The Saga of Job Hunting

Searching and applying for freelance writing jobs has only reinforced for me the idea that it's not what you know, it's who you know. And in an age when so many jobs are listed online, and no personal contact is ever made, finding a job as a new writer seems next to impossible.

After deciding to really make a go of this whole freelance thing, I have applied for forty or fifty jobs. (I haven't added them up, though. It'd be too depressing.) In my excited, naive state, I initially thought that my education and experience with writing in and out of school would really help my chances. The whole Brown University, having-written-a-book thing seemed unusual in a good way. Now, though, it seems unusual but not all that helpful.

What these people who are looking for writers really want is to know you before they hire you. Ideally, they would know you personally or as a friend-of-a-friend. The next best thing is to know you via the publications for which you've already worked. It seems like the writing sample itself ranks far below the title of the newspaper or magazine that appears over it. And if your writing hasn't appeared in anything familiar, your potential bosses aren't willing to read much further.

Now this is all speculation, of course. I don't actually know what they are thinking when they hire one person and don't hire another. I would know if they actually ever wrote back... but don't get me started on that. It just seems like this huge catch 22: employers want you to have extensive experience with well-known publications, but you can't get jobs with those publications (or any for that matter) without extensive experience at well-known publications.

I guess the only way is to keep trying and to hope that someone will take a chance on a brash, young kid with big dreams.

Cheers.