Friday, January 18, 2008

I think I'll start a new regular section: fortune-telling on Blogger visual keywords. You know, the ones that the system makes you untwist and copy to prove you have a soul.

My last comment brought me this word: aeaqenxm.

A - E - A - Q - E - N - X - M

Not sure what to make of this... a pair of Aces with a Queen kicker?

Ok, perhaps this isn't going to be a regular section after all.

In other news, I'm now working two jobs. Can someone explain to me why one either has *no* job offers or too many to take on? For a week, I sat on my ass waiting for my editors to get back to me with some news of either my recent submissions or a new project. After a while, it started to seem like their radio silence was a way of taking the French leave from my services, so I trolled craigslist for more gigs and applied for a part-time position as an editor and proofreader at the creative department of a business travel agency. An hour after I sent in the resume, their HR called me and conducted a brief interview. My next call was from the head of the creative team, who told me to sit tight for now, because they've got someone else to shoot down first. Finally, they called back another hour later to tell me I'm hired.

Wh00t, thought I, weeding the rattiest of my 'business casual' shirts from my wardrobe.

When I got there on Friday - they insisted I start immediately, - I was introduced to a team of four copyrighters with lean and hungry looks, all brandishing unfinished spreadsheets, unproofed copies of brochures, and unrevised drafts of program guidelines for business cruises around Puerto Rico. Even the accounting lady peeked out of her receipt-wallpapered cubicle, and the glint in her eyes promised paper cuts. Lots and lots of paper cuts.

In short, it became abundantly clear that they needed a serf, not a temp. At what they're paying, I wouldn't necessarily mind, but yesterday my editors got back to me with apologies, five articles in need of minor but urgent corrections, and an offer to work on another book.

Goodbye, sleep.
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4 comments:

Uncle Dick Madeley said...

Feel blessed, Ax, that people ask you.

Why can't I get work like that? Why?

January 19, 2008 at 3:10 PM
AxmxZ said...

I think they might be unduly impressed with my writing credentials. I was a contributing writer for at least three books coming out this year. How I got *that* gig is far more puzzling. I was pushing paper in a law firm at the time, and my resume included absolutely nothing writing-related. I just sent them a letter and links to several old blog posts. Pure luck.

(Although to be frank, when they sent me some writing samples of what they were after, I was perfectly horrified at their low standards for clever prose. Which is why I now regularly get back from them requests to cut foreign phrases out of my entries and not to talk too much over the head of the dumb Americans for whom the books are intended. But I say, if you're not going to write well, why the hell write at all?)

The more interesting question is probably why silly jobs like these even exist in these economically iffy times?

Where do you usually look for work? My last three or four jobs I've found on craigslist. It's a brilliant site. If you browse it daily, you can send it applications to the job openings as soon as they come up, which puts you at an advantage over late-comers. Try it!

January 19, 2008 at 4:22 PM
Swearing Mother said...

Hey Axmxz, I'd be your serf. Am shit hot at typing, proof reading and can even turn out the odd article if pressed (and paid).

What do you think?

I am currently trying to provoke, sorry persuade, an unsuspecting editor to let me write the occasional short article for a magazine or newspaper, but the b*ggers won't let me. Do you thnk it's the language barrier that's the problem, or just mine?

January 20, 2008 at 3:59 AM
AxmxZ said...

Swearing mother: what langugae barrier?

January 20, 2008 at 8:06 AM

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