A bit of history

So don't think I've been doing youth work for my whole life and then suddenly sat up and decided I wanted to be a journalist. No, no, no. If you would read the sidebar 'About me' (over there -->) you'd see that I've written articles, features and film reviews for several publications, and now classify myself as a freelance writer.

I think freelance is quite vague, but sounds pretty good. I think I'm justified in saying that I'm a freelancer: I have been paid by several publishing companies for my work. But I am also looking for a full-time job.

I'm only 24, I want to have a proper job that I enjoy, and I don't reckon that many people my age are successful and full time freelancers. You have to have contacts for that... or so I'm told. A couple of weeks ago, I temporarily came out of my stupor where all I did was surf the net all day looking at various job boards and company vacancy pages over and over again, and I decided to actively pursue a freelance career.

So... I spent a couple of days researching who the features editors were at various magazines and put together a selection of pitches for them. I sent emails to different categories of magazines: film, bridal, general culture, men's and women's. In total I sent about 54 emails, each outlining multiple feature ideas and some background about me. And I've had a response from exactly 14 responses. One of them was very brusque, and I quote: "Sorry - ideas not for us. Kindest regards," and she didn't even sign her name, just left her digital signature to sign off. Nice.

A couple of people have expressed an interest in one or two of my features, and said they would get back to me. And two or three have said that I should try pitching again with slightly altered ideas. So I have, and we will see.

But overall, I felt a bit annoyed. People in this industry don't seem so nice. As if they haven't got time for you.

But, back to the history. So I have worked at various places before, but none of my contacts are very helpful. There don't seem to be any jobs out there.

Frustration

I'm just in the final few days of my contract with a job that has been the bane of my existence for the past year. Youth work used to be fun, I used to enjoy it and find it exhilarating, challenging and rewarding. But that was years ago. Now I find it depressing, futile and booooring!

August means summer holidays, which means I haven't got much to do, but I'm still being plagued with instructions and to-do lists. I hate micro-managing. During this year I've definitely proved my abilities and efficiency. I've done everything they've asked of me, and with a smile on my self-loathing face. But now I believe they've twigged that I despise my job and everything associated with it, so they are ensuring they get their fifty cents worth.

For the past three months I've been looking for a new job in the journalism/publishing field and I've gotten exactly... nowhere!

So, instead of depressing my husband, who's currently studying for medical exams and giving him even more to stress about, I'll be venting my spleen here, so watch this space. There'll be plenty of anger!