How the weird turn pro.
September 17, 2012 11:35 PM   Subscribe

In brief: [1] I need to change jobs/fields before I lose my mind. // [2] I look like shit on paper, but I'm confident in my abilities, portfolio, and practicality on a creative team. I just want to win or lose on merit, not theoretical résumé padding. // [3] I'm looking at my leads, scouring the classifieds, but also asking the hive mind to speak up about any organizations, publications, etc., that I should try (some SoCal equivalent to Adbusters would be perfect, IMO).

The tl;dr of it:

What I don't have: any degrees.

What I do have is over a decade of work history, with a portfolio and references to vouch for my abilities. Please bear with me as I grapple with the mindset of arguing my merits -- it's grating to me already, so I apologize if it's tiresome to you.

(I was on the selection panel for a nonprofit film fellowship recently, and can confirm that looking at CVs really fucking sucks.)

Right now, I'm four years and seven months deep into a field I'm eager to abandon: programming.

Given an exceptionally stifling work environment, my free time became possessed by creativity. I'd worked in fields before that offered partial outlets, but unlike editing or graphic design, this small company seemed to disregard my judgement on principle. A parallel life developed.

I found a love for writing an took courses in literature. I also realized I had an acute moral impulse; that I was naturally driven toward advocacy. I got involved with Occupy, and was eventually able to channel my media experience, writing skills -- and even those rampant ethical compulsions -- into a campaign promoting awareness of May Day events.

I took an approach I found obvious -- but was surprisingly uncommon, especially given what launched #OWS -- opting out of the marginalizing anachronisms many utilized by habit, instead making the ideas accessible to the general public. To my own surprise, I did it without compromising anything. The images went viral and influenced other activists to explore this approach.

I'm proud of that work, and have no reservations about its role in my portfolio, given the niche I'm pursuing.

The writing side of it is a tougher nut to crack. Apart from what's included in some May Day project materials, I have essays, some literary fiction, and a spot at a blog linked to my profile. It's acerbic satire and criticism, with a tone its audience (myself included) enjoys. I've contributed to a yearly list that's been linked on MeFi (and got Tom Cruise's legal briefs in a bunch). I'm happy with the uncompromising irreverence, and proud of being featured alongside writers I truly respect, but I'm also unsure whether appraisals of a writer's skill transcend squeamishness in venues outside literature (don't know if it'd earn me a slap on the arm, or across the face).


--
I'm in Los Angeles.
evil.holiday.magic@gmail.com
posted by evil holiday magic to Work & Money (5 answers total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Poster's request -- taz

 
I've read your post three times and I'm still not sure what your question is. Which is a concern if you're looking for work as a writer and have issues expressing yourself clearly. (Are you looking for writing work? I don't know. There's mention of previous work done for Occupy and mention of non profits). Clarification would be great. Something along the lines of: I enjoy writing, is there any way I can parlay it into not for profit organisations, or I like writing, what avenues are open to me where I can earn enough money to support myself etc.
posted by Jubey at 12:24 AM on September 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


Mod note: evil holiday magic, moderator here. Perhaps you can you isolate the question, which is not completely clear? It seems to be: "please recommend possible (creative) employment opportunities or venues to explore related to nonprofit / advocacy," and secondarily, "how to present my non-standard résumé to further that goal?" Is this correct?
posted by taz (staff) at 12:41 AM on September 18, 2012


I think you need to think critically about what your goals are. From there, it will be a lot easier to answer the question of "how to change careers".

Because the path to becoming a freelance writer is different from the path to becoming a graphic designer or a nonprofit administrator.

It's really hard to tell from your question what field you're looking to get into, and the direction you're headed in can be very diverse in terms of breaking in, experience required, how the hiring process works, etc.

Another idea -- find someone who does what you'd like to do. Take them out for coffee and ask them how they got there and what their advice to you would be.

Or, what about using your tech skills in a creative or not-for-profit capacity? I recently visited a historical site that has a lot of interactive/new media elements. They were all really glitchy, and it occurred to me that some technologically inclined history buff could design something that actually worked with almost no effort at all. You're clearly not into historical preservation, but maybe you can find a similar project that uses the experience you already have to help people?
posted by Sara C. at 12:43 AM on September 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


It's great that you're so outside the system and uncompromising vision, putting off the squeamish etc, but there are very, very few commercial settings (which, being commercial, tend to be of the system rather than outside it) where those qualities are valued so much as, say, willingness to collaborate, ability to listen and adapt to feedback, and sense of what a client is looking for.

One person's "theoretical résumé padding", is another's "demonstrated ability to develop and execute this kind of work".

I pick up a bit of defensiveness in your tone in asking this question. You have nothing to be defensive about, but if you bring that attitude to an interview or request for work, you will be sunk my friend. People value experience over assertions of ability.

I'm not trying to belittle or take away your experience at all, it's great. But you need some commercial experience if you're looking to parlay what you've done into bill-paying, and with that will come references, professional context, and a demonstrable portfolio demonstrating you have done (not can do) work.

Additionally, if you're truly looking to swap, unless you're looking at very very small-time (<1>
In this respect, I'm not quite sure that - barring a lot of luck, and people do get lucky - you're ready for a full-on career change yet. So I think you're on the right track looking for places to pitch individual commissions to. This might be more likely to be writing than graphics experience - I only have experience on the writing side, so that's what I'll speak to anyway.

Don't be constrained by SoCal; much of this work can be done anywhere, so expand your search to national, and look for individual opportunities rather than jobs. Additionally, be prepared to pitch ("Hi Editor So-and-So. My name is this-and-that. I was wondering if you would be interested in a piece I'm working on about the effect of A on B. In the past I've written about A for publications X, Y, Z. You can see some samples here [at my website, their website, whatever]. Let me know if this sounds interesting to you, thanks very much, me"). Be prepared to be knocked-back, be prepared to work for little money, be prepared maybe to still do some free work, but onyl if you think it's worth it.

If you have any friends that work with agencies, have a chat to them about any freelance opportunities come up. Do not stop working at your programming job; do not bring up your lack of degree; do not think your ability or "potential" entitles you for any kind of work, experience is more important by far; look for the kind of jobs you'd like to do, and ensure you have a cv/portfolio full of work like that.

Good luck, this is a competitive field at the best of times, especially with the anti-commercial areas you seem interested in. But there's always room for good work.
posted by smoke at 1:12 AM on September 18, 2012


Oh also, don't include work (e.g acerbic and sarcastic or whatever) for places that are not those things. You're trying to play dominoes with your portfolio; the more closely it matches the other organisation's work, the more likely you are to keep both.
posted by smoke at 1:16 AM on September 18, 2012


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