I have decided what to do with my life
I will address the title of this entry in a bit, but first: I HAVE A JOB INTERVIEW. TOMORROW.
Sadly, it's not for Waterstones (the bookshop). They contacted me earlier in the week saying they had found someone "more qualified for the job" than me. So yeah, I was pretty sad about it. Andrew told me not to worry over it, that getting a job is a question of "win some, lose some" and he's right. I think I might have also sent a CV that they didn't like. I have a Europass CV (which has been advertised a lot in Italy and it's supposed to help you get a job anywhere in Europe), but I recently found out that UK employers don't really like that CV. So I wrote myself another one and I sent it to this shop/cafe in Andrew's town. The shop is called Cocoa Mountain. Do you see where this is going? I might be working in a chocolate shop. As a chocolate-maker and seller. If there's one thing I love more than books, it's probably chocolate. And the shop is so close to Andrew's house that I won't have to take any buses or anything. It would pretty much be perfect.
So my job interview for the chocolate shop is tomorrow. I've never had a job interview in my life (I worked for my parents when I was in Italy), so I've been googling "common job interview questions" and thinking of answers for them. I'm not really stressing over it - if anything I'm more excited than stressed. A job interview means there's a possibility that I might get the job. And if I get the job, it means income. And income means independence from my parents! (I realise I won't be totally independent from my parents with a minimum wage job, but at least I can stop feeling guilty the rare times that I spend money.) So yeah, very exciting stuff indeed. :D
And now, onto the real topic of this entry, that is: what job I'd like to do. I've realised this a couple of days ago and I'm going to write it here as well, along with my thoughts.
Remember how I was torn between a Computing degree and Journalism degree? Well, this might sound strange, but I finally understood what I want to do. And I want to do both. I want to be both a writer and a web designer. I know, it sounds impossible, it sounds crazy, I'm probably being too ambitious here - but I genuinely love doing both things and do not want to confine myself to only one. I want both. If I had to choose, I'd have writing being my "full-time" job and web design my "part-time". Depending on the period and on my inspiration, I might interchange the two - have web design "full-time" and writing "part-time". I have yet to figure out all the technicalities of it, but I'm researching. My dream would be to be freelance in both. Or even work for a specific magazine full-time and do web-design on the side. As I said, I'm still in the process of figuring out the technicalities, but in order to do that I'll most likely have to start working in either field and see how it goes first, so I can get an idea of how I would organise my work between the two. But now that I know what my objective is, I can at least start working towards it.
Next, it's the subject of degrees. I'm already doing a course in web design which will give me a qualification afterward. Anyway, it's pretty clear that for web design, a degree is not needed. All that is needed is a good portfolio and knowledge of the programming languages. I'm working on my portfolio right now. My sites are fairly nerdy, but I'm selecting a few to put in my portfolio and then I'll do some more professional-looking sites and add them to my portfolio as well. I want to open a website making service for family and friends, too - and that includes you people on DW! :) I want to get a better idea of what it's like to talk to clients and to tweak my design to satisfy the client. Andrew's dad is going to be my first client and I'm going to be making a website for him where he can display his CV. My fees will obviously be pretty cheap at the beginning, at least until I get a good couple of years' experience or lots of designs under my belt.
Now, for writing. I've researched this and the general opinion seems to be, "It might help you if you have a degree, but ultimately it's the experience that counts." Which makes me question if I should get a degree or not. The pros of going with the degree would be: 1) my writing should improve (but I'm very reluctant to dub this a "great pro", because if I write often and have people correct my articles, then I will improve anyway, without the need of a degree); and 2) I'll have a degree. The cons: 1) SAAS is not going to fund it fully. Because they've already funded two years of my law degree, and they will only fund 4-5 years, I will have to pay the tuition fees myself for 1 or 2 years of the degree. And if I'm going to be funding my degree, I want at least some certainty that it will help me get a job. (I don't mean I want to be 100% reassured that I'm going to get a job, I know it doesn't work like that for any degree, but I do want to be sure it will help me, even just a bit. I don't want it to be useless.) If the industry says, "this degree might help you", I'm not sure it's going to be enough; 2) the entry requirements. I was pretty lucky that I was given an unconditional offer to study law at my university. But I've looked at some of the entry requirements for some journalism degrees and they are absurd. Glasgow Caledonian uni wants you to already have published articles. WTF? Granted, they accept articles from the school paper, but my school didn't have a school paper. I'd have to get my articles published on a real magazine or paper. If I could get my articles published already, why would I need/want a Journalism degree? Not to mention I'd have to spend money to do an English examination all over again, as I think my CAE certificate expired. Even though it should be painfully obvious that my English couldn't have gotten any worse by living in an English speaking country and doing a law degree; and 3) time. Degrees are a pretty big time commitment. It will take me 4 years to obtain this degree. If I apply right now, I will start in 2014. I will be 23 years old then. Which means I'll get out of uni when I'm 27 years old. Twenty-seven. And at that point, I'll have to start getting experience and I will be paid a pittance for my first articles. Which means I'll still have to rely on my parents for economical security. At twenty-seven. Just to put things into perspective, my parents had me when they were thirty. My mom is two years younger than my dad, which means she was twenty-eight when she had me. At 28 and 30, my parents had the financial security to start a family, to have a baby. I know my parents lived in a different era than me, but I refuse to still be supported by my parents when I'm that old. If I do this degree, I'll have bugger all financial security, will need to start getting experience, etc. at 27. I'd like to be independent at 27 years old, not still squatting for money and experience. I'd rather start getting experience now and being paid a pittance, but having a good network and connections built up for when I'm older.
So yeah... lots of cons and few pros. The alternative to a Journalism degree would be a NCTJ (National Council for the Training of Journalists) Diploma in Journalism, which should last one year and is less expensive than university. But as far as I can see, it's aimed mostly at news journalists, rather than writers in general. I want to write for a magazine. More specifically, I want to write reviews. That's not really like being a news journalist. Also, I'm kind of... sick of doing exams. I want to do something practical. I want to get first-hand experience, not study journalism in the theoretical sense. Which is yet another con of the degree.
So, what's the best course of action? Well, for writing, I have a plan. I'm going to look into small local papers and see if I can get experience that way. I'll keep on writing reviews to put in my portfolio. I might start a blog and post my reviews there. In the meantime, I'll also research how to pitch stories for magazine and send my pitches to various magazines. I'll grab any opportunity I can find.
As for web design... not to put carts before horses, but I might start freelance web designing with a girl that I know who's doing a Computing degree. She would be the web developer and I would design the look of the websites. We might wait until she's finished her degree or until I've finished my web design course, but she says she's in. So I could potentially start web designing freelance with her sometime this year or next year. I'm very thrilled about this. :D
So yeah... lots of new exciting stuff coming my way. I still have to tell my parents... and I'm quite curious what they will say. Wish me good luck. :) Also, if you have any advice, feel free to leave a comment!
This entry was originally posted at http://chibichan.dreamwidth.org/71550.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Sadly, it's not for Waterstones (the bookshop). They contacted me earlier in the week saying they had found someone "more qualified for the job" than me. So yeah, I was pretty sad about it. Andrew told me not to worry over it, that getting a job is a question of "win some, lose some" and he's right. I think I might have also sent a CV that they didn't like. I have a Europass CV (which has been advertised a lot in Italy and it's supposed to help you get a job anywhere in Europe), but I recently found out that UK employers don't really like that CV. So I wrote myself another one and I sent it to this shop/cafe in Andrew's town. The shop is called Cocoa Mountain. Do you see where this is going? I might be working in a chocolate shop. As a chocolate-maker and seller. If there's one thing I love more than books, it's probably chocolate. And the shop is so close to Andrew's house that I won't have to take any buses or anything. It would pretty much be perfect.
So my job interview for the chocolate shop is tomorrow. I've never had a job interview in my life (I worked for my parents when I was in Italy), so I've been googling "common job interview questions" and thinking of answers for them. I'm not really stressing over it - if anything I'm more excited than stressed. A job interview means there's a possibility that I might get the job. And if I get the job, it means income. And income means independence from my parents! (I realise I won't be totally independent from my parents with a minimum wage job, but at least I can stop feeling guilty the rare times that I spend money.) So yeah, very exciting stuff indeed. :D
And now, onto the real topic of this entry, that is: what job I'd like to do. I've realised this a couple of days ago and I'm going to write it here as well, along with my thoughts.
Remember how I was torn between a Computing degree and Journalism degree? Well, this might sound strange, but I finally understood what I want to do. And I want to do both. I want to be both a writer and a web designer. I know, it sounds impossible, it sounds crazy, I'm probably being too ambitious here - but I genuinely love doing both things and do not want to confine myself to only one. I want both. If I had to choose, I'd have writing being my "full-time" job and web design my "part-time". Depending on the period and on my inspiration, I might interchange the two - have web design "full-time" and writing "part-time". I have yet to figure out all the technicalities of it, but I'm researching. My dream would be to be freelance in both. Or even work for a specific magazine full-time and do web-design on the side. As I said, I'm still in the process of figuring out the technicalities, but in order to do that I'll most likely have to start working in either field and see how it goes first, so I can get an idea of how I would organise my work between the two. But now that I know what my objective is, I can at least start working towards it.
Next, it's the subject of degrees. I'm already doing a course in web design which will give me a qualification afterward. Anyway, it's pretty clear that for web design, a degree is not needed. All that is needed is a good portfolio and knowledge of the programming languages. I'm working on my portfolio right now. My sites are fairly nerdy, but I'm selecting a few to put in my portfolio and then I'll do some more professional-looking sites and add them to my portfolio as well. I want to open a website making service for family and friends, too - and that includes you people on DW! :) I want to get a better idea of what it's like to talk to clients and to tweak my design to satisfy the client. Andrew's dad is going to be my first client and I'm going to be making a website for him where he can display his CV. My fees will obviously be pretty cheap at the beginning, at least until I get a good couple of years' experience or lots of designs under my belt.
Now, for writing. I've researched this and the general opinion seems to be, "It might help you if you have a degree, but ultimately it's the experience that counts." Which makes me question if I should get a degree or not. The pros of going with the degree would be: 1) my writing should improve (but I'm very reluctant to dub this a "great pro", because if I write often and have people correct my articles, then I will improve anyway, without the need of a degree); and 2) I'll have a degree. The cons: 1) SAAS is not going to fund it fully. Because they've already funded two years of my law degree, and they will only fund 4-5 years, I will have to pay the tuition fees myself for 1 or 2 years of the degree. And if I'm going to be funding my degree, I want at least some certainty that it will help me get a job. (I don't mean I want to be 100% reassured that I'm going to get a job, I know it doesn't work like that for any degree, but I do want to be sure it will help me, even just a bit. I don't want it to be useless.) If the industry says, "this degree might help you", I'm not sure it's going to be enough; 2) the entry requirements. I was pretty lucky that I was given an unconditional offer to study law at my university. But I've looked at some of the entry requirements for some journalism degrees and they are absurd. Glasgow Caledonian uni wants you to already have published articles. WTF? Granted, they accept articles from the school paper, but my school didn't have a school paper. I'd have to get my articles published on a real magazine or paper. If I could get my articles published already, why would I need/want a Journalism degree? Not to mention I'd have to spend money to do an English examination all over again, as I think my CAE certificate expired. Even though it should be painfully obvious that my English couldn't have gotten any worse by living in an English speaking country and doing a law degree; and 3) time. Degrees are a pretty big time commitment. It will take me 4 years to obtain this degree. If I apply right now, I will start in 2014. I will be 23 years old then. Which means I'll get out of uni when I'm 27 years old. Twenty-seven. And at that point, I'll have to start getting experience and I will be paid a pittance for my first articles. Which means I'll still have to rely on my parents for economical security. At twenty-seven. Just to put things into perspective, my parents had me when they were thirty. My mom is two years younger than my dad, which means she was twenty-eight when she had me. At 28 and 30, my parents had the financial security to start a family, to have a baby. I know my parents lived in a different era than me, but I refuse to still be supported by my parents when I'm that old. If I do this degree, I'll have bugger all financial security, will need to start getting experience, etc. at 27. I'd like to be independent at 27 years old, not still squatting for money and experience. I'd rather start getting experience now and being paid a pittance, but having a good network and connections built up for when I'm older.
So yeah... lots of cons and few pros. The alternative to a Journalism degree would be a NCTJ (National Council for the Training of Journalists) Diploma in Journalism, which should last one year and is less expensive than university. But as far as I can see, it's aimed mostly at news journalists, rather than writers in general. I want to write for a magazine. More specifically, I want to write reviews. That's not really like being a news journalist. Also, I'm kind of... sick of doing exams. I want to do something practical. I want to get first-hand experience, not study journalism in the theoretical sense. Which is yet another con of the degree.
So, what's the best course of action? Well, for writing, I have a plan. I'm going to look into small local papers and see if I can get experience that way. I'll keep on writing reviews to put in my portfolio. I might start a blog and post my reviews there. In the meantime, I'll also research how to pitch stories for magazine and send my pitches to various magazines. I'll grab any opportunity I can find.
As for web design... not to put carts before horses, but I might start freelance web designing with a girl that I know who's doing a Computing degree. She would be the web developer and I would design the look of the websites. We might wait until she's finished her degree or until I've finished my web design course, but she says she's in. So I could potentially start web designing freelance with her sometime this year or next year. I'm very thrilled about this. :D
So yeah... lots of new exciting stuff coming my way. I still have to tell my parents... and I'm quite curious what they will say. Wish me good luck. :) Also, if you have any advice, feel free to leave a comment!
This entry was originally posted at http://chibichan.dreamwidth.org/71550.html. Please comment there using OpenID.