Can totally relate
Jonathan,
first of all, it was good seing you at Lote and too bad we haven’t had the chance to talk about this in person!
needless to say many of us have been there, and I’m sure you’ve read Ildim’s report on discriminatory unpaid internships. My university trajectory is the opposite of yours, I graduated in Communication and PR, which I disliked and found un-useful, and I’ve turned to PolSci as it seemed more solid. academically, of course, not in terms of job seeking. I don’t see what job you could have if you’re not going for PhD or academia … Of course it can help if you want to be a serious journalist, an analyst or who knows what else… but it takes extra training and effort, not even your diploma would help.
How much time do you have to complete your diploma? Do you need advice with that…?
I surely hope your unpaid intern work will end as soon as possible, unless you have a financial cushion to stand on, it can be frustrating, did it myself and was lucky enough to have a job afterwards.
I glimpsed through ecothinking.org, is this something you have been doing on your own ? last post is May 2011
Post lote thoughts?
Hi Jonathan,
thank you for taking the time and energy to share this. I know where you are coming from, it’s really really exhausting looking for paid work. For me personally the worst part was having to pretend everything was ok and presenting an upbeat facade when it felt like everything was crashing.
We were in the same breakout session, making a living. Is there anything that you found in any way useful or that you would like to explore or understand in more detail?
Hey Jonathan,
I agree with
Hey Jonathan,
I agree with your worry on finding a paid job, which is extremely difficult in nowadays! I find myself in the same situation…
I remember that during the session (I was hosting the “?” table) you raised the question about how to depict your actual skills into a CV… Now that I read your story, I am wondering if you think that it does play a role to be able to portray them in a paper.
Moreover, have you seen the bringing back of the break out session that Chris made? Do you have any comments to add on that?
An interesting Making a Living story on the communication field is Andrea’s story. Have you read it?
Thank you
Staying within the lines?
Hi Jonathan, how are things? Eventually I could read your post about your thesis, couldn’t tell to what extent it’s updated… anyway I left a comment.
I thought a lot about what you wrote and your struggle, particularly because Edgeryders are more or less creative in becoming self-sufficient… you seem to be really knocking at traditional doors, and like me sort of trying out what we were promised: a career in line with what we were educated for…
I wrote a post not long ago asking what ways are there to move around in the job hunting area, starting from my example: I’m heading towards the end of a job which is only slightly connected to my university qualifications, and as I prepare for job hunting, I find it difficult to write a summary of who I am professionally, or even harder to define my profession: I am equally an early stage researcher in political sociology and a young online community builder. I have a university affiliation, but at the same time I am a communicator. I have 1-3 yrs experience in both, thus I am a learner still. The interdisciplinary competencies that I supposedly have are: peer learning, intercultural communicating, online content managing, thematic networking rather than just social. How can you sell this in traditional settings?
Care to have a look and share some of your lessons from reviewing piles of job applications? http://edgeryders.ppa.coe.int/where-edgeryders-dare/mission_case/how-do-we-make-most-out-portofolio-careers-strategically-and-less