June 2006 Archives
Internship
I have a job that pays my way. The pay is not exceptional in any way, but it does fund my daily bread. I work a little as a freelance writer and editor, but not enough to earn a living wage. Yet.
There are a good number of internships out there that I could qualify for with my experience as a writer or editor. Most of these opportunities are part-time and the monetary reimbursement is minimal. Many are entirely unpaid. What these internship offer is actual experience in an office setting working for people capable of giving recommendations to future employers.
It seems invaluable that I gain that sort of experience in addition to formal training. While I can currently say I know exactly what it takes to chase a job and work on slim deadlines to produce or polish good copy, I’ve only done it as a freelancer. I don’t know if I have what it takes to work for one company on only their assignments for the long term, and neither does anyone else.
I’ve applied for a few local copy editing internships around the Denver area and hope to hear back from some of them soon. If I get one I may have to cut back my hours at the “day job” and I will certainly lose time for my teeny little social life. Worth it? I’d have to say so. It would be an opportunity to follow the career path that I actually want.
Linguistic Innovation
This is the difference between myself and my friends. I take the rules I’m given and work within them to the best of my ability. My darling engineers and designers think up ways to see limitations as problems to be solved, and take responsibility for the solution.
For example, here is A Pragmatic Approach to Gender-Neutral Pronouns
The detectives perched or paced at suited each individual’s personality while the captain outlined the case so far. The victim was a 25 year old blonde, and photos of her battered face were pinned to the board the captain used as his backdrop. Her slim body was sketched out in black and white with red marks indicating her bruises and lacerations.
“The attacker is about 5′9″ and we estimate that che weighs in at around 160 pounds. Our vic was not able to identify anything other than chis height. Gender is unknown. Che has no outstanding physical characteristic that we know of, but based on the violence of this crime che is known to the victim.”
The captain stepped to the left, revealing a map with the pretty blonde’s life marked out on it. His ever-ready laser pointer picked out locations as he spoke. “Parker and Henry, check out the vic’s office. Gutierrez, Randolph, Fitzgiboons and Spitz, take the apartment building. Everyone else, comb the neighborhood. Our doer may not want to call attention to chimself at this time, so look for signs of people that have cleared in the past day. Che can’t expect the vic to be conscious. Che probably thinks she’s dead, and that’s an advantage for us!”
Superstition
I’ve been posting about jobs I see, jobs I’m hoping for, jobs I want, and jobs I’m doing. I think I may have to limit that a bit. Every time I’ve posted about a job I want (see Academic Writing), I’ve been given the brush off. What to do?
Well, artistic-types are supposed to be a bit superstitious, so I’m going to indulge it. No more posts about jobs I’m bidding for. I’ll post about what I’ve got and such, but no more juicy details about those dreams jobs.
Also, to keep my karma good, I’m going to try to post here at least twice each week. That should give me more than enough inspiration to work!
