I got 99 problems but…my job aint one

Okay I really don’t have 99 prob­lems. It’s more like 92 but what­ever. The point of this blog is that I have been blessed to find– in this weak as water econ­omy– employ­ment that is extremely flex­i­ble. I work for a good com­pany and great peo­ple. This is impor­tant to me because I am a sin­gle par­ent and I have chil­dren that need me to be avail­able some­times even at short notice. Also, it allows me to be able to do the really impor­tant things in my life.

I decided to try free­lanc­ing because of my per­sonal pri­or­i­ties and oblig­a­tions so my job sched­ule is good because it leaves me with time that I can devote to it. I won’t say it’s the per­fect job because the per­fect job is that of a par­ent (KOS-​Kids over shoulder-​Ok their gone). But it is pretty darn good.

On the flip-​side of my job not being a prob­lem is not hav­ing one. A free­lance job that is. I haven’t secured a great free­lanc­ing gig yet. I have irons in the fire all over the place but just haven’t found (in a boom­ing voice) “the BIG job”. When I say: “the BIG job” I mean pay­ing. Right now I am basi­cally still doing it for free. Which is fine. (PWAPMTW [peo­ple who ain’t pay­ing me to write] may be read­ing this) Starting out as a no name free­lancer that is to be expected. You have to do the leg­work.

I thought I would write this great piece and the NY Times would instantly hire me as a fea­ture writer. Not that easy. I also don’t have a jour­nal­ism degree which is not uncom­mon and not nec­es­sary in many cases if you can put out good work but that makes the free­bie work even more impor­tant. You need these things to build up your resumé.

The great thing about it is feed­back and expe­ri­ence. When you aren’t get­ting paid, if you make a mis­take, peo­ple are less likely to yell at you or fire you. You are cer­tain to get feed­back that will help you to improve and be pre­pared when the pay­ing job does come along.

Some great sites for build­ing up your resumé are:

The American Chronicle
Ezine Articles
Freelance Writers Organization International

Thanks for read­ing,