Recent developments in journalism seemingly curtail a satisfying work environment and contribute to journalists experiencing discrepancies between initial job expectations and actual day-to-day practices. This can lead to disillusionment, challenging journalists’ dedication to their job. Research indicates that young journalists are particularly affected by the symptoms of the journalistic crisis and thus exhibit low job commitment. This study examines the extent to which their initial job motivations and expectations are met or disappointed in practice. We apply Bourdieu’s concept of illusio to advance our understanding of expectations and experiences in the journalistic field and as an explanation for why journalists tend to remain in the profession. Based on in-depth interviews with 40 Austrian journalists we found that autonomy constitutes a key facet of the field’s illusio, both as an ideal of journalistic work, as well as the superior reason to become a journalist despite the awareness of financial drawbacks. While respondents are disillusioned by the lack of autonomous decision-making in everyday work, they still adhere to the ideal of acting as autonomous providers of information and thus remain in the profession. Crucially, they believe that accepting periods of precarity, as well as less autonomous work empowers them to better contribute to journalism’s societal mission.