Career Decided? :D
I decided to take the prepress internship; it's 2 1/2 months in a field I'm interested in, and even though it is decidedly short, it has room for extension and would be a great start to my career. I would have much more luck with related opportunities afterward, since prepress is the connection between designers and printers, with a heavy dose of technical know-how in both areas for troubleshooting and problem solving.
From there, I can go into a lot of different areas with related skills, including print operations, design, even editing. I may lack confidence in my working abilities but that'll just work itself out in time. The nice thing about being skittish about everything is that I get better at handling it every time I do something!
What I think I could handle, skittishness aside:
-Writing & Editing for Academic/Research, Business, Creative, Publishing, Marketing
-Prepress/premedia
-Research related to print, publishing, etc
I don't want to pigeonhole myself of course; these are just the things that leap out at me that would use my knowledge, skills, and interests, but there are plenty of other things I could do, too. I just feel that these would work well with my interest in helping others' ideas see the light of day in the most polished manner possible, and use my knowledge of printing, prepress, writing and editing, etc to ensure quality production. And, they would also work well with continuing my studies in Spanish and Chinese. Having a fine eye for detail and being super organized and analytical would also be of benefit for the editing, research, and prepress, though I do excessively doubt my writing skills which are just fine.
It's also reassuring to know what I really do NOT want to do. I definitely do not want to do sales or customer service, at least not in roles where I'd be having a very high number of contacts throughout the day. If I was working one-on-one with just a few people for developing solutions, etc, then it isn't quite so bad, but I get really drained from talking to even half a dozen people throughout the day. Two phone interviews and an informal meeting are enough to wipe me out for the night, for instance. I also can't improvise or think on my feet very well, so I know I need to be in places where I am more situated, familiar, and have more space to think about solutions and ideas.
From there, I can go into a lot of different areas with related skills, including print operations, design, even editing. I may lack confidence in my working abilities but that'll just work itself out in time. The nice thing about being skittish about everything is that I get better at handling it every time I do something!
What I think I could handle, skittishness aside:
-Writing & Editing for Academic/Research, Business, Creative, Publishing, Marketing
-Prepress/premedia
-Research related to print, publishing, etc
I don't want to pigeonhole myself of course; these are just the things that leap out at me that would use my knowledge, skills, and interests, but there are plenty of other things I could do, too. I just feel that these would work well with my interest in helping others' ideas see the light of day in the most polished manner possible, and use my knowledge of printing, prepress, writing and editing, etc to ensure quality production. And, they would also work well with continuing my studies in Spanish and Chinese. Having a fine eye for detail and being super organized and analytical would also be of benefit for the editing, research, and prepress, though I do excessively doubt my writing skills which are just fine.
It's also reassuring to know what I really do NOT want to do. I definitely do not want to do sales or customer service, at least not in roles where I'd be having a very high number of contacts throughout the day. If I was working one-on-one with just a few people for developing solutions, etc, then it isn't quite so bad, but I get really drained from talking to even half a dozen people throughout the day. Two phone interviews and an informal meeting are enough to wipe me out for the night, for instance. I also can't improvise or think on my feet very well, so I know I need to be in places where I am more situated, familiar, and have more space to think about solutions and ideas.