Work likes me

[breakinglight11]

Apparently they like me at my job. This makes me happy, as I actually kind of like it here and I've been making a real effort to be useful to have and pleasant to deal with. It's nice to feel like effort is paying off and that I'm actually doing something right. Honestly I think it would be more notable if I WASN'T doing a good job at some of this stuff; most of my job is pretty easy, like the document formatting that I've gotten particular praise for, but it's nice that people think well anyway. There's even been talk of offering me something full-time, which at one point was something I would have really wanted (I worked part-time against my preference for a year and three-quarters) but now that I have schoolwork to do again I'm not sure how many more hours I can take on and not spend every free moment doing homework. Despite the fact that I don't have classes to go to my course load is actually pretty substantial, and even now I'm having trouble fitting it all in.

My boss says she wants to talk to me on Monday about my future with the company, strongly implying that what they want is for me to committ more time to working here in some way. I don't know if she means planning on working here for some time to come, or taking on something full-time, or what. She said I should take the weekend to think about what I might want. But I'm not sure what I want. I do like it here, and this seems to work well while I'm doing graduate school. But the truth is that being an admin isn't exactly my ideal job. Hell, my ideal job is actually writing for a living, but that can take a very long time of building a career as a writer before you can totally rely on it. For a lot of people it never really becomes their full-time job. Having a decent day job that pays well and where they like me and I know I can do well isn't a bad thing to have when your "true work," as I call it, isn't something that's easy to support yourself with. But even then, I'd kind of hoped my day job would be something more in my field, like being an editor or something like that. Still, I hadn't had any success finding myself that kind of position thus far, and I'd still have to be pursuing wriitng separately from my day job, whatever that day job may be. So maybe it's worth it to take what opportunities are offered to me, since it won't change my pursuit of my true work.

At the very least, I'm planning on staying here through my two years of grad school. But I'll have to think about anything beyond the scope of that.

Comments

[lisefrac.livejournal.com]

There seem to be two schools of thought as far as choosing a "day job" as a writer. One is that should have a mindless job that is not very similar to writing--maybe with some perks that make your writing life easier, like use of a copier or flexible hours--so that you have more mental energy to devote to your trade. The other school of thought is the one you mention, having a job in editing or something related to writing.

But you knew this.

Honestly, I think I would prefer choice #1. I just worry something like, say, reading manuscripts for a publisher would suck all the fun out of writing. (Just like working in web development has made me utterly uninterested in doing the same in my off hours). But then, I am not you, either.

I guess all I'm trying to say is that you might consider what other advantages you can get out of your current job that aren't directly relatable to writing, but support that lifestyle.

[narnia2781.livejournal.com]

good luck with finding whatever career suits your fancy. I think being a artist is a great job for creative people but I also think that in the beginning of a career like that may not be cost productive.