Bread Line? Not For Me, Thx
In case you didn’t know or hadn’t heard, I was downsized on March 4. Yep, no full-time job at the moment.
But that’s okay.
(Your sentiment is still appreciated, however.)
The last two weeks have been quite the flurry of activity. Basically, hit up all my contacts – and surprisingly to me, I have a TON. Amazing. And everyone’s been extremely helpful so far. I’ve nabbed leads on a few jobs in the area and am pursuing them. I’ve also been given a few leads on a couple of shorter-term contracts, which I’ve also been chugging after.
It’s quite the experience, let me tell you. Nothing at all like a few years back, when I was let go at the last radio station I worked at, due to an ownership change and utter purge (to go automated). At that time, I wasn’t a professional writer, had little contacts within the media field, and the bulk of my experience lay in retail. Which I had decided to dump years prior before going to radio.
That search took an agonizing 18 months to complete, culminating in a fantastic job in Washington DC and moving my wife and I to a whole new state.
This go around? I don’t see a problem landing something within the next month.
A lot of it has to do with attitude. The job market now is a lot harder to slog through, with the economy in recession and all. But writing as a career has always been a tough field to land a concrete position in. I was blessed to have my now-former position, as it gave me some critical light-IT experience and some longer-term project management work. Actually, several projects at once.
I’m more positive and hopeful to land something; the DC area has been largely recession-proof (there has been some contraction, yes, as evidenced by the increase in unemployment claims, but on average, it’s smaller gains than other US cities) and the job openings are still plentiful. If career builder, monster, the Washington Post, LinkedIn, craigslist, JobFox and other sites are to be believed, and I do.
It’s a matter of finding the right fit.
And I know I’ll fit in well with my eventual employer. (Who may be reading this even now!)
Meantimes, during my interim, I’m still working on Catalyst projects, something for the Hivemind Collective (a new IP in the works) and of course, WeLoveDC. And connecting with new faces and fascinating people on LinkedIn (look me up!).
If any of you know of a position open or opening soon that requires a professional, published writer with computer experience and deep project management skills, let me know. I’d prefer something along the creative line, but I’m pretty well open to anything new. It can be a telecommuting position with some light travel to the home office, but I would highly prefer to remain here in the DC area. Because this is where all the action is!
You can still follow my work on WeLoveDC (link to the side) and look for new material from me in the BattleTech line from CGL in the very, very near future.
If you have any suggestions or other leads you think I should pursue, let me know.