Friday, September 5, 2008

Future and present goals

Some things I would like to accomplish in the near, but probably not so near future:

  • Do some freelancing
  • Work for a newspaper or magazine
  • Start my own local magazine
  • Start my own company

They're pretty ambitious for someone right out of college with no experience. I know I'm a bit delusional, I just don't see why I can't do these things if I have the skills and capabilities. Why do I have to have years of writing experience before I can have a freelancing career if I write perfectly fine? I'm not saying I do, but it's the principle of the matter.

My friend from school started a magazine this summer. I contributed a bit, but wanted to do more, and got the itch to just do it all. The first issue comes out next week, and I am very anxious to see what it looks like. He got interviews with some pretty big bands, and had journalism graduates, students do all the writing, so I don't see why it can't succeed. And why can't I do the same thing?

I'd also like to eventually start a business, possibly with my boyfriend. I think with our combined skills: writing, editing, photography, graphic design and, with a little refresher training, web design and video, we must be able to do something with it all.

I'll be doing a lot of research in the coming weeks. Hopefully with some good results.

So I have already missed one day of posting. I have a perfectly valid excuse though, which is what I was planning on writing about yesterday, but I was kept from doing so.

When I got to work yesterday, I found a document on my boss's desk with my name on it that said it needed to be typed up because she couldn't find the file on our network. This excited me. It was pretty thick, so I figured it would take up a decent amount of time. Little did I know that it would take me the entire day, and that my hands would become extremely worn out as they day went on.

I typed furiously for almost the entire day, with almost no stopping for personal browsing and taking advantage of my boss's absence. At lunch time, there was no way I was going to type more when I didn't have to, so I chose to read instead. Today, I have spent the morning looking for jobs, with little success, and have sent out emails to local newspapers advertising my skills and hoping for a job opening.

I went on an interview yesterday for an assistant copywriter at a public relations firm that does mostly school newsletters. It seems like a decent job, although they said it would also be a lot of administrative work. But it's even further away than my current job, and the drive home was pretty rough.

When I looked at the company website before the interview, I was rather unimpressed with some of the work they do. While the editorial work was not on there, all of the graphics seemed so outdated. It makes me think that I can do a better job at something like this. But I suppose I should have a real job before starting my own company.

Still working on that list...

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

New Blogger

Hello there. My name is Allison. I have decided to start a blog to document my professional endeavors. I can't say this is the first time I have started a blog, but it is certainly the first time I will be writing anything of significance. I hope it is also the first time that it lasts more than a few weeks.

I graduated from college in December and spent an unfortunate amount of time looking for my first job. I have a degree in journalism and took a job as a "Marketing Coordinator" for a security company. It is not exactly my dream job. My frustration and boredom with this job has led to a burst of creativity and determination.

I have so many things that I now want to do, try and learn, and I don't know where to start. I also don't have much time to accomplish these things if I want to have a social life. I decided to put my thoughts into a blog so that I can organize them myself, and hopefully so I can share with other people who are perhaps in a similar situation, or who are a little older and wiser and can offer me some advice. For fear of droning on for far too long, I will end this first post now, and probably follow it up with a list of goals/ideas in a little while. So long.