Amy, thanks, I find it really helps because they know that we’ll get everything fixed up in the edit but it will still be their “voice”.

Samantha: The earlier the better for me, too. I think better when I work in the morning and I enjoy it more.

@Jessica: My writing professor MADE us get published – it was 20% of the grade for one of the classes (if we tried a certain number of times and it didn’t work out, we still got the grade, but we had to bring in the rejection letters). If you have a local newspaper, either in your college town or your hometown, try submitting there – a trend piece or something. And if you write for the college newspaper, that’s a clip, too (that didn’t count for us since we were all required, but it was nice to be able to send it with our “official” query like “see! I’ve been published!”).

I have a Google alert on my name, and I keep getting alerts about ‘my’ Facebook page and all of ‘my’ friends. It isn’t me – though my namesake certainly does seem to be having a lot of fun.

Dani, oh my gosh. It is getting so hard to pick usernames!! I think up these things that I’m positive no one else could have possibly thought up, and then–like you said–they’re taken! What the heck? Most frustrating thing ever.

<–Chronically ill buddy here
<–Sole income provider buddy here
<–Headline/Intro(sometimes) challenged buddy here

I am ok with passwords, but usernames kill me – I can’t believe how often I think I have figured out some cute or witty username only to find its already taken! Even my own name is sometimes already taken – so now I try to sign up for stuff when it first comes out (*just in case*) so I get my name – rofl.

I guess I’m buddies with everyone that cannot work with any background noises. I’m also buddies with some of the teachers that have commented. I do still teach full time and freelance write and edit part time however I’d love to make a change to fulltime writing/editing.

Currently and for the past year, I am our sole income earner. Not by choice, but due to my spouse being laid off and still not finding work.

I’m also buddies with a couple of you that have chronic illnesses. Yes, it does make working outside of the home tricky on some days.

Titles and names are my challenge in writing. I even spend hours it seems to come up with a password. Go figure!

Jessica, do you have any pub credits or experience writing/editing at your college? Those are good things to put on a resume, and they actually do make a positive difference. But as I think I might have mentioned to Linden, I often find that writing samples are more important than your resume. So rustle up some samples that aren’t academic papers (unless you’re trying for an academically oriented gig), make them all shiny and wonderful, and try submitting those when you apply for gigs. And really, how can you know that no one is going to hire you unless you start applying for things? If you don’t apply, then of course no one will hire you. Apply early and apply often–that’s my mantra. Better clips and experience will come.

I had no clue about the open source software – that is what I need. Could you please tell me more?

Good luck!

Jenn

Megatron, great name, great post.

Jessica, wow! You sound like a superwoman.

Kat, it just takes a little while to break in. If your resume isn’t mind-bogglingly brilliant, I find it helps to write a killer cover letter and really play up your skills. There are a lot of gigs (albeit lower-paying ones, usually) that don’t require having a lot of experience. If you can build up a few of those, you should be able to land stuff with more substance before too long!