Pursuant (such a great word) to both that and the job hunting process, I ego-surfed myself today. It's a thing I've heard that others do frequently but not something I normally think to do for myself.
Glancing at the job sites this morning, it occurred to me that I might find part-time work writing for someone online, a thing I could do from (gulp) Missouri if I had to. I could take the laptop and get myself some kind of dial-up account. (So primitive.)
Granted, I lack most of the qualifications of a writer, never having published and not being able to provide a Serious Body of Work to prove my bona fides but most internet sites aren't looking for weighty prose, they're looking for readability and I think I could achieve that with some advance thought and attention. (Also? I'm not finding anything attractive to me in the "regular" job categories.) (Not that I'm looking exactly, since I promised myself a couple of days off, but....)
Anyhow. I ego-surfed myself and of course Peevish came up all over the place. (All three times I've ego surfed myself, I pop up right at the top of Google's hitlist. (People complain about how hard it is to get noticed on the internet and I don't understand that. I've never been able to stay below the radar.) That's about all I have online to show my "writing experience" and I'm not sure a personal blog I abandoned is really the ideal demo to offer but whatever..
I guess can live with anyone who Googles to find my writing experience finding that blog. If that happened, it might just be wise for me to be grateful that anyone considered my job application that seriously. It's not like I have to worry about them reading every post and finding the times when I went grossly over the top or posted without benefit of proofreading. (Okay, I worry a little.) I can also live with the idea that a potential employer who turns out to be a right-winger or a fundamentalist passing on hiring me.
I'm boring when I'm unemployed, aren't I? I warned you.
You might consider putting together a "best of" for Peevish that would highlight what you are proud of there, maybe making it the permanent front page of the blog. That would at least increase your odds of them not finding what you're afraid they'll find.
posted by: Ahistoricality on 03.26.07 at 02:22 PM [permalink]That's a good idea.
Assuming, you know, that I knew how to make something stay on the front page of the blog permanently or that I had any idea what someone would consider "the best" of all of that stuff I'd written. :)
Seriously, though. Remarks like that make me uncomfortable. I am acutely aware that a lot of people put a lot more effort into their blog entries than I put into mine. Implying that I might favor some of my entries over others implies a level of effort put into the process that simply didn't exist.
I was just typing, okay? Stream of consciousness stuff.
Part of the reason I had to give up that blog was because the pressure of (my own) expectations started to weigh on me. As I read the blogs of wiser, more articulate people, I constantly saw references to them polishing entries, doing research, and generally taking the whole thing seriously. I might not know how things are supposed to be done :) but when I learn, I take it seriously.) I didn't have real time and effort to put into the blog and do it properly, so I gave it up.
I couldn't honestly tell a "good" entry from a "bad" one.
I'm not dissing your idea at all. It was a good one. It's just.... It's just that words are what happens when you pick up pen and paper or put your hands on a keyboard. Concepts of quality come in later, when you edit. I didn't edit.
I need to comment on your blog. I read it regularly but the Recent Life Psychosis got in the way of me being interactive on the internet. :)