News And Updates
After completing the weirdest college internship ever (writing adult content for the Phoenix Media/Communications Group), I thought I was done providing free labor in order to cement my career success.
Faced with a long, drawn-out period of unemployment one year out of college, however, I was forced to consider the benefits of a post-college internship.
I ended up interning for the editorial department of the Feminist Press, an incredibly idyllic period in my life. It led to an eventual full-time job within the academic book publishing world.
And so, when I was considering a career change two years later, it made sense to embrace the short-term detriments of a low-income internship as a means of working toward longer-term benefits.
So I’m a huge advocate of the post-college internship. Do you remain unconvinced that such a situation could be worth it? Here are the reasons that I champion temporarily unpaid labor:
After reading a post on website stickiness over at ProBlogger, I spent a good amount of time this past weekend implementing Darren’s tips, in order to make this blog more inviting to readers.
As I uploaded plugin after plugin, and asked my husband to make design tweak after design tweak (I may be his most demanding customer), it occurred to me that a first impression post was in order.
After all, despite our having the ability to wear bunny slippers and fuzzy pants for the bulk of the day, first impressions with prospective clients still count for a lot.
So…what did I learn from the changes I implemented?
Photo: ‘Derek J’ by Phil Watt
It’s been almost a year since I left behind a viable book publishing career for the terrifying uncertainty of freelancedom.
A questionable move considering that, three years before, I had been applying to just about any full-time staff job I could conceivably be considered qualified for.
To make an excruciating story less excruciating, let’s just say that I wasn’t feeling quite right within the corporate environment.
Now I work a number of freelance gigs, most of them from home, and I’ve never been happier. So, of course, I want everyone else to try it, too!
But as much as I advocate trying out new career paths, jumping blindly isn’t the smartest way to go.