What is it you'd say you do here?
First things first, I'm awfully proud that the title for this installation is a movie quote. I almost never remember those memorable movie quips and frequently forget that I ever saw the movie in the first place, so that I was able to remember a great line and cleverly apply it to a post makes me very, very proud.
(Dre tells me that actually the quote is,"What would you say you do here?" No matter. Moving on)
Speaking of being clever, I didn't mention that I saw Jane Pratt speak at SXSW Interactive. Jane Pratt is opposed to using clever headlines to hook readers. She likes straight-forward, first person headlines. You can find lots of great examples of that here.
I've become a huge fan of xojane since Michelle Tea started chronicling her attempts at baby-making for the site. Since then, my xojane devotion has expanded to include Lesley and Emily. They are my rad day-time feminist gal pals who buoy my self confidence when the day gets long.
Thus I was excited to hear that Jane Pratt - the site's publisher was in the line-up at SXSW.
The talk itself wasn't exactly mind-blowing. I've read too much of Jane's work to be surprised by her celeb name-dropping and f-the-establishment style. Plus, pretty much everyone at SXSW has a good f-the-establishment story, so I was pretty saturated by the time her Tuesday morning talk came around.
But whats the point of this post?
Oh. To tell you want I "do"- I live in the era of the gig economy and as such, I'm pretty much self-employed. This means, I work for other people (lucky for me, some really great people). Doing various tasks mostly in a marketing vein.
After I finished up at Mills I needed to figure out what to do. Fast.
Turns out there wasn't a big demand for embassy workers without foreign language skills, so my International Relations degree only comes into play when discussing world affairs with friends and reading The New York Times. Not that I am disparaging my degree. I'm not. I got an incredible education and formalizing it gave me the confidence I needed to demand more out of my professional life.
So I went into marketing. Marketing is actually a very nebulous term and if you look on Craigslist you'll see that under "Marketing, PR + Advertising" you'll find job listings for everything from canvassers to PR execs. Luckily I'm neither of those.
Instead I put my writing skills to work assisting people and businesses with their communication needs.
This means I write tweets, copy edit blog posts, send out newsletters, manage online content and advise businesses on their online marketing strategy.
Some of you might remember me as a bit of a Luddite. I had a landline and answering machine well in to 2006, but living and looking for work in the Bay Area changed all of that. We are living through the second tech boom and if you aren't concerned with SEO, ROI and analytics you might as well retire.
Its a far cry from the years I spent getting my hands dirty with the kiddos, but it has its own rewards.
I get to spend many of my days working from home with my kitty and the constantly fluctuating world of online engagement keeps me on my toes and always learning. Instead of co-workers I have clients and colleagues. Professional development happens in Meet Up groups and online. I don't know who spends their time making how-to videos for YouTube, but they are a godsend.
Speaking of working from home, I need to get on to that. On today's docket is adapting stories from a chapter of one my client's forthcoming books. You can learn more about that here.
(Dre tells me that actually the quote is,"What would you say you do here?" No matter. Moving on)
Speaking of being clever, I didn't mention that I saw Jane Pratt speak at SXSW Interactive. Jane Pratt is opposed to using clever headlines to hook readers. She likes straight-forward, first person headlines. You can find lots of great examples of that here.
I've become a huge fan of xojane since Michelle Tea started chronicling her attempts at baby-making for the site. Since then, my xojane devotion has expanded to include Lesley and Emily. They are my rad day-time feminist gal pals who buoy my self confidence when the day gets long.
Thus I was excited to hear that Jane Pratt - the site's publisher was in the line-up at SXSW.
The talk itself wasn't exactly mind-blowing. I've read too much of Jane's work to be surprised by her celeb name-dropping and f-the-establishment style. Plus, pretty much everyone at SXSW has a good f-the-establishment story, so I was pretty saturated by the time her Tuesday morning talk came around.
But whats the point of this post?
Oh. To tell you want I "do"- I live in the era of the gig economy and as such, I'm pretty much self-employed. This means, I work for other people (lucky for me, some really great people). Doing various tasks mostly in a marketing vein.
After I finished up at Mills I needed to figure out what to do. Fast.
Turns out there wasn't a big demand for embassy workers without foreign language skills, so my International Relations degree only comes into play when discussing world affairs with friends and reading The New York Times. Not that I am disparaging my degree. I'm not. I got an incredible education and formalizing it gave me the confidence I needed to demand more out of my professional life.
So I went into marketing. Marketing is actually a very nebulous term and if you look on Craigslist you'll see that under "Marketing, PR + Advertising" you'll find job listings for everything from canvassers to PR execs. Luckily I'm neither of those.
Instead I put my writing skills to work assisting people and businesses with their communication needs.
This means I write tweets, copy edit blog posts, send out newsletters, manage online content and advise businesses on their online marketing strategy.
Some of you might remember me as a bit of a Luddite. I had a landline and answering machine well in to 2006, but living and looking for work in the Bay Area changed all of that. We are living through the second tech boom and if you aren't concerned with SEO, ROI and analytics you might as well retire.
Its a far cry from the years I spent getting my hands dirty with the kiddos, but it has its own rewards.
 |
| Hands clean with the kitty. |
I get to spend many of my days working from home with my kitty and the constantly fluctuating world of online engagement keeps me on my toes and always learning. Instead of co-workers I have clients and colleagues. Professional development happens in Meet Up groups and online. I don't know who spends their time making how-to videos for YouTube, but they are a godsend.
Speaking of working from home, I need to get on to that. On today's docket is adapting stories from a chapter of one my client's forthcoming books. You can learn more about that here.
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