. I gained real knowledge on taxing laws and practices covering school levies and routine budget meetings. 

But I also was afforded the incredible opportunity to talk at length and develop relationships with every conceivable type of person alive. 

I interviewed CEOs, small business owners, teachers, principals, superintendents, mayors, lawyers, regular blue-collar workers, police officers, farmers, and even criminals. Some of these relationships I developed through the years have even blossomed into lifelong friendships.

I met my wife through a mutual friend. That friend was the head of the Wooster Chamber of Commerce, who I cultivated a friendship with over several years. One day, he invited me to a watch party during the 2016 NBA Finals, and that is where I met the woman I later married. 

Journalism opened many doors for me. It also helped me mature to see and talk to people I otherwise would never have met before and learn to see life through their eyes. 

In the beginning of my reporting career, I was young and idealistic and thought I knew all I needed to know. But by the end of my reporting career, I learned there was still much more to life I didn’t realize and became a better person for it. 

Studying history in college, I believe, helped prepare me for a world in which I could talk to the CEO of an international corporation in the morning, and by the evening interview a criminal telling his/her side of the story of why they were arrested in the first place. 

Every career, when you give all you have to it, gives you a chance to work in a setting where every day is different. Only a career in journalism, though, grants you access to people of all walks of life and the power to try to understand them fully. 

Why I Left, and Advice for Future Generations

Ultimately, I decided to leave my work as a local reporter. 

My time was past once my newspaper was sold to a larger entity based out of state where I was no longer a name, but instead a number on a spreadsheet to be cut for “cost-savings” and “efficiency.” I would be milked for my youth as my senior peers were the ones cut and their lives altered. 

Over my time as a reporter, I learned that at the end of the day for every reporter’s quest seeking truth and justice, the media is still a business with bills to pay. I was one cog in that machine. 

So I took my talents to a local retail business instead and still write blog posts for a local website developer. My skills as a reporter — being able to solve problems on the fly and talk/understand people — transferred to those jobs easily. 

And it was my connections from my reporting days that landed both of those jobs. 

Every reporter starting out in the field has an elevated sense of how much they can change or accomplish. We all think we will expose corruption or stand up for truth and the little guy against the powerful. 

The best way forward in this career (and in life) is to treat everyone with respect, actively engage with those around us, and maybe, just maybe, you will discover your calling in life and what makes you happy … whether that is in the industry or not. 

It’s OK to leave your reporting job. The long hours during all times of the day, low pay, and industry headwinds are out of each reporter’s hands. For those of you who can stick it out, you are true local heroes. 

But it’s also OK to want to make a living, have a stable job, start your own business, follow your dreams, and turn life’s lemons into lemonade. 

Working as a reporter was a rewarding experience. But eventually I outgrew it and cherished the lessons and growth I gained from my previous life.