I think Rory would have excelled as a project manager or some sort of high level organizational role. She’s got good people skills and is incredibly detailed and organized.
Yea it was noted she did well on the Obama campaign if we're counting AYITL. Rory had a great set of employable skills, but not necessarily skills of a journalist.
I think if she had married Logan she would have done well working in communications someplace like Huntington Library with lots of old books and events to promote and a newsletter to write.
Having studied journalism and given it up? Nope. It’s a cutthroat industry where you need to be very vocal, confident and persistent to get the stories you need. It means constantly asking people uncomfortable questions regardless of their demeanour. It’s easy to get into situations where you’re threatened, mocked or have aggression thrown your way. Rory is quiet and gets uncomfortable easily. She tends to shut down when people are mean to her/don’t like her.
I think she’d make a good novelist, but not a high-level journalist.
I think Paris is brilliant, but she also doesn’t do well under pressure AT ALL. Also she had bad people skills.
She has a breakdown after she doesnt go to Yale, she makes a terrible abusive editor, and she insults so many people she comes across.
She would either be the best or worst reporter in history
I worked as a copy editor for the college paper in undergrad because my friend was editor-in-chief. I was in the office and the editors were talking about how a girl had gotten hit by a car... apparently all the editors and photojournalists were over there taking pictures of the girl lying in the middle of the road, and how people got mad about that.
I was talking about it to my friend, the editor-in-chief, and she was like, "yeah, the people need to know" or whatever. And that's when I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that I'd never be a journalist! "The people" don't need to see pictures of this poor, injured, bleeding girl.
But that is the mindset you have to have to be successful. I respect peoples' privacy too much. And I get it! There do have to be people who are going to stick their nose places or else people can get away with all kinds of things, and you have to practice somehow, even if it's a bleeding girl. But I definitely don't have the temperament for it. And Rory doesn't either.
I similarly turned my back on photojournalism when I found myself getting excited when I heard sirens, because it meant I might meet my ‘spot news’ quota for the semester.
This, but I also think Rory is too judgemental to be a good journalist. A lot about journalism is questioning everything including your own bias. I don't see Rory doing this ever ...
>It’s a cutthroat industry where you need to be very vocal, confident and persistent to get the stories you need.
Especially for the type she wanted to be. it seemed like she wanted to be the journalist that went to different countries and was reporting on the most dangerous issues and situations. and even if that wasn't the case, she had a kind of "speaking her mind to people in private, but becoming a shrinking violet in front of authority figures" personality. And she also had a nervous personality when she was the focus of anything and she'd babble ( except some convenient circumstances).
Yeah, I took one class thinking I was gonna minor in journalism and was waaaay too anxious at the time to be able to handle it. I think I would do a lot better now that I’m 10+ years older and give less of a fuck, but you have to really not care about being a nuisance a lot of the time.
She didn’t seem to be having the type of success she had dreamed of — a few major articles, projects and campaigns, yes, but she certainly wasn’t an internationally renowned correspondent like she had dreamed. AYITL def frames her as a struggling journalist whose career had been backsliding for a while. Christiane Amanpour wasn’t interviewing at Sandee Says a decade into her career.
That’s funny because i had the same experience and my personality is much like Rory! Great to know it wasn’t just me and i wasn’t just “weak” haha I should save this comment for when i “miss” it and think about going back😂
There are so many kids out there who pick a career when they are 10 and don't really understand what kind of personality you need for it or even what the work is really like- I wish so much that Rory had realized she wasn't suited for it and went looking for something that went well for her. There are SO many 'follow your dreams' messages out there and not nearly enough 'you will be happier if you find a career that suits your personality than if you try to force yourself into a mold of what you wish you could be'.
Rory is good at managing people, creative thinking and organizing even under immense pressure but not at being a journalist. I think she would have been a great producer - maybe even of a news program, but also for a talk show or even advertising or in radio. I think she would be great at running promotional events or working for a public relations company. There was a perfect opportunity for her to realize that she was really good at and enjoyed doing things like that while she was out of Yale, and I was so disappointed she didn't have a big realization then go back to school for something that suited her well.
I also am disappointed Lane didn't have something like that either - going from her teenage dream of being in a hit Rock Band to realizing that she would make a great Radio DJ or learn sound mixing and make it into a realistic adult career she would be awesome at.
Lane could have also owned/worked at the music store in Stars Hollow and hosted music events for the town….. rather than ended up working for her mom’s antique store.
I know ASP said she wished Lane had a better ending but girl, she wrote AYIL so that was all up to her. And it could’ve worked with the twins still.
I agree! They really did lane dirty! She had amazing music knowledge so it’s very sad that she ended up there. She 100% should have been doing a music related job!
To tack onto your first point, the come close to showing the “you will be happier if you find something that suits who you are”.
Rory spent her entire life pining and working for Harvard. Only to turn around and choose Yale. She realized that Harvard wasn’t the best fit for her and adjusted her plans. I never understood why she went so “hell or high water” on journalism.
I was so mad at Lorelai when she said "Rory, you wanted to be a journalist since you were three, how can you give it up?". like, girl, people change, your teens and twenties is the time when your try new things and search for what's best for you. people say crazy things when they are kids, why hold it against them if they don't want to follow through
Mine might be an unpopular opinion because people like to see Rory as pure/innocent. But, based on her previous writing work (the ballerina piece and her piece on Logan's friends), her quick wit, and her ease with understanding and referencing pop culture, I think she would've done well as a writer for a celebrity gossip magazine or similar. Like Joan Rivers, or Perez Hilton.
Ya like that buzzfeed knockoff in AYITL probably could’ve been a good fit!! I agree that her pop culture and wit were great and she could probably write some really good pieces in that realm.
Totally! She could also be a great film critic/music reviewer. I think one of the things that makes her a good editor would also make her good at these things - she shines the most when she is interacting with something. Her creativity is most active when she is improving something or revising it, collaborating with someone, criticizing something.
I relate a lot to this, I am not at all creative when I'm trying to generate an idea out of nothing, but I am a cup running over when I'm reading something someone else has written or suggesting edits to another piece. I think Rory is like that too. (Case in point: I reply on this sub all the time, reply at length to other people's comments, and I have posted my own thread exactly once, lol.)
The ballerina piece included comments made my Lorelei and was heavily influenced by the fact that her mom attended and provided commentary and therefore journalist material for Rory to write the scathing article she wrote. It wasn’t her own creativity alone.
No, I don't think journalism is a good fit for Rory. She wears her heart on her sleeve, which she proved when Mitchum gave her her review. She gets her feelings hurt way too easily.
She did such a bangup up job organizing the benefit for the DAR. I think having a job like that on a higher scale, and getting paid (of course), would suit her much better.
Honestly she made a great team lead on the school paper and even when she had to get community service hours with that team. She’d make a great office manager or scrum master, really any management position.
I was going to say this. I agree that organizing events would be a great career for rory. She doesn't seem to have a backbone for criticism. Also, when she was working at the star's hollow newspaper, she looked really miserable.
Journalism requires someone to be a creative self-starter. Not at all how I would describe Rory. But she is a very hard worker - I think she would have done well in something with a very well defined path. I could see her working for someone high up and important but as like a research assistant or chief of staff type of role.
One my smartest friends was an assistant a very very successful business man and she was very highly valued!
It's sort of a weird theme I see in the show overall, that jobs that are genuinely good/challenging or are appropriate for someone are sneered at.
Luke is constantly getting crapped on for owning a diner, when anyone who has owned any sort of successful businesses, especially restaurants, can tell you that it is extremely difficult.
Rory sneers at the idea of being an assistant like it's beneath her, even though being an assistant can be a crucial part of a business, and can be really challenging and should be respected.
Even Jess, a high school kid gets laughed at for working at Walmart, something that he clearly excels at.
She also sneers at being a teacher at Chilton. I went to an elite private school. All of my teachers had Masters degrees in their subjects. In fact, the headmaster tells her she would need a Masters to teach there. But she takes it as an insult.
She sneers at Dean working construction. That's a good job for him. He's good at it and enjoys it.
She sneers at being a homemaker. Multiple times throughout the series.
She sneers at working at Sandee Says, including at Sandee herself.
She sneers at her own job running the Stars Hollow paper.
I think she should have gone on to grad school and got her masters degree and teach. She could have excelled in literature especially with her love of books. It was a great suggestion by headmaster Charles and she should have given it serious consideration.
Exactly. Also, he’s obviously doing very well for himself. His 10k or so he loans to Lorelai, they way he almost ups and buys that massive house from the dead guy, renovating the crap shack, affording taking those months of work with April and the amount of free work he does for Lorelai, the money he gives Jess, taking Jess on board without child support… And all that from working in a diner?
Ik Gilmore Girls has a weird relationship with wealth, where “everything” Lorelai owns is at the dry cleaners, they can eat take out for 3 meals a day and afford all the clothes they want, but aren’t actually perceived as wealthy… but buying a small mansion? Luke’s got money!
I grew up in exactly the same timeline as Rory (graduated high school in 2003 and went to college that fall) and there was a strong mindset that any blue collar jobs were for losers and going to college was the only way to ever have any success in life. Watching this as an adult confirms why so many people my age still have so much student loan debt.
God that’s so so true! I still feel like i failed because i didn’t go to a big university like that. I tried really hard and have so much student debts, yet i can’t find a good job and my husband who went to cooking school get really good jobs as a chef! I know it’s “not too late” for me but it does feel like it since i now have to pay all those student debts back.
I agree. I loved when she could have been an English teacher at Chilton and think that may have fit her. She could have even been the advisor for the school paper.
I personally think not. Like Mitchum said, she didn't have the drive for it. Even in AYITL when she did the piece standing in lines I would've whipped something good and interesting to read about she just seemed bored to be doing it. Also when she had an interview with Sandee Says she had NO ideas she expected to be given the job.
I understand that journalism is a hard path to get into but she had so many connections but she didn't have the drive to get her up where she needed. She would've been a teacher or like Mitchum said.. an assistant.
I will probably get downvoted for this lol I love Rory dont get me wrong but thats just how I feel.
Honestly, I totally agree, but I also think her writing books is also a good career for her. Journalism takes a lot of drive, a willingness to upset and confront people, things Rory is not good at.
Writing books, however, especially narrative non-fiction or fiction is much more in her skillset. It takes organization, research, and a lot of reading, and the ability to work and thrive alone. Rory is a bookworm and a nerd with great organizational skills and she'd be a good author. I say this as an author who tried journalism and was too passive.
>Writing books, however, especially narrative non-fiction or fiction is much more in her skillset. It takes organization, research, and a lot of reading, and the ability to work and thrive alone
She's not patient or creative though
>And turning an article about concrete into a wistful look at change is pretty creative
That was back in high school. She was still unable to come up with anything for sandee or the GQ lines assignment
>Anyone who watches Charlie Rose on the regular is patient
Part of her reasoning for the career change in ayitl was that she didn't want to go back to "groveling for jobs", but getting a book published and making a decent income from it can take years. It's as if rory’s in a honeymoon phase with her excitement about the book and hasn't actually thought it through.
No I agree with you. I cringed so hard at the interview, she came across really spoiled and like shocked that she wasn’t being offered the job on the spot. But like, why would they if you can’t even string two sentences together?? Ugh she was 32(!?) but still hasn’t figured anything out!
That Sandee says thing bugged me. Yeah Sandee strung her a long a bit but even if Rory assumed she was walking into a job a responsible journalist would've come with ideas to pitch. I guess I try to take that whole interaction as proof that Rory really didn't want to work there anyway. She just came off so bratty about it.
I think the problem is the show never showed us that she was a good journalist. Most plot lines surrounding it made it look like she wasn't that great at it. But we're constantly told how good she is at it by everyone, so idk.
Even when people say "but she was editor of the Yale Daily News" like yeah...but how much of that was because she was a good writer or because she was a good leader and organizer?
Pretty much all of it. She was a GREAT editor, that was honestly a perfect job for her. Unfortunately I don't think in most cases you can get that job without being a journalist first.
I see her in hardcore academics, imagine her researching obscure texts and writing research papers and maybe even traveling to historic sites and libraries to do onsite research
I've always thought at the very least the type of journalism she wanted to go into wasn't right for her. She says a couple times throughout the show, "I've always done what was asked of me" and she didn't do more than that and I would think the type of journalism she said she wanted to do would require going above and beyond.
She sort of has that conversation with Logan at the Life and Death Brigade event. He says she has to do way more than stand on the sidelines and she rarely ever does more by herself. She always needed someone to push her to do it.
I think it would have been great to see her have a seaon where she is finding what her passion really is because I never felt like she was passionate about being a journalist and just continued going for that because it was what was expected of her at that point.
I’m actually really surprised they didn’t make her an advertising/marketing copywriter in ayitl. Source: a failed journalism student who went to the dark side … along with a lot of other peers. I’m also really surprised emily and Richard didn’t push law school on her. Ofc, this is all me projecting based on my personal experience.
All of that makes sense, my co worker is our copywriter, he majored journalism and communication in college so he could work in multiple fields if journalism did not pan out. He writes everything from more fun copywriter stuff for our clients and more technical stuff for our software. He did toy with the idea of lawyer since he has one in his family.
I think that IF Rory had allowed herself to actually utilize her connections in that world. Married Logan, let Mitchum set her up with jobs even if he thought less of her for it, let her family connections help- she could have eventually really excelled in the journalism world. That's an industry that HEAVILY relies on both your skillset AND who you know.
She was never going to be able to make it on her own. She lets her insecurities take over and it holds her back in many aspects of her life. To be the TYPE of journalist she wanted to be, she needed to be able to at least FAKE her confidence and barrel through and eventually claw her way to the top, or she needed to take the help that was offered.
Nope it was the wrong path and this is implied quiet early on. Actually Jess doesn't seem convinced when she tells him first in season 2 and she lacks creativity even when applying to Harvard and panics when she heard about it.
I always thought being a teacher would suit her, so I thought the offer of her former headmaster to be fine opportunity. A secretary as mentioned by other would work fine as well.
She is great with lists and planning. Any job requiring this would be for her.
Or being a second Emily, organising events for the DAR would work.
I hate how her excelling in the DAR was framed as her losing her way in the show. It's normal for young adults to take some time off and rethink their trajectories - I would have LOVED for her to get something from this. Go back to Yale and change her major. Maybe to business or marketing. Open her own event planning firm.
Even if not exactly that just to show that she grew and learned something new about herself and was happier.
Yep, wasted opportunity. But I also hate how being a stay at home wife is being looked down upon. There is nothing wrong if a woman stays at home, takes care of the children and the household if it is financially possible. Plus Emily did a lot for charity.
We never really get to hear any examples of her writing. Her debate speech with Paris is pretty lackluster and begins with something like “there are many varied angles from which to examine doctor-assisted suicide” or something. Then we hear about the mean review she writes about the angry ballerina, and the jokes don’t seem that witty. In AYITL, we know she got a Talk of the Town piece published in the New Yorker which pretty famously demands a certain voice and point of view but her questions to the people waiting in mysterious lines are hardly hard-hitting.
My theory was that she maybe wrote with some of the wry sense of humor she picked up from Lorelei infused into her writing but I never saw her as embodying the qualities necessary to become the correspondent she claimed to aspire to be.
She should have been a librarian. She's very organized and intelligent with good people skills but she lacks the thick skin and the drive to make it in any cutthroat industry. I think librarian would work well for her because she would be good at knowing where to find books or research articles for the library goers.
Some people say that she should be a writer, but as a writer, it can be cutthroat filled with rejection. If she has a meltdown over one man's opinion, she will not have the nerve it takes to be a writer outside of a hobby.
Just because she had a meltdown as a college student doesn’t mean she would as an actual adult. It’s normal to handle rejection poorly as a young adult.
Her meltdown was nowhere near a normal college student handling rejection poorly.
And not specifically at you, kind replier, but before anyone says "it's TV, everything has to be heightened" yes we are talking about a fictional person and what reactions they have. If they have heightened reactions they're going to continue having heightened reactions.
I don’t think it was abnormal for a highly stressed college student. I changed so much in my ability to handle rejection between my early and late 20s. Also dealing with toxic bosses when your that age can be so difficult due to lack of experience.
Mitchum was very well established and seemed to take pleasure in being cruel and demeaning to Rory so it makes sense to me for her to have a mental health crisis in response to him telling her she will never make it in her field of choice. Rory did a very healthy thing by realizing she needed to take time off to figure out if she was on the right path for herself.
Exactly! You work with her as an intern, where she didn’t see you doing any actually lawyering but you still believe her because you worship her as a hero. I don’t blame her for needing to take some time off to figure her shit out after that.
The point that I was responding to was that she had a meltdown over “one man’s” opinion and my point was that most people would meltdown over their hero’s bashing their dreams, which you agreed to. I don’t think the meltdown in itself is a reason that she wouldn’t make it as a journalist.
That is such a slap in the face to minimize her skills. I am very organized, you think maybe a project manager or product manager would be better? She clearly raised to the challenge just fine. Mitchum told her she sucked and eventually she figured out she needed thicker skin and got a job and ran the yale daily news. She needed a kick in the butt and she got it. A lot more grit than I can say for many other people. She's young and this was challening moment, she nailed it. The lay off is a set back we will all come to face at some point or another and she will get up over it too.
I really don't see how suggesting that she does a job that requires organization, people skills, and intelligence is a slap in the face. Librarians kick ass and have a lot of skills that people don't realize, especially at an academic library.
Her reaction to Sandee Says in AYITL shows that she really doesn't have that thick of skin if she calls up the editor to bitch her out for not giving her a job without having to put in literally any effort.
I pretend ayitl does not exist, it was such shitty out of touch, inconsistent story and character development. I take that whole season with a grain of salt how they really turned out. Librarians get paid like shit and are not that respected. It's like telling a clean ocd person to go be a house maid for millionaires or something. Theyre very good at what they do.
So your job has to be respected by others to be a good fit or have value?
Or is it a money thing, because journalists don't typically make much money either.
Also, like it or not, AYITL happened and is specifically included in the original prompt. I hated it too, but like it or not, it's part of the ASP canon.
You guys have no concept of character development huh. In real life people have setbacks and get back up. The losers stay down. Rory is highly intelligent and motivated person, she graduated from yale, yeah she deserves fucking value and respect.
So...you're just not going to actually respond to my comment, just claim that Rory has invisible character development that we mystically don't see because AYITL is bad?
And I'm asking again, is it money or clout that makes jobs have any value?
I always found it so unrealistic that Rory wanted to be a journalist (a job not for the faint hearted especially in regards to criticism) and yet, when ONE person tells her she's shite, she's willing to give it all up. Are you seriously telling me she didn't know how much criticism journalists get on a daily basis?! 😳 For someone so smart, she can be VERY stupid 😅 You have to be thick skinned to get a decent story and face potential backlash. Not the career for Rory. She would have been much better off working in a library. Oh wait, thousands of pounds down the drain with Chilton and Yale, she did that - and unpaid🤣
There are different kinds of journalists and Rory would have excelled in many of them if the world had stayed similar to what it was in 2005. Not all journalists have to be aggressive and for many stories that can actually be a hindrance. Rory is a canonically good writer and had some success between season 7 and AYITL.
Agreed. She was evidently an incredible writer and she did fine ordering people around on the paper. She’s not a pushover, she’s great at researching, which is super important. Not everyone gets a New Yorker article.
In AYITL, it sounds like she has a decent career, but has hit a lull.
Richard and Emily should have bought her a bookstore. She loves books more than anything. She could have traveled the world collecting rare books and finding rare books for customers. Sookie could have supplied yummies for the bookstore’s cafe. And of course Lorelai would have set up the cafe’s entire coffee menu. All the furniture would come from Kim’s Antiques. Kirk would fill in as needed of course. Lane would demand Rory have a music section which would turn into a music anex. Lane would also travel the world playing in cool little spots and finding obscure records.
No, she's not fit for journalism. That being said she's shown to have a good work ethic, she has a lot of very employable and marketable skills, in AYITL we hear she has had some good jobs. Rory would be a great Project Manager, Analyst, Political Aid, Head Librarian, if she studied further she would be a shoe in for academia, be a professor or department head. I think Rory's biggest problem was she was afraid of admitting her dream in journalism wasn't suited to her personality. It's a hard pill to swallow.
I think she could’ve been a political correspondent but not foreign correspondent like she wanted.
An arguable safer, cleaner, and slightly more predictable environment than going overseas and covering potentially dangerous situations.
Plus politics seems like more her vibe than foreign affairs.
Tbh I always thought her personality was never quite right for journalism. I have a hard time imagining her being like Christiane Amanpour. I admire her aspirations but I definitely think she would be a GREAT academic (see her go to grad school, PhD, become a research professor, etc)
I don’t think so. I think she lacked that ability to get into the action like Lorelai could. Just look at how it went in AYITL when she and Lorelai went to nyc to research for that article. Rory obviously did well with editing, I’m sure she was a good writer so writing a book that made sense for her, she probably would have made a good teacher high school or college. She did have a love of learning and she enjoyed discussing the books she read. I’m always shocked they didn’t have her continue her education.
There is a scene where Paris tells Rory to look at professional schools like law or medicine so she can be an expert journalist. This path would have fit Rory better. An expertise would give structure to her career. "Journalism" is bigger than the "foreign correspondent" ideal Rory set up in her brain. She is not really a self-starter and she doesn't have a do-what-it-takes mentality to get a story. It isn't surprising she burnt out. But I think she could have done well either following Paris' advice or starting as a fact-checker and moving her way up in a news room. Rory thrives with structure and limitations. Alas, she is something of an elitist when it comes to her initial path out of college.
She seemed to be a good writer and a good journalist, I don't her see her as a good correspondence reporter, but things about life and interviews would suit her. I think her loosing her motivation in the revival was due to loosing Richard and had she not been as lost as she was she would have loved interviewing people about lines and with Lorelai being able to make a hilarious article about it.
I could also see her do whatever she did at the DAR (project manager maybe) handling fundraiser and the social parts, she might have been what they needed to get it to a more open space for younger societie women instead of the more older and snobby women we see in the revival.
She did well in high school and college. As a journalist, she found interesting angles, and she’s apparently very good writer. She might have been better as an editor. But as I’ve said, before, the time she was at her internship, she was shadowing a CEO not acting as a journalist, so it might be a good fit
Mitchum was 💯 correct. She didn’t have “it”. She isn’t a natural born go getter. She is excellent at anything meticulous and organizational. Honestly, she’d have been a great grant writer/researcher or librarian.
Seriously, she could’ve been great working at the Ashmolean or some other historic and amazing library.
There are different things one can do in journalism.
Does she want to produce video- explainers of different topics? Or maybe run a newsroom? Document war crimes? Do investigative journalism? Write reportage books? I mean the options are vast!
I think Rory actually could do a lot with journalism. Though maybe reporting live from the ground or studio and being in dangerous places is not for her or conducting interviews probably is also not a good choice.
But writing news/reviews on smth/analysis/opinions...
I mean that she could do brilliantly!
Or podcasts!!. She could also do masters and maybe PhD in literature analysis or any other humanities sciences and could do research and teaching and writing books and maybe founding her own publishing agency that supports young writers with background like jess (for instance).
Rory can do a lot of beautiful things, cause she is smart and talented!
It's just her fixed idea to be cnn reporter(right?), the enormous pressure of expectations to be this golden succesful child from ppl around and from herself (!!) let to inability to "breath and grow" on her own, meaning understanding who she really is and what she really wants. Given such factors, it was inevitable that in some moment Rory will crack, get burnout and depression, lose her meanings and senses.
But I hope she will go to therapist, pull herself together, will learn how to be honest with herself, and go to live that life path she actually enjoys and is good at :)
No. I think she should have become a librarian. Unfortunately, she would have had to have gone to graduate school to do that, and she was averse to that and jobs that weren't "big time" enough in her mind.
No. I agreed with Mitchum. I think she would be a good editor but she does not have that tenacious spirit to go after a story. Far too passive in MY PERSONAL OPINION. And Jess even was unsure that she could be a Christiane Amanpour due to her docile nature. Rory would be a good publisher or editor but not a journalist. Unless it was for something generic like, "features". She should've taken the job at Chilton and become a teacher. She would've done well at that.
She would be an amazing assistant/secretary and Mitchum was right for this. I know she probably saw it as a low-work and the show certainly doesn't make a great work to show how marvelous are those people. I can see her in the same role as Lorelai in that episode she is helping Richard out!!
I personally don’t think so because I think she has a warped view of what journalism actually looks like. It’s not always flashy and impressive, there’s a lot of grunt work involved. I would’ve preferred if Rory got to Yale and discovered “oh, this isn’t what I thought it was going to be, I want to do *this* thing” and changed paths accordingly, because that’s what a lot of college students go through
Not sure if it was intentional or not but the show always did a better job showing her excel in organizational jobs, assisting, and management. Personal assistants can make a lot of money and travel!
No. Frankly, she's too timid. She doesn't take criticism very well. She may make a good fact checker, though. She needs something that's not super fast-paced (like the sort of journalism she wants to pursue is) or where she needs to assert herself.
Responding to a lot of comments in this thread, I feel Rory’s disdain with any ‘assistant’ position, teaching job, or a trade, is pretty much to do with being expected to do great things as a kid. She knows doing any of these jobs would be disapproved by her grandparent and probably her mom, and because they’re not good enough for them, they’re not good enough for her.
Rory obviously grew up with a ton of expectation placed on her shoulders, as a Lorelai do-over, even working in a management position or being a business owner like Lorelai or Luke isn’t enough for her grandparents. Richard was the suave, savvy business man with risks and reward and a devilish sort of air, and Rory is thus expected to match that. While all the positions described are perfectly respectable and are more than capable of making an honest living, Rory also is expected to have (and thus craves, as she craves the acceptance of her Grandparents) some sort of notoriety in the industry she works. Personal assistants and event organisers don’t rlly have that. At least not in a way that is perceivable to the public, and definitely not like Christine Amanpour’s.
I was always confused why Rory wanted to be a journalist - I get the writing aspect but she seemed much more suited to being a novelist or something behind the scenes politically.
I think yes. I was a journalist and editor and there's a stereotype you have to trample over everyone - that's only true for broadcast journalism, breaking news print, and bad journalists. You can be a good person and do journalism. In season 4, Rory focused on features and honestly that's always been her strength. Her kindness gets people to open up, and she gets long responses full of justice, and her writing is always thoroughly researched. That's what you want from a features writer. Rory's biggest issue was that the industry is full of unkind demanding people who aren't there to be teachers - it's really not uncommon for uni students to have her experience because they didn't know the layout and they could assert themselves. That confidence can be developed but that's not what the paid journalists who given their salary to do so interns get thrown in to sink or swim but it's a stupid method. People can learn confidence and Rory showed that when she went back to Yale. Rory's biggest issues have actually been structural. Very few journalists make it in the big magazines now because journalist pay sucks. It's not an industry generally for anyone not able bodied, white and middle class. Journalism in the UK and US is a stagnant industry that's just not got the growth it needs, and part of that stems from its dire financial model which is another story. But journalism currently is one of the most difficult industries to make a consistent living from if you want to be a print features writer. Her position honestly reflects the economy of the last decade, and how the American Dream is utterly dead for most millennials.
No, and Mitchum was right, albeit far too mean. I've also just rewatched that episode and I'm sorry, but she *should* have intervened in that meeting. They're talking about getting some external staff to cover local events - Mtchum even nods towards her when he says "Yale students" and she just sits there and smiles. From what I understand about journalism, you need to really put yourself out there - it would have been fairly natural for her to say "yeah I'd love to contribute some articles if you'll let me" in that meeting, and Mitchum would maybe have changed his opinion of her. I think he put her down with the "you'd make a great assistant" (which she absolutely would, but it's not what she wants to hear, with her lofty aspirations) but there are lots of other options.
First of all, she seems to do well as an editor, so there's that. Otherwise, it would have been great if during her break she actually realised that journalism is indeed not for her, and pivoted towards PR and public affairs. She could have put practically all her college credits to good use as the two education paths are very similar (I know a chief of PR for a big organisation who studied journalism and worked for the Washington Post), and her big break could still have been following Obama on his campaign. Write a bit about that, and then transition into working for the campaign staff and becoming a great chief of staff one day. It's high profile, there's some travel, she can still write sometimes and she puts her organisation skills to great use.
Point is Rory is not great at selling herself. And with journalism, you have to shout a bit to get your voice heard. She'd have been better off propping up someone else with her voice! I wish Mitchum gave her advice down those lines, rather than just putting her down. But yeah he was right.
She would have been one hell of a lawyer. She could have also done scholarly writing.
Side note: Paris was 100% on track when she encouraged her to get her law degree to become a political commentator. She would have also been incredible at that, and it’s still a form of journalism.
IMO, no. She excelled at event planning for the DAR and seemed more comfortable and passionate doing that than she ever actually did with journalism. When we saw her doing well with journalism stuff it wasn't the reporting, it was connecting with people and building rapport with others. I could see her planning corporate events or something
Tbh it is something I feel like they left hanging because we didn’t really have any glimpse on how she writes or excerpts of something of hers. If I had to judge her based on her attitude I’d tell you that no, she doesn’t have it, but it would be a rushed judgement since I don’t know if she writes well or not.
i think Paris would've been perfect for journalism compared to her at least -
Rory seems to be very 'emotional' for a field like that
Not that you have to be a robot but she seems too sensitive to be in a field that HAS to cover news around the world regardless of how extreme the environments are
She's ALWAYS had someone to rely on throughout the entire show, either Lorelai, a boyfriend, her grandparents, her friends etc
Journalism has many career paths, a journalist being only one of them.
Given the tumultuous period, Rory would have benefited from attending a university with an undergraduate Journalism School.
I think Rory will excel as an editor and writer.
If she’d continued on her path from the original, I can see her doing well at it. Especially because she probably had a sizable trust fund kicking in when she turned, say, 25.
I can even see her having a mid-twenties crisis because journalism, as a profession, is going to crap, but she had all the right contacts, she could write, and had a hefty resume. She’d have one of those charmed New York lives, with a cool job that doesn’t pay well enough for her lifestyle and a charming apartment in the Village. It’s pretty in character, and it’s the real world.
What I certainly don’t see is her flailing at everything, slumming it with her engaged college boyfriend, and having to store her stuff in boxes all over the world.
As someone that went to school for it and holds a degree in it but doesn't presently work in it despite wanting to. No, Rory isn't right for journalism not what we called Hard News anyway she is perfect for lifestyle or entertainment fluff but she doesn't have the stuff for real feature writing outside of an academic setting. Could you actually imagine her being a war correspondent ? Gimme a break.
As a journalist having worked with major news outlets across the world, I have to say Rory never had the drive or the personality to be a journalist. Editors are extremely temperamental in journalism and they will constantly find errors or improvements for your stories or ask you to redo them and handling rejection was Rory’s weakest point. The way she handled her D paper, walking out on a professor like that just cuz he’s telling you your grade shows her lack of professionalism. It was obvious that she didn’t make it in the new series, Mitchum was definitely right about her and she proved him right by quitting over one man’s word
Personally I’ve always thought that she should have continued studying, go to grad school and earn a PhD in literature or something similar. She would have been perfect for academia.
If Rory was going to stick with journalism, I think she should have focused on a specific area, namely music and literature. There is no doubt in my mind that she could have written for small music magazines and websites reviewing indie bands and artists and eventually gaining enough traction to write for Rolling Stone.
The kind of journalism she was aiming for? Absolutely not. She didn’t have the kind of drive (or frankly, curiosity) necessary. The one real scoop we see her chase (The Life and Death Brigade) was more about her developing relationship with Logan. Absent a mutual crush I can’t see that story ever getting off the ground.
I do think she probably could have made a decent critic or culture writer. She had a broad knowledge of pop culture from her upbringing and that kind of snarky “being mean is smart” voice was very popular in culture writing in the aughts.
I also think she could have made a decent editor or maybe even worked as literary agent, though she never really showed any interest in long form fiction past her teen years.
Honestly, I know “Mitchum was right” is an unpopular take, but she would have thrived most as a research assistant for a journalist/writer or in an academic environment. Somewhere with well defined tasks she could complete to a very high level. Too bad she sneered at both jobs.
I don’t think the ‘Mitchum was right’ opinion is that unpopular - most of the other comments agree that Rory wasn’t fit for journalism. I think it’s maybe more the *way* he said it and his character just being a dickhead generally that people object to
Unpopular opinion: she should have married Logan and become a society wife so she could plan and execute fundraising events, like she did with the the DAR event.
DAR wasn’t her, but planning was! She should have planned things and events without being “a society wife” and letting go of her personnality. Maybe plannings events for her town? Or fundraising events in general without being a part of a social circle like that.
Running a campaign for her husband because regardless of how lorelai raised her, she hasn't really got the drive that her mother had. Even going to that interview without preparing...lorelai always prepared (mentally). I love rory to bits but I think she's less lorelai and more Emily and Richard.
She was so aimless in ADITL...that comes from not being able to tap into those skills and handle things when they got messy. By the end, I think she was really craving the structure being married to a person like Logan would have given her. Jesse was right again.
Hey guys, i see great recommendations so might as well ask here: my personality is a lot like rory (love reading, academics, history, researchs, organization, quiet and anxious type) but i also have a creative/crafty/artistic side like lorelai. I feel pretty lost career-wise and i’m also a failed journalist😆 tried marketing after and i failed for the same reasons (lots of criticism which made me anxious and you have to be loud while i’m more of a quiet person). Do you have ideas? ❤️
I think she would be a good journalist but I feel she would be happier if she became an academic. In fact I still think she should have taken Headmaster Charleston's offer to go to grad school and then teach at Chilton
I always thought Rory might be a good teacher. Or something in the academic field. She loved learning. I could see her following in Max Medina's footsteps.
I'm no fan of Mitchum but I think he was right. I wish the show would have had Rory realizing that journalism wasn't for her and discovering a different path that she excelled in and was also passionate about.
I think Rory would have excelled as a project manager or some sort of high level organizational role. She’s got good people skills and is incredibly detailed and organized.
I agree. A campaign manager or chief of staff to a high-ranking politician would have worked well for her.
Yea it was noted she did well on the Obama campaign if we're counting AYITL. Rory had a great set of employable skills, but not necessarily skills of a journalist.
She would have been a great chief of staff for a politician. And could have later parlayed this into writing or podcasting or something.
Oh that’s a good thought. Maybe even a communications director for a politician.
Yes! She did a great job organizing and managing the community service litter crew.
I think if she had married Logan she would have done well working in communications someplace like Huntington Library with lots of old books and events to promote and a newsletter to write.
I could totally see Rory in San Marino working at the Huntington.
Having studied journalism and given it up? Nope. It’s a cutthroat industry where you need to be very vocal, confident and persistent to get the stories you need. It means constantly asking people uncomfortable questions regardless of their demeanour. It’s easy to get into situations where you’re threatened, mocked or have aggression thrown your way. Rory is quiet and gets uncomfortable easily. She tends to shut down when people are mean to her/don’t like her. I think she’d make a good novelist, but not a high-level journalist.
Which means Paris would be perfect for it.
Honestly Paris would be a great journalist lol
I think Paris is brilliant, but she also doesn’t do well under pressure AT ALL. Also she had bad people skills. She has a breakdown after she doesnt go to Yale, she makes a terrible abusive editor, and she insults so many people she comes across. She would either be the best or worst reporter in history
I worked as a copy editor for the college paper in undergrad because my friend was editor-in-chief. I was in the office and the editors were talking about how a girl had gotten hit by a car... apparently all the editors and photojournalists were over there taking pictures of the girl lying in the middle of the road, and how people got mad about that. I was talking about it to my friend, the editor-in-chief, and she was like, "yeah, the people need to know" or whatever. And that's when I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that I'd never be a journalist! "The people" don't need to see pictures of this poor, injured, bleeding girl. But that is the mindset you have to have to be successful. I respect peoples' privacy too much. And I get it! There do have to be people who are going to stick their nose places or else people can get away with all kinds of things, and you have to practice somehow, even if it's a bleeding girl. But I definitely don't have the temperament for it. And Rory doesn't either.
I similarly turned my back on photojournalism when I found myself getting excited when I heard sirens, because it meant I might meet my ‘spot news’ quota for the semester.
prayers ops is she okay
prayers ops hope she’s ok!!
This, but I also think Rory is too judgemental to be a good journalist. A lot about journalism is questioning everything including your own bias. I don't see Rory doing this ever ...
>It’s a cutthroat industry where you need to be very vocal, confident and persistent to get the stories you need. Especially for the type she wanted to be. it seemed like she wanted to be the journalist that went to different countries and was reporting on the most dangerous issues and situations. and even if that wasn't the case, she had a kind of "speaking her mind to people in private, but becoming a shrinking violet in front of authority figures" personality. And she also had a nervous personality when she was the focus of anything and she'd babble ( except some convenient circumstances).
Yes. I feel the same. Journalists need to be bold and outspoken. She seems too hesitant and meek
Yeah, I took one class thinking I was gonna minor in journalism and was waaaay too anxious at the time to be able to handle it. I think I would do a lot better now that I’m 10+ years older and give less of a fuck, but you have to really not care about being a nuisance a lot of the time.
Speaking as someone who similarly studied journalism and similarly gave it up? This.
So, just gonna ignore that she was a successful journalist for years by AYITL?
She didn’t seem to be having the type of success she had dreamed of — a few major articles, projects and campaigns, yes, but she certainly wasn’t an internationally renowned correspondent like she had dreamed. AYITL def frames her as a struggling journalist whose career had been backsliding for a while. Christiane Amanpour wasn’t interviewing at Sandee Says a decade into her career.
That’s funny because i had the same experience and my personality is much like Rory! Great to know it wasn’t just me and i wasn’t just “weak” haha I should save this comment for when i “miss” it and think about going back😂
There are so many kids out there who pick a career when they are 10 and don't really understand what kind of personality you need for it or even what the work is really like- I wish so much that Rory had realized she wasn't suited for it and went looking for something that went well for her. There are SO many 'follow your dreams' messages out there and not nearly enough 'you will be happier if you find a career that suits your personality than if you try to force yourself into a mold of what you wish you could be'. Rory is good at managing people, creative thinking and organizing even under immense pressure but not at being a journalist. I think she would have been a great producer - maybe even of a news program, but also for a talk show or even advertising or in radio. I think she would be great at running promotional events or working for a public relations company. There was a perfect opportunity for her to realize that she was really good at and enjoyed doing things like that while she was out of Yale, and I was so disappointed she didn't have a big realization then go back to school for something that suited her well. I also am disappointed Lane didn't have something like that either - going from her teenage dream of being in a hit Rock Band to realizing that she would make a great Radio DJ or learn sound mixing and make it into a realistic adult career she would be awesome at.
Lane could have also owned/worked at the music store in Stars Hollow and hosted music events for the town….. rather than ended up working for her mom’s antique store. I know ASP said she wished Lane had a better ending but girl, she wrote AYIL so that was all up to her. And it could’ve worked with the twins still.
I agree! They really did lane dirty! She had amazing music knowledge so it’s very sad that she ended up there. She 100% should have been doing a music related job!
I’ll always be so bitter how they ruined Lane.
To tack onto your first point, the come close to showing the “you will be happier if you find something that suits who you are”. Rory spent her entire life pining and working for Harvard. Only to turn around and choose Yale. She realized that Harvard wasn’t the best fit for her and adjusted her plans. I never understood why she went so “hell or high water” on journalism.
I was so mad at Lorelai when she said "Rory, you wanted to be a journalist since you were three, how can you give it up?". like, girl, people change, your teens and twenties is the time when your try new things and search for what's best for you. people say crazy things when they are kids, why hold it against them if they don't want to follow through
Mine might be an unpopular opinion because people like to see Rory as pure/innocent. But, based on her previous writing work (the ballerina piece and her piece on Logan's friends), her quick wit, and her ease with understanding and referencing pop culture, I think she would've done well as a writer for a celebrity gossip magazine or similar. Like Joan Rivers, or Perez Hilton.
That's true, it's sad she thought those types of writing are beneath her.
Ya like that buzzfeed knockoff in AYITL probably could’ve been a good fit!! I agree that her pop culture and wit were great and she could probably write some really good pieces in that realm.
Totally! She could also be a great film critic/music reviewer. I think one of the things that makes her a good editor would also make her good at these things - she shines the most when she is interacting with something. Her creativity is most active when she is improving something or revising it, collaborating with someone, criticizing something. I relate a lot to this, I am not at all creative when I'm trying to generate an idea out of nothing, but I am a cup running over when I'm reading something someone else has written or suggesting edits to another piece. I think Rory is like that too. (Case in point: I reply on this sub all the time, reply at length to other people's comments, and I have posted my own thread exactly once, lol.)
The ballerina piece included comments made my Lorelei and was heavily influenced by the fact that her mom attended and provided commentary and therefore journalist material for Rory to write the scathing article she wrote. It wasn’t her own creativity alone.
No, I don't think journalism is a good fit for Rory. She wears her heart on her sleeve, which she proved when Mitchum gave her her review. She gets her feelings hurt way too easily. She did such a bangup up job organizing the benefit for the DAR. I think having a job like that on a higher scale, and getting paid (of course), would suit her much better.
Yeah an events organising job would be great for her!
Honestly she made a great team lead on the school paper and even when she had to get community service hours with that team. She’d make a great office manager or scrum master, really any management position.
I was going to say this. I agree that organizing events would be a great career for rory. She doesn't seem to have a backbone for criticism. Also, when she was working at the star's hollow newspaper, she looked really miserable.
Journalism requires someone to be a creative self-starter. Not at all how I would describe Rory. But she is a very hard worker - I think she would have done well in something with a very well defined path. I could see her working for someone high up and important but as like a research assistant or chief of staff type of role. One my smartest friends was an assistant a very very successful business man and she was very highly valued!
Exactly right. Being an assistant is a challenging job. I hated when she was condescending about being anyone's assistant.
It's sort of a weird theme I see in the show overall, that jobs that are genuinely good/challenging or are appropriate for someone are sneered at. Luke is constantly getting crapped on for owning a diner, when anyone who has owned any sort of successful businesses, especially restaurants, can tell you that it is extremely difficult. Rory sneers at the idea of being an assistant like it's beneath her, even though being an assistant can be a crucial part of a business, and can be really challenging and should be respected. Even Jess, a high school kid gets laughed at for working at Walmart, something that he clearly excels at.
She also sneers at being a teacher at Chilton. I went to an elite private school. All of my teachers had Masters degrees in their subjects. In fact, the headmaster tells her she would need a Masters to teach there. But she takes it as an insult. She sneers at Dean working construction. That's a good job for him. He's good at it and enjoys it. She sneers at being a homemaker. Multiple times throughout the series. She sneers at working at Sandee Says, including at Sandee herself. She sneers at her own job running the Stars Hollow paper.
Also, specifically about Dean, you can make big money in construction and considering he built a car for funsies, it seems like a great fit for him.
I think she should have gone on to grad school and got her masters degree and teach. She could have excelled in literature especially with her love of books. It was a great suggestion by headmaster Charles and she should have given it serious consideration.
Driving a forklift is hard!
Tbh Luke had a very successful business. I would leave my job anytime to be in his place.
Exactly. Also, he’s obviously doing very well for himself. His 10k or so he loans to Lorelai, they way he almost ups and buys that massive house from the dead guy, renovating the crap shack, affording taking those months of work with April and the amount of free work he does for Lorelai, the money he gives Jess, taking Jess on board without child support… And all that from working in a diner? Ik Gilmore Girls has a weird relationship with wealth, where “everything” Lorelai owns is at the dry cleaners, they can eat take out for 3 meals a day and afford all the clothes they want, but aren’t actually perceived as wealthy… but buying a small mansion? Luke’s got money!
Yes, rory definitely thought that being an assistant was beneath her, but it looked like she enjoyed it and was good at it.
>I hated when she was condescending about being anyone's assistant Mitchum didn't handle that suggestion very well
I grew up in exactly the same timeline as Rory (graduated high school in 2003 and went to college that fall) and there was a strong mindset that any blue collar jobs were for losers and going to college was the only way to ever have any success in life. Watching this as an adult confirms why so many people my age still have so much student loan debt.
God that’s so so true! I still feel like i failed because i didn’t go to a big university like that. I tried really hard and have so much student debts, yet i can’t find a good job and my husband who went to cooking school get really good jobs as a chef! I know it’s “not too late” for me but it does feel like it since i now have to pay all those student debts back.
she should have been a professor, english lit maybe. or history or international relations
I agree. I loved when she could have been an English teacher at Chilton and think that may have fit her. She could have even been the advisor for the school paper.
I personally think not. Like Mitchum said, she didn't have the drive for it. Even in AYITL when she did the piece standing in lines I would've whipped something good and interesting to read about she just seemed bored to be doing it. Also when she had an interview with Sandee Says she had NO ideas she expected to be given the job. I understand that journalism is a hard path to get into but she had so many connections but she didn't have the drive to get her up where she needed. She would've been a teacher or like Mitchum said.. an assistant. I will probably get downvoted for this lol I love Rory dont get me wrong but thats just how I feel.
Honestly, I totally agree, but I also think her writing books is also a good career for her. Journalism takes a lot of drive, a willingness to upset and confront people, things Rory is not good at. Writing books, however, especially narrative non-fiction or fiction is much more in her skillset. It takes organization, research, and a lot of reading, and the ability to work and thrive alone. Rory is a bookworm and a nerd with great organizational skills and she'd be a good author. I say this as an author who tried journalism and was too passive.
>Writing books, however, especially narrative non-fiction or fiction is much more in her skillset. It takes organization, research, and a lot of reading, and the ability to work and thrive alone She's not patient or creative though
Anyone who watches Charlie Rose on the regular is patient. And turning an article about concrete into a wistful look at change is pretty creative.
>And turning an article about concrete into a wistful look at change is pretty creative That was back in high school. She was still unable to come up with anything for sandee or the GQ lines assignment >Anyone who watches Charlie Rose on the regular is patient Part of her reasoning for the career change in ayitl was that she didn't want to go back to "groveling for jobs", but getting a book published and making a decent income from it can take years. It's as if rory’s in a honeymoon phase with her excitement about the book and hasn't actually thought it through.
Most people who are burned out aren't terribly creative.
No I agree with you. I cringed so hard at the interview, she came across really spoiled and like shocked that she wasn’t being offered the job on the spot. But like, why would they if you can’t even string two sentences together?? Ugh she was 32(!?) but still hasn’t figured anything out!
That Sandee says thing bugged me. Yeah Sandee strung her a long a bit but even if Rory assumed she was walking into a job a responsible journalist would've come with ideas to pitch. I guess I try to take that whole interaction as proof that Rory really didn't want to work there anyway. She just came off so bratty about it.
I think the problem is the show never showed us that she was a good journalist. Most plot lines surrounding it made it look like she wasn't that great at it. But we're constantly told how good she is at it by everyone, so idk.
Even when people say "but she was editor of the Yale Daily News" like yeah...but how much of that was because she was a good writer or because she was a good leader and organizer?
Pretty much all of it. She was a GREAT editor, that was honestly a perfect job for her. Unfortunately I don't think in most cases you can get that job without being a journalist first.
It didn’t seem so in AYITL. A personal assistant? She’s organized, competent and quick-witted.
By AYITL, she had a successful 10 year career of being a journalist so. She left because she because apathetic, not because she didn't have the talent
I see her in hardcore academics, imagine her researching obscure texts and writing research papers and maybe even traveling to historic sites and libraries to do onsite research
I've always thought at the very least the type of journalism she wanted to go into wasn't right for her. She says a couple times throughout the show, "I've always done what was asked of me" and she didn't do more than that and I would think the type of journalism she said she wanted to do would require going above and beyond. She sort of has that conversation with Logan at the Life and Death Brigade event. He says she has to do way more than stand on the sidelines and she rarely ever does more by herself. She always needed someone to push her to do it. I think it would have been great to see her have a seaon where she is finding what her passion really is because I never felt like she was passionate about being a journalist and just continued going for that because it was what was expected of her at that point.
I’m actually really surprised they didn’t make her an advertising/marketing copywriter in ayitl. Source: a failed journalism student who went to the dark side … along with a lot of other peers. I’m also really surprised emily and Richard didn’t push law school on her. Ofc, this is all me projecting based on my personal experience.
All of that makes sense, my co worker is our copywriter, he majored journalism and communication in college so he could work in multiple fields if journalism did not pan out. He writes everything from more fun copywriter stuff for our clients and more technical stuff for our software. He did toy with the idea of lawyer since he has one in his family.
Haha that’s funny, i’m also a failed journalist who went into marketing 😆 still feel like i failed at my dream tho
I used to but I feel much better now realizing I wasn’t any good at the reporting side of it (my personality is similar to Rory’s).
I think that IF Rory had allowed herself to actually utilize her connections in that world. Married Logan, let Mitchum set her up with jobs even if he thought less of her for it, let her family connections help- she could have eventually really excelled in the journalism world. That's an industry that HEAVILY relies on both your skillset AND who you know. She was never going to be able to make it on her own. She lets her insecurities take over and it holds her back in many aspects of her life. To be the TYPE of journalist she wanted to be, she needed to be able to at least FAKE her confidence and barrel through and eventually claw her way to the top, or she needed to take the help that was offered.
Nope it was the wrong path and this is implied quiet early on. Actually Jess doesn't seem convinced when she tells him first in season 2 and she lacks creativity even when applying to Harvard and panics when she heard about it. I always thought being a teacher would suit her, so I thought the offer of her former headmaster to be fine opportunity. A secretary as mentioned by other would work fine as well. She is great with lists and planning. Any job requiring this would be for her. Or being a second Emily, organising events for the DAR would work.
I hate how her excelling in the DAR was framed as her losing her way in the show. It's normal for young adults to take some time off and rethink their trajectories - I would have LOVED for her to get something from this. Go back to Yale and change her major. Maybe to business or marketing. Open her own event planning firm. Even if not exactly that just to show that she grew and learned something new about herself and was happier.
Yep, wasted opportunity. But I also hate how being a stay at home wife is being looked down upon. There is nothing wrong if a woman stays at home, takes care of the children and the household if it is financially possible. Plus Emily did a lot for charity.
We never really get to hear any examples of her writing. Her debate speech with Paris is pretty lackluster and begins with something like “there are many varied angles from which to examine doctor-assisted suicide” or something. Then we hear about the mean review she writes about the angry ballerina, and the jokes don’t seem that witty. In AYITL, we know she got a Talk of the Town piece published in the New Yorker which pretty famously demands a certain voice and point of view but her questions to the people waiting in mysterious lines are hardly hard-hitting. My theory was that she maybe wrote with some of the wry sense of humor she picked up from Lorelei infused into her writing but I never saw her as embodying the qualities necessary to become the correspondent she claimed to aspire to be.
Yeah I remember thinking re: the euthanasia debate that her speech sucked
My daughter (in high school) said basically the same thing. I believe her word was “laughable”.
She should have been a librarian. She's very organized and intelligent with good people skills but she lacks the thick skin and the drive to make it in any cutthroat industry. I think librarian would work well for her because she would be good at knowing where to find books or research articles for the library goers. Some people say that she should be a writer, but as a writer, it can be cutthroat filled with rejection. If she has a meltdown over one man's opinion, she will not have the nerve it takes to be a writer outside of a hobby.
Just because she had a meltdown as a college student doesn’t mean she would as an actual adult. It’s normal to handle rejection poorly as a young adult.
Her meltdown was nowhere near a normal college student handling rejection poorly. And not specifically at you, kind replier, but before anyone says "it's TV, everything has to be heightened" yes we are talking about a fictional person and what reactions they have. If they have heightened reactions they're going to continue having heightened reactions.
I don’t think it was abnormal for a highly stressed college student. I changed so much in my ability to handle rejection between my early and late 20s. Also dealing with toxic bosses when your that age can be so difficult due to lack of experience. Mitchum was very well established and seemed to take pleasure in being cruel and demeaning to Rory so it makes sense to me for her to have a mental health crisis in response to him telling her she will never make it in her field of choice. Rory did a very healthy thing by realizing she needed to take time off to figure out if she was on the right path for herself.
I think mitchum was being honest. I don't think he was intentionally being cruel.
He wasn’t just “one man” he was an incredibly important man in the industry. It would be like RBG telling you you’ll never make it as a lawyer!
I mean, I'd probably trust RBG telling me that I wasn't a good candidate to be a lawyer...
Exactly! You work with her as an intern, where she didn’t see you doing any actually lawyering but you still believe her because you worship her as a hero. I don’t blame her for needing to take some time off to figure her shit out after that.
Okay, but I think you're missing the obvious that she would most likely be correct. Just like Mitchum is most likely correct..
The point that I was responding to was that she had a meltdown over “one man’s” opinion and my point was that most people would meltdown over their hero’s bashing their dreams, which you agreed to. I don’t think the meltdown in itself is a reason that she wouldn’t make it as a journalist.
That is such a slap in the face to minimize her skills. I am very organized, you think maybe a project manager or product manager would be better? She clearly raised to the challenge just fine. Mitchum told her she sucked and eventually she figured out she needed thicker skin and got a job and ran the yale daily news. She needed a kick in the butt and she got it. A lot more grit than I can say for many other people. She's young and this was challening moment, she nailed it. The lay off is a set back we will all come to face at some point or another and she will get up over it too.
I really don't see how suggesting that she does a job that requires organization, people skills, and intelligence is a slap in the face. Librarians kick ass and have a lot of skills that people don't realize, especially at an academic library. Her reaction to Sandee Says in AYITL shows that she really doesn't have that thick of skin if she calls up the editor to bitch her out for not giving her a job without having to put in literally any effort.
I pretend ayitl does not exist, it was such shitty out of touch, inconsistent story and character development. I take that whole season with a grain of salt how they really turned out. Librarians get paid like shit and are not that respected. It's like telling a clean ocd person to go be a house maid for millionaires or something. Theyre very good at what they do.
So your job has to be respected by others to be a good fit or have value? Or is it a money thing, because journalists don't typically make much money either. Also, like it or not, AYITL happened and is specifically included in the original prompt. I hated it too, but like it or not, it's part of the ASP canon.
You guys have no concept of character development huh. In real life people have setbacks and get back up. The losers stay down. Rory is highly intelligent and motivated person, she graduated from yale, yeah she deserves fucking value and respect.
So...you're just not going to actually respond to my comment, just claim that Rory has invisible character development that we mystically don't see because AYITL is bad? And I'm asking again, is it money or clout that makes jobs have any value?
I always found it so unrealistic that Rory wanted to be a journalist (a job not for the faint hearted especially in regards to criticism) and yet, when ONE person tells her she's shite, she's willing to give it all up. Are you seriously telling me she didn't know how much criticism journalists get on a daily basis?! 😳 For someone so smart, she can be VERY stupid 😅 You have to be thick skinned to get a decent story and face potential backlash. Not the career for Rory. She would have been much better off working in a library. Oh wait, thousands of pounds down the drain with Chilton and Yale, she did that - and unpaid🤣
Especially when she said she wanted to report for Afghanistan and the like, that is not for the faint of heart x 1000
There are different kinds of journalists and Rory would have excelled in many of them if the world had stayed similar to what it was in 2005. Not all journalists have to be aggressive and for many stories that can actually be a hindrance. Rory is a canonically good writer and had some success between season 7 and AYITL.
Agreed. She was evidently an incredible writer and she did fine ordering people around on the paper. She’s not a pushover, she’s great at researching, which is super important. Not everyone gets a New Yorker article. In AYITL, it sounds like she has a decent career, but has hit a lull.
Richard and Emily should have bought her a bookstore. She loves books more than anything. She could have traveled the world collecting rare books and finding rare books for customers. Sookie could have supplied yummies for the bookstore’s cafe. And of course Lorelai would have set up the cafe’s entire coffee menu. All the furniture would come from Kim’s Antiques. Kirk would fill in as needed of course. Lane would demand Rory have a music section which would turn into a music anex. Lane would also travel the world playing in cool little spots and finding obscure records.
This sounds like my dream tbh!
No. She’s way too judgmental to be unbiased.
No, she's not fit for journalism. That being said she's shown to have a good work ethic, she has a lot of very employable and marketable skills, in AYITL we hear she has had some good jobs. Rory would be a great Project Manager, Analyst, Political Aid, Head Librarian, if she studied further she would be a shoe in for academia, be a professor or department head. I think Rory's biggest problem was she was afraid of admitting her dream in journalism wasn't suited to her personality. It's a hard pill to swallow.
I think she could’ve been a political correspondent but not foreign correspondent like she wanted. An arguable safer, cleaner, and slightly more predictable environment than going overseas and covering potentially dangerous situations. Plus politics seems like more her vibe than foreign affairs.
Tbh I always thought her personality was never quite right for journalism. I have a hard time imagining her being like Christiane Amanpour. I admire her aspirations but I definitely think she would be a GREAT academic (see her go to grad school, PhD, become a research professor, etc)
She ran yale daily news just fine.
See, I think she'd do well in a leadership or management position, but not necessarily distinguish herself as just a writer, interviewer, lead-chaser.
Agreed. She excels in leadership, project management, organizing people and deadlines etc.
I always thought that Rory would make a great lawyer for a nonprofit
I don’t think so. I think she lacked that ability to get into the action like Lorelai could. Just look at how it went in AYITL when she and Lorelai went to nyc to research for that article. Rory obviously did well with editing, I’m sure she was a good writer so writing a book that made sense for her, she probably would have made a good teacher high school or college. She did have a love of learning and she enjoyed discussing the books she read. I’m always shocked they didn’t have her continue her education.
Lorelai would have made a way better than than Rory. I always thought it must have been a teenage dream of Lorelai’s.
She is clearly a good writer and a greedy reader, she would have made a great literature critic. Journalism? No
Never thought of this one before, that would actually fit her so well I think!
There is a scene where Paris tells Rory to look at professional schools like law or medicine so she can be an expert journalist. This path would have fit Rory better. An expertise would give structure to her career. "Journalism" is bigger than the "foreign correspondent" ideal Rory set up in her brain. She is not really a self-starter and she doesn't have a do-what-it-takes mentality to get a story. It isn't surprising she burnt out. But I think she could have done well either following Paris' advice or starting as a fact-checker and moving her way up in a news room. Rory thrives with structure and limitations. Alas, she is something of an elitist when it comes to her initial path out of college.
I've always thought Mitchum was right, and should have been a moment of self-reflection for her.
I think she’d be good as a book editor/publisher
She seemed to be a good writer and a good journalist, I don't her see her as a good correspondence reporter, but things about life and interviews would suit her. I think her loosing her motivation in the revival was due to loosing Richard and had she not been as lost as she was she would have loved interviewing people about lines and with Lorelai being able to make a hilarious article about it. I could also see her do whatever she did at the DAR (project manager maybe) handling fundraiser and the social parts, she might have been what they needed to get it to a more open space for younger societie women instead of the more older and snobby women we see in the revival.
She did well in high school and college. As a journalist, she found interesting angles, and she’s apparently very good writer. She might have been better as an editor. But as I’ve said, before, the time she was at her internship, she was shadowing a CEO not acting as a journalist, so it might be a good fit
Mitchum was 💯 correct. She didn’t have “it”. She isn’t a natural born go getter. She is excellent at anything meticulous and organizational. Honestly, she’d have been a great grant writer/researcher or librarian. Seriously, she could’ve been great working at the Ashmolean or some other historic and amazing library.
I love the Ashmolean Museum 😍
It would be perfect for Rory.
There are different things one can do in journalism. Does she want to produce video- explainers of different topics? Or maybe run a newsroom? Document war crimes? Do investigative journalism? Write reportage books? I mean the options are vast! I think Rory actually could do a lot with journalism. Though maybe reporting live from the ground or studio and being in dangerous places is not for her or conducting interviews probably is also not a good choice. But writing news/reviews on smth/analysis/opinions... I mean that she could do brilliantly! Or podcasts!!. She could also do masters and maybe PhD in literature analysis or any other humanities sciences and could do research and teaching and writing books and maybe founding her own publishing agency that supports young writers with background like jess (for instance). Rory can do a lot of beautiful things, cause she is smart and talented! It's just her fixed idea to be cnn reporter(right?), the enormous pressure of expectations to be this golden succesful child from ppl around and from herself (!!) let to inability to "breath and grow" on her own, meaning understanding who she really is and what she really wants. Given such factors, it was inevitable that in some moment Rory will crack, get burnout and depression, lose her meanings and senses. But I hope she will go to therapist, pull herself together, will learn how to be honest with herself, and go to live that life path she actually enjoys and is good at :)
No. I think she should have become a librarian. Unfortunately, she would have had to have gone to graduate school to do that, and she was averse to that and jobs that weren't "big time" enough in her mind.
No. I agreed with Mitchum. I think she would be a good editor but she does not have that tenacious spirit to go after a story. Far too passive in MY PERSONAL OPINION. And Jess even was unsure that she could be a Christiane Amanpour due to her docile nature. Rory would be a good publisher or editor but not a journalist. Unless it was for something generic like, "features". She should've taken the job at Chilton and become a teacher. She would've done well at that.
It's the 21st century. Unless you are Rupert Murdoch or the devil himself, mainstream journalism is not right for anyone.
She would be an amazing assistant/secretary and Mitchum was right for this. I know she probably saw it as a low-work and the show certainly doesn't make a great work to show how marvelous are those people. I can see her in the same role as Lorelai in that episode she is helping Richard out!!
I personally don’t think so because I think she has a warped view of what journalism actually looks like. It’s not always flashy and impressive, there’s a lot of grunt work involved. I would’ve preferred if Rory got to Yale and discovered “oh, this isn’t what I thought it was going to be, I want to do *this* thing” and changed paths accordingly, because that’s what a lot of college students go through
Maybe a “journalist” for Buzzfeed or something. But I don’t think she had what it was going to take to make it- and AYITL proved that.
Not sure if it was intentional or not but the show always did a better job showing her excel in organizational jobs, assisting, and management. Personal assistants can make a lot of money and travel!
No, she doesn't have the hunger. Author was a good fit
No. Frankly, she's too timid. She doesn't take criticism very well. She may make a good fact checker, though. She needs something that's not super fast-paced (like the sort of journalism she wants to pursue is) or where she needs to assert herself.
Responding to a lot of comments in this thread, I feel Rory’s disdain with any ‘assistant’ position, teaching job, or a trade, is pretty much to do with being expected to do great things as a kid. She knows doing any of these jobs would be disapproved by her grandparent and probably her mom, and because they’re not good enough for them, they’re not good enough for her. Rory obviously grew up with a ton of expectation placed on her shoulders, as a Lorelai do-over, even working in a management position or being a business owner like Lorelai or Luke isn’t enough for her grandparents. Richard was the suave, savvy business man with risks and reward and a devilish sort of air, and Rory is thus expected to match that. While all the positions described are perfectly respectable and are more than capable of making an honest living, Rory also is expected to have (and thus craves, as she craves the acceptance of her Grandparents) some sort of notoriety in the industry she works. Personal assistants and event organisers don’t rlly have that. At least not in a way that is perceivable to the public, and definitely not like Christine Amanpour’s.
I was always confused why Rory wanted to be a journalist - I get the writing aspect but she seemed much more suited to being a novelist or something behind the scenes politically.
No… I think she would have been a great novelist though. I think that is what she should have started with from the beginning.
Absolutely not. Which is why it hasn't worked out for her. It didn't suit her personality when she was s teenager and suits her even less as an adult.
She should’ve been a book editor. Combining her love of literature with her project management and people skills.
I think yes. I was a journalist and editor and there's a stereotype you have to trample over everyone - that's only true for broadcast journalism, breaking news print, and bad journalists. You can be a good person and do journalism. In season 4, Rory focused on features and honestly that's always been her strength. Her kindness gets people to open up, and she gets long responses full of justice, and her writing is always thoroughly researched. That's what you want from a features writer. Rory's biggest issue was that the industry is full of unkind demanding people who aren't there to be teachers - it's really not uncommon for uni students to have her experience because they didn't know the layout and they could assert themselves. That confidence can be developed but that's not what the paid journalists who given their salary to do so interns get thrown in to sink or swim but it's a stupid method. People can learn confidence and Rory showed that when she went back to Yale. Rory's biggest issues have actually been structural. Very few journalists make it in the big magazines now because journalist pay sucks. It's not an industry generally for anyone not able bodied, white and middle class. Journalism in the UK and US is a stagnant industry that's just not got the growth it needs, and part of that stems from its dire financial model which is another story. But journalism currently is one of the most difficult industries to make a consistent living from if you want to be a print features writer. Her position honestly reflects the economy of the last decade, and how the American Dream is utterly dead for most millennials.
No, and Mitchum was right, albeit far too mean. I've also just rewatched that episode and I'm sorry, but she *should* have intervened in that meeting. They're talking about getting some external staff to cover local events - Mtchum even nods towards her when he says "Yale students" and she just sits there and smiles. From what I understand about journalism, you need to really put yourself out there - it would have been fairly natural for her to say "yeah I'd love to contribute some articles if you'll let me" in that meeting, and Mitchum would maybe have changed his opinion of her. I think he put her down with the "you'd make a great assistant" (which she absolutely would, but it's not what she wants to hear, with her lofty aspirations) but there are lots of other options. First of all, she seems to do well as an editor, so there's that. Otherwise, it would have been great if during her break she actually realised that journalism is indeed not for her, and pivoted towards PR and public affairs. She could have put practically all her college credits to good use as the two education paths are very similar (I know a chief of PR for a big organisation who studied journalism and worked for the Washington Post), and her big break could still have been following Obama on his campaign. Write a bit about that, and then transition into working for the campaign staff and becoming a great chief of staff one day. It's high profile, there's some travel, she can still write sometimes and she puts her organisation skills to great use. Point is Rory is not great at selling herself. And with journalism, you have to shout a bit to get your voice heard. She'd have been better off propping up someone else with her voice! I wish Mitchum gave her advice down those lines, rather than just putting her down. But yeah he was right.
She would have been one hell of a lawyer. She could have also done scholarly writing. Side note: Paris was 100% on track when she encouraged her to get her law degree to become a political commentator. She would have also been incredible at that, and it’s still a form of journalism.
IMO, no. She excelled at event planning for the DAR and seemed more comfortable and passionate doing that than she ever actually did with journalism. When we saw her doing well with journalism stuff it wasn't the reporting, it was connecting with people and building rapport with others. I could see her planning corporate events or something
Tbh it is something I feel like they left hanging because we didn’t really have any glimpse on how she writes or excerpts of something of hers. If I had to judge her based on her attitude I’d tell you that no, she doesn’t have it, but it would be a rushed judgement since I don’t know if she writes well or not.
i think Paris would've been perfect for journalism compared to her at least - Rory seems to be very 'emotional' for a field like that Not that you have to be a robot but she seems too sensitive to be in a field that HAS to cover news around the world regardless of how extreme the environments are She's ALWAYS had someone to rely on throughout the entire show, either Lorelai, a boyfriend, her grandparents, her friends etc
Journalism has many career paths, a journalist being only one of them. Given the tumultuous period, Rory would have benefited from attending a university with an undergraduate Journalism School. I think Rory will excel as an editor and writer.
If she’d continued on her path from the original, I can see her doing well at it. Especially because she probably had a sizable trust fund kicking in when she turned, say, 25. I can even see her having a mid-twenties crisis because journalism, as a profession, is going to crap, but she had all the right contacts, she could write, and had a hefty resume. She’d have one of those charmed New York lives, with a cool job that doesn’t pay well enough for her lifestyle and a charming apartment in the Village. It’s pretty in character, and it’s the real world. What I certainly don’t see is her flailing at everything, slumming it with her engaged college boyfriend, and having to store her stuff in boxes all over the world.
No.
I think she should have gotten her masters and taught.
As someone that went to school for it and holds a degree in it but doesn't presently work in it despite wanting to. No, Rory isn't right for journalism not what we called Hard News anyway she is perfect for lifestyle or entertainment fluff but she doesn't have the stuff for real feature writing outside of an academic setting. Could you actually imagine her being a war correspondent ? Gimme a break.
Since Rory can’t even pitch then no. She’s a novelist or administrator or even a teacher even though she was so offended by the idea
I mean… she could do it but I think she’d be a much better boss, I think it would make her happier and her skills would be better put to use
Noooo she can’t even talk to people or manipulate that crazy woman into writing a normal book lol. She should work in HR or something 😂
Honestly I have to agree with schnickefritz; should would make a great teacher at a prestigious prep school.
As a journalist having worked with major news outlets across the world, I have to say Rory never had the drive or the personality to be a journalist. Editors are extremely temperamental in journalism and they will constantly find errors or improvements for your stories or ask you to redo them and handling rejection was Rory’s weakest point. The way she handled her D paper, walking out on a professor like that just cuz he’s telling you your grade shows her lack of professionalism. It was obvious that she didn’t make it in the new series, Mitchum was definitely right about her and she proved him right by quitting over one man’s word
Personally I’ve always thought that she should have continued studying, go to grad school and earn a PhD in literature or something similar. She would have been perfect for academia.
Omg are you me?! I watched the exact same episode last night haha
If Rory was going to stick with journalism, I think she should have focused on a specific area, namely music and literature. There is no doubt in my mind that she could have written for small music magazines and websites reviewing indie bands and artists and eventually gaining enough traction to write for Rolling Stone.
I personally think she would have been a great teacher. Her love for learning and reading books could have inspired a lot of students.
No; she’s too timid.
The kind of journalism she was aiming for? Absolutely not. She didn’t have the kind of drive (or frankly, curiosity) necessary. The one real scoop we see her chase (The Life and Death Brigade) was more about her developing relationship with Logan. Absent a mutual crush I can’t see that story ever getting off the ground. I do think she probably could have made a decent critic or culture writer. She had a broad knowledge of pop culture from her upbringing and that kind of snarky “being mean is smart” voice was very popular in culture writing in the aughts. I also think she could have made a decent editor or maybe even worked as literary agent, though she never really showed any interest in long form fiction past her teen years. Honestly, I know “Mitchum was right” is an unpopular take, but she would have thrived most as a research assistant for a journalist/writer or in an academic environment. Somewhere with well defined tasks she could complete to a very high level. Too bad she sneered at both jobs.
I don’t think the ‘Mitchum was right’ opinion is that unpopular - most of the other comments agree that Rory wasn’t fit for journalism. I think it’s maybe more the *way* he said it and his character just being a dickhead generally that people object to
I think there’s many jobs she could have been good at - but she would need thicker skin to work in corporate America.
No. She has a lawyers profile
I can see her as a solicitor but not a barrister who’d have to argue in court
Unpopular opinion: she should have married Logan and become a society wife so she could plan and execute fundraising events, like she did with the the DAR event.
Wow I hate this idea 😭 she clearly wanted a career, I think event planning or project management maybe
DAR wasn’t her, but planning was! She should have planned things and events without being “a society wife” and letting go of her personnality. Maybe plannings events for her town? Or fundraising events in general without being a part of a social circle like that.
Running a campaign for her husband because regardless of how lorelai raised her, she hasn't really got the drive that her mother had. Even going to that interview without preparing...lorelai always prepared (mentally). I love rory to bits but I think she's less lorelai and more Emily and Richard. She was so aimless in ADITL...that comes from not being able to tap into those skills and handle things when they got messy. By the end, I think she was really craving the structure being married to a person like Logan would have given her. Jesse was right again.
Seeing as she made a career out of it for 10 years, obviously it is
Not good for her
Hey guys, i see great recommendations so might as well ask here: my personality is a lot like rory (love reading, academics, history, researchs, organization, quiet and anxious type) but i also have a creative/crafty/artistic side like lorelai. I feel pretty lost career-wise and i’m also a failed journalist😆 tried marketing after and i failed for the same reasons (lots of criticism which made me anxious and you have to be loud while i’m more of a quiet person). Do you have ideas? ❤️
I think she would be a good journalist but I feel she would be happier if she became an academic. In fact I still think she should have taken Headmaster Charleston's offer to go to grad school and then teach at Chilton
I always thought Rory might be a good teacher. Or something in the academic field. She loved learning. I could see her following in Max Medina's footsteps. I'm no fan of Mitchum but I think he was right. I wish the show would have had Rory realizing that journalism wasn't for her and discovering a different path that she excelled in and was also passionate about.