What’s security anyway?
I got a phone call yesterday afternoon. Well, first I got a message via LinkedIn requesting the call, then I got the call.
It was from a recruiter. Offering a very (very) high paid job at a company in Boston. For those of you who read this blog regularly and saw yesterday’s post, you can join me in a good laugh here: the position was to create and manage the social media department – wait for it – for a PR firm.
I know. As an old friend used to say, you just can’t make this stuff up.
It turned out that the job wasn’t right for me, the company’s looking for someone with strong social media experience and hands-on programming experience (HTML, Javascript, AJAX, XML, etc.) Which would be like asking me if I could write and do chemistry…which I couldn’t, can’t and, quite frankly, won’t. (If this is YOU, let me know and I’ll guide you right to this recruiter!!! And don’t let the Boston thing scare you, they’re even willing to pay for relo.)
Even though that particular job wasn’t for me, we got to talking – and said recruiter was very excited about what it is that I do, how I do it and why I do it. To be honest, I was excited about my answers too. And this confirmed that it would be sorta hard to woo me away from my present situation – owning my own company, being my own boss, freelancing and the randomness that comes with it.
Let’s be honest.
An actual job has some things going for it: a steady paycheck, health insurance, VACATION TIME, SICK TIME sorry – I’m back, I think I just fainted for a minute there.
But, and it’s a big BUT – how secure would this job really be? As it stands, my success is entirely dependent on me. It’s a lot of pressure, but at least it’s mine. I do well when I work hard, seize opportunity, smear my gumption all over people…and things like that. I do poorly when I don’t do those things. And I have no one to blame but myself. Really. Even if I get screwed over or let down by a client, it’s up to me whether I cry about it and sling responsibility (and we all deserve at least 5 minutes of this) or whether I just get up and go find another one, a better one. Companies fold all the time or it’s just not a good fit or…there are so many things that could make this opportunity crumble.*
So, what I told her was, “Of course, I’ll send my resume, but:
- I’d be more interest in working as a contractor,
- Or as a consultant,
- Or on a special project for a few weeks to several months,
- And I’d need to telecommute,
- But I’d be happy to travel in on a regular basis.”
I’m not closing any doors. If a job-job came along that was just perfect (and had a sizable signing bonus), I would heavily consider it. As always, there is no definitive path…but there’s a helluva lot of excitement and possibility.
What about you? If you had your choice, would you go it alone or pull your chair up to a cubicle?
*I’m really not a pessimist. The other night, a loud truck with flashing lights woke me up in the middle of the night – my first and only thought was, why are they cleaning the streets at this hour? When, in fact and of course, it was a snowplow and we were in the middle of a snowstorm on March 1st. I think this is a sign of my deeply embedded optimism. (Which is why, for now, I’m putting my chips on Writing Roads.)
Image credit: Lokner
Filed under Social Media, The Business | Tags: copywriter, copywriting, freelance writer, freelancer, freelancing, marketing writer, social media, social media consultant, social media strategist | Comments (23)When old media and new media play together in the sandbox
‘This is a very simply game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Sometimes…it rains.” Bull Durham
As I see it, one of my roles on this blog is, for lack of better words, to play the fool. For you that is. In other words, I’m taking one for the team. I’ve said time and time again that I’ve wished, both when I was starting out and still as I find my way, that I had someone like me who I could ask for advice or learn from. But I didn’t when I was starting and I frequently forget to ask for help now…so here I am as a result, sometimes doing it right, sometimes doing it wrong, sometimes…just doing it.
And last week, I did something wrong. So I’m here to tell you about it so that you, hopefully, don’t do it wrong if the opportunity should present itself.
Swimming around the freelancers’ pool
Freelancing has placed me in wide variety of situations at this point, I’m assuming you could say the same. By definition, we get thrown into all matter of circumstances where we may or may not have any clue how to act or be or do. Over our heads, soaked to our ankles, blowing bubbles, treading water or swimming speedily through the course – sometimes within a span of 5 minutes. Right?
Currently, I’m working on a massive project with a sizable team, we’ve got a little bit of every role you could imagine. Specific to my ‘doing it wrong’, we have two publicists. They’re Big deals. (It was suggested that I add the capital ‘B’). One of them is French – and I imagine her sitting at a huge mahogany desk with a toy poodle on her lap and a long, thin cigarette hanging off of a long porcelain cigarette holder between her long thin fingers. Her hair is piled on top of her head and she’s wearing Chanel. But I have no idea if that is even a little bit true.
Anyway, I pissed her off.
You see, on a regular basis, the publicists send out emails to the team alerting us to news breaks or product mentions. And I, in my blind ignorance and bloggy haze of ‘we’re all in this together’, figured they were just letting us know whenever we were featured in the media. Since I’m running the social media campaign, I’ve engaged many listening tools – effectively holding my trusty stethoscope up to the internet – so that I know every time we ‘appear’ online. Obviously, then, I thought I should contribute to these emails as well. You know – one for all and all for…
Oops.
I got told off…and how (and quickly) for this gaff. Those press breaks they were sending were gigs the publicists themselves had landed. The break is there metric for their work for the client. Had I secured the mention I just emailed? (she asked). Um…nooooo, not so much. I just thought we were all spreading the good news. It turns out, we weren’t. Not even a little bit.
All worked out fine, I apologized, I never did it again, I returned to my corner to do my job. And I learned some things, which makes it all worth it in the end:
- Now that I know why what I did wasn’t okay, it seems blaringly, glaringly obvious.
- This is true of most lessons learned, except maybe those gleaned from a calculus textbook.
- When entering a new situation, take a good look around and identify things that might not be familiar.
- Find someone, either within the fray or without, that is familiar with those things.
- If you feel like doing a certain something that is out of your general knowledge area, ask this someone for guidance: Run it by them first.
- Keep your wits about you – did you just break a cardinal rule? ruin a business? step over a cultural line? threaten someone’s place on the totem pole? Put your mistake in perspective.
- Life is very interesting when the old media and the new media play together in the sandbox.
- My skin is getting thicker. Once upon a time I might have been mortified or at least obsessed about my faux pas. This time I said ‘whoops!’, laughed and moved right along.
- What’s next? (Thank you, President Bartlett). The only way out of an error is forward. Fix it, change your behavior, don’t do it again.
- When you have the best readers in the world, it isn’t that hard to tell them about the times when you’re stupid.
- I really do love to share. It’s how I got myself into this mess…and it’s how I’m getting myself out.
Image credit: Banalities
Filed under Critical Copywriting, How To, Social Media, The Business | Tags: Blogging, copywriter, freelance copywriting, freelancer writing, freelancing, PR, social media consultant | Comments (20)You get to choose what happens next
Do you remember those books? You started reading and then came to a point where you could:
- Go up the ladder.
- Climb down the hole.
Whichever choice you picked offered new choices, and so on and so forth. It was exciting because one physical book actually contained several stories. The number of possible stories was ultimately fixed, however – let’s say limited to 50 different variations that you could take.
But, that was the 80′s.
Today, I open up Firefox and I start reading my daily feeds. That first post contains about 5 links, and it all begins. I click on a link, read that article which contains other links. The machine is set in motion and there is no way of knowing where it will take me, what I’ll find. And, there is no fixed number of stories. I suppose some MIT scholar could give us some idea…but it’s a big number. Huge, incomprehensible to the likes of me.
It speaks to me of potential and opportunity as a writer, as a speaker, as a consultant, as a person. It reminds me that the possibilities are endless and that I can create whatever I want in my work and in my life. Exactly the sentiment I’m riding as I burst into this new year.
And…you?
