And one runs into the sorts of search shenanigans that bedevils any job query.
So, having cleared with an admin posting this in no mod capacity whatsoever, I wanted to see what suggestions y’all have. The logical fit at this point, as I’m adding solar to my van this weekend, is green energy and climate (part of the van is Austin’s summer reminding me of growing up in Phoenix this year).
We will not discuss the fuel economy of my stepvan.
However, time is critical for a lot of what are called “left-leaning” causes (my preferred term: “human rights”), and I could be effective if not as up to speed in other fields.
I have a face for radio and a voice for print, and self-sales is not my strong suit, so influencer is not a viable path; I’m looking for orgs that have the reach and need news analysis at the editorial-board level. Hell of a needle to thread, but one that actually seems likely in this political climate.
I’m used to copyeditor wages and recognition, so I’m not looking for fame or fortune. But I am looking for a path forward that gets me out of debt within a few years and have a couple of decades under my belt, so intern wages won’t work. And any org worth working for would expect to pay more for experience as part of their ethos.
So, direct orgs y’all have experience with? Actually useful job boards (80,000 Hours seems more toward the governance side, and I think I’m too far left of the Overton window to truly enjoy that)? Good subreddits? I’ve got the clips; I just need to know whom to put them in front of.
While I don’t have any specific org or board recommendations, I wanted to point out that your post — for me at least — was very difficult to parse.
You’re clearly skilled at writing, but what you’ve written doesn’t necessarily read as “skilled at communicating”. As you’re looking for work writing non-prose, I’m not sure you’re applying your flex correctly.
I asked cGPT to simplify your text a bit. It’s not perfect by any stretch, but it gets your point across, and does it succinctly:
Living in a van has made me realize I want a paid advocacy role using my persuasive writing skills. I’m interested in green energy and climate causes. I’m not good at self-promotion, so I’m looking for organizations that need news analysis. I have experience as a copyeditor and want fair compensation to clear my debts in a few years. Any recommendations for organizations or job boards for someone with my skills?
And please don’t take offense; this is coming from someone who is often verbose, and generelt has a very difficult time with being succinct, to the point where emails end up so long that potential clients just ghost me. It’s just that it’s a lot easier to see it in the writing of others than in your own, and I want you to succeed ❤️
Best of luck with the job hunt!
(Edit: I was reminded a bit of this, sorry 😅)
No offense taken!
While the summary brings up most of the salient points (it totally misses that I’ve written editorials, which is the strongest selling point I have in this version), it does not convey any sort of intent or vocabulary past middle school.
Interestingly, this was my first draft and is roughly half the length of a later version that reflected edits and suggestions from a colleague of a decade.
Your feedback is helpful for considering the expectations of my intended audience. The problem I faced in writing this is that I have two functional writing voices: the informal, breezy version used for this post (which is how I speak short of dependent clauses in the predicate usually hanging off the verb instead of as far back as they end up in writing), and (for lack of a better term) the Voice of God used for the serious shit.
While the latter is what I am attempting to return to careerwise, I fear selling myself with that voice (already a tough ask in the third person) would fare far worse. When you are reading a publication, a fair amount of self-selection on tone and authority level has already happened on the part of both the org and the reader. A random post on the internet does not come with that built in, so punchy declarative sentences with sparse dependent clauses and thesis reiteration would make me end up sounding like a pretentious asshole to nearly everyone.
On balance, this feels the lesser of the issues. And while a less … flourished take might get more nibbles, it’s false advertising to attempt a voice I don’t use, to say nothing of how bad I think the results would turn out.
Over and over again in life, both personally and professionally, there’s been an aside, a turn of phrase, a throwaway line that gets me the interview or the date. It’s never the boilerplate, because writing ability is table stakes; being able to connect through the serendipity of personality in the rest has been the winning strategy.
