Viva Las Vegas!

After months of job hunting, complaints, confusion, decision making and chance taking, I’m thrilled to announce I have secured my first full-time job after graduating from college.

Believe it: I am now a Las Vegas resident and downtown reporter for View, the weekly publication under the Las Vegas-Review Journal.

Less than four months after graduation, I have a job, and it is so nice to be able to say that. There are very few people in my position who can make this exact statement. Even better, it’s a job doing what I love, which is reporting and writing news stories and features. This in itself is something for which I am extremely thankful.

If you’d asked me several months ago if I imagined working in Las Vegas — or anywhere in the West, for that matter — I’d probably laugh. I thought I’d stay in New York for at least a couple of years, but after fielding a couple of offers from some publications, I realized I’d be settling for the place rather than the position, and the last thing I want to do is get stuck with a job I don’t like.

In July, I spotted a job posting for View on JournalismJobs.com. They were looking for a reporter who had at least two years of professional newsroom experience, but would consider recent graduates. Given my experience with The University Star, my internships and — above all — the Poynter College Fellowship, I figured I had a shot. Turns out they liked me enough to fly me out to Vegas and spend a couple of days interviewing and getting to know the staff before I was offered the position at the end of that week.

I’d only been to Vegas once before, which was in March with my friends, Michelle and Aida, for four days. I can recall standing in a corner of the baggage claim area at McCarran International Airport in which I called the NearSay office to inform the editor I’d accepted his summer internship offer. Now, almost six months later, I found myself leaving the same airport, hoping I would be returning for good soon.

And here I am: On my way to Las Vegas to begin my professional career in journalism, which is my lifelong dream. I’m excited, nervous and terrified at the same time. But most of all, I’m anxious to get back to a busy routine and back to my biggest passion: Reporting.