As I said the last time, becoming a free lance writer is possible, especially if you have a specialized background. There are a lot of companies publishing on-line specialized encyclopedias. You’ll need clips though. My wife has gotten to the point where packagers ask her to write books. Competence in writing and meeting your deadlines are the two biggest factors.
Self-publishing - not so much. Sure 1 in 10,000 make money. A lot more don’t make much of anything. We know lots of people who have self-published in one way or another, and none of them make enough to live on doing it. One guy I knew did marketing for a living, and was an excellent marketer, and even got on the radio to promote his book in his home town. It still didn’t sell.
To quote Dr. Johnson
“No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.”
Self-publishers write for hope.
I could go on.
That’s what I’m doing now, which is why I’m leaving. I didn’t go to college and grad school so I could work in an outbound call center or mop floors indefinitely, or until someone above me quits, retires, or dies. I know I have to pay dues or whatever, but there are limits to what I’m willing to do.
I have to agree with this… I was hired as a temp for an insurance company when I was 20. Standard clerical stuff. That has led into an 18 year career in the IT field, and I didn’t even have IT experience to begin with.
If you get your foot in the door with a temp agency, companies will often pull from this pool first, especially if you’ve shown yourself to be conscientious, easy to work with, and trainable.
I’ll be looking for a new job at the beginning of the year. Current company is being bought out and merging and I’m pretty sure I’m going to be RIF’d. We’ll see what happens…
Maybe janitor wasnt the appropriate job. Take for example, Disney. Often people at Disney who work up started working taking tickets. I know at a computer company I used to work for working in the tape library as a runner was the initial job.
I have a friend from grad school who does this and really enjoys it. I don’t know the details of the field, but folks who have gone into seem to enjoy it and can do well for themselves. Your background seems it could be well suited.
My initial plan was to work in communication, but that kinda didn’t happen. Same for teaching. Basically, it was easier to stay in school and rack up debt than it was to find a job. But the economy is more solid and I feel much better about finding a job than I did. I just don’t want to end up in the “any job is better than no job, so be grateful for the one you have, STFU and GBTW” trap.
I wonder whether doing an unpaid part-time internship would work.
The biggest problem to a potential employer is the risk of hiring someone who’s not productive. It’s really hard to get rid of employees who aren’t productive.
If you offer to work for (say) 4 months as an unpaid intern (keeping your current part-time to pay the bills) that gives them the chance to evaluate your performance and ability with very little risk or downside. Make it clear what the terms are and that there is no requirement for a job offer at the end, just that you’d be hoping for one, but mostly that you need to gain experience.
I got my first job thanks to work I did for free. It wasn’t even an official internship, I just – mostly for fun – programmed a computer for UM’s the math psych department (long ago in a galaxy far away) and happened to pick up skills that a headhunter was able to dress up as what industry was looking for.
I realize most internships are for recent grads and many are handled through programs. I don’t know whether anyone does this outside that “box”. But for the right company, it might work. The biggest risk on your part is 4 months of work (that you CAN put on your resume) that you don’t get paid for, and no job at the end. But at a minimum you can put it on your resume, and what you learn should make you able to put more industry-specific language on your resume, showing that you have a clue what goes on in that type of work.
That is something I can see incorporating into my business, and I’m glad to see the American Society for Indexing has special interest groups for the fields I’m most qualified for. (Social sciences based on education and health care/science based on background and current professional experience.) Thanks for suggesting it and for helping me find out how to get into it!
Anyway, there has been a new and exciting wrinkle that makes me glad I’m leaving. The company I currently work for is doing a realignment that would essentially keep me in an outbound call center for who knows how long and that’s not acceptable to me. So it’s good that I’m leaving now, while it’s under good terms and for the right reasons. I may want to come back some day! (In a better capacity, of course!)
I’m the on-board indexer (so to speak! Ha! …ha…) if you have any questions. I feel compelled to point out that IMO this is not really a growth industry at the moment. The publishing industry is in a state of flux, and my experience lately (backed up by recent discussions on the indexing listservs) has been that there are fewer jobs, and those jobs are paying less.
That said, there are advantages; there’s not much of a barrier to entry, you can set your own hours, and it’s something that fits nicely as a source of supplemental income, if you can pick up a few clients. ASI is a good place to start looking for information. I can also answer questions if you have any. I’ve been doing this for 14 years now, about half of that time as a freelancer. (Prior to that I was an in-house indexer, which is not really a job that exists anymore, for all intents and purposes.)
As an academic, you might be a good fit for educational administration. It takes a lot of back office people to make a school system run. Perhaps you’d be a good fit for a job like that?
Clump all the jobs in the past ten years under one heading (Internships? Work-study? Fellowships?); don’t list individual companies and dates, let that come up in conversation.
Drop some earlier jobs off your resume; don’t put any dates for education.
Select every word in your resume and cover letter to suggest enthusiasm and ability, but not necessarily ambition (this is tricky and only works for women); this is to get you the interview. Worry about negotiating the salary later.
And, yeah, if you get an interview, dye your hair, get a facial, drink plenty of water and get plenty of sleep for a week or so in advance. You have to look appropriate for the lower level jobs, and that does mean younger.