Temp Work in NYC

December 1, 2004 4:24 PM

I'm looking for short-term (nine months or less) work in the New York city area. Any ideas? [More, of course, is inside.]

I'm taking a one-year hiatus from my graduate program (English, in Madison, WI) to live in Westchester County with my girlfriend, who's out here for law school. I've been doing temp work, which is less than satisfying. The problem is that years in college have atrophied any job-searching skills I have ever had. And, being a grad student in English, I'm not awash in extremely marketable skills, aside from typing very quickly, being good with computers, and not being a moron.

If it comes down to it, I'll just keep doing relatively menial office work, but I'd love to get some ideas about more challenging, interesting, and/or fulfilling kinds of jobs that are out there. Any ideas?

posted by UKnowForKids to work & money (6 comments total)

Oh, also, I'm a hella good copy editor.
posted by UKnowForKids at 4:29 PM on December 1, 2004

Check out this thread also. You probably already have. I'd recommend something else, though. I'm also an English student, and the last thing I'd want to do, in addition to reading for my degree, is to read for income as well. Go work in a sex shop or something.
posted by Jongo at 4:49 PM on December 1, 2004

If you have been editing copy in Madison or wherever, ask the people you worked with or for if they know anyone in the NYC area. They likely have contacts with publishers out here and can perhaps recommend you. This kind of networking generally out-produces any other job search techniques, other than nepotism. Good luck.

By the way, did I really need or even want to put that hyphen between "out" and "produce"?

Should that last question mark have been inside or outside of the quotes?

I could use a good copy editor.
posted by caddis at 5:04 PM on December 1, 2004

Uhm, UKFK, I really meant those questions. Could you kindly give a poor punctuation challenged boy a hint here?
posted by caddis at 7:12 PM on December 1, 2004

caddis:
You didn't want/need a hyphen for "out-produce". And in addition, "out-produce" – or "out produce", for that matter, which just makes me think about sundry vegetables coming out of the closet – maybe isn't the right phrase. I know what you mean by it, but shouldn't it be "out-perform"?

As for the question mark: yes, outside the quotes in this case (and in every case where it wasn't originally part of what you were quoting). Punctuation and quotes are a funny one, and there are differences between British English and American English. To wit: in the UK, commas, full stops, etc., are outside quote marks unless what's inside the quotes forms what could be constituted as a full sentence. Hence:

Brown was "set up", he claims.
vs.
"I was set up," claims Brown.

In the US, however, the comma would always be inside the quotes, whether the quoted portion constituted a full sentence or not.

And then there's the rules for parentheses. If you're using them inside a sentence, commas and full stops are outside the brackets, unless what's inside the brackets is itself a distinct sentence and comes after a full stop. (Or a period, if you're American.)
posted by Len at 5:45 AM on December 2, 2004

Len is a hella better copy editor than I am, it seems.
posted by UKnowForKids at 1:13 PM on December 2, 2004