Please hire me - aka my financial situation is looking more precarious then I thought
When I originally wrote about getting fired from the Niles Bugle, I mused that, while at least I had Austin Weekly News to fall back on, but only to a point. In order to pay my bills and still have money left over for things like food, to say nothing of other necessities and an occasional movie, I had to get at least four assignments at Austin Weekly rate a week - and that's assuming they would be paying me at the rate they have been paying me since March. Given what I know about Wednesday Journal Inc, to say nothing of how many articles can go in any given issue, I didn't think they could've paid me that even if they wanted.
But, a week after I wrote that entry, my editor gave me one assignment. Then two. Then three. Then four. A week after that, I got an assignment at the three assignments at the Weekly, and one assignment at the Wednesday Journal. And I started thinking that I could actually pull it off.
At the beginning of November, I got a paycheck from Austin Weekly News, and I discovered that I wasn't paid for regular rate for all the articles. But between my paycheck for the last week and a half at the Bugle and payments for the work I've done for Campanella Children's Choir, I was able to pay the bills and still have a decent sum left over.
This month, not so much. To make a long story short, this time around, I was paid only for the articles that were actually printed (except one), and not always at the regular rates. More tellingly, the sum I wound up getting was within the same ballpark as I got a month before. Which confirmed my theory that there is only so much money to go around.
The money I got was enough to pay rent and not much else. Between what that and what I have in my account, there was no way to pay for student loans. I would have been screwed if I didn't have some money in my Paypal account - the money I got from my dad and Grandma Tanya last year, plus what little remained of the money I saved while stringing for Pioneer Press. I transferred enough to cover the student loan payment and some groceries. But obviously that's, at best, a temporary band-aid. I need to figure out a more long-term solution.
It isn't like I've been sitting on my hands since I was fired. I applied to several places around Chicago, and not all of the jobs were, strictly speaking, journalist jobs. But so far, none of them bore fruit.
I am going to look into some freelance opportunities at a few media outlets I haven't reached out to before. I will continue watching journalism job boards like a hawk. And I am going to try to reach out to people at Pioneer Press again (my attempt back in October didn't yield any response, but, as any journalist worth his salt knows, if someone doesn't respond, you follow up until they do - which I haven't done). And maybe try to contact some people higher up. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
As always, tips are welcome. To those who already gave me tips, thank you. My LinkedIn profile is here, and here is some of published work. As always, you are welcome to drop some money in this Livejournal's tip jar (to those who previously donated - thank you)
But, a week after I wrote that entry, my editor gave me one assignment. Then two. Then three. Then four. A week after that, I got an assignment at the three assignments at the Weekly, and one assignment at the Wednesday Journal. And I started thinking that I could actually pull it off.
At the beginning of November, I got a paycheck from Austin Weekly News, and I discovered that I wasn't paid for regular rate for all the articles. But between my paycheck for the last week and a half at the Bugle and payments for the work I've done for Campanella Children's Choir, I was able to pay the bills and still have a decent sum left over.
This month, not so much. To make a long story short, this time around, I was paid only for the articles that were actually printed (except one), and not always at the regular rates. More tellingly, the sum I wound up getting was within the same ballpark as I got a month before. Which confirmed my theory that there is only so much money to go around.
The money I got was enough to pay rent and not much else. Between what that and what I have in my account, there was no way to pay for student loans. I would have been screwed if I didn't have some money in my Paypal account - the money I got from my dad and Grandma Tanya last year, plus what little remained of the money I saved while stringing for Pioneer Press. I transferred enough to cover the student loan payment and some groceries. But obviously that's, at best, a temporary band-aid. I need to figure out a more long-term solution.
It isn't like I've been sitting on my hands since I was fired. I applied to several places around Chicago, and not all of the jobs were, strictly speaking, journalist jobs. But so far, none of them bore fruit.
I am going to look into some freelance opportunities at a few media outlets I haven't reached out to before. I will continue watching journalism job boards like a hawk. And I am going to try to reach out to people at Pioneer Press again (my attempt back in October didn't yield any response, but, as any journalist worth his salt knows, if someone doesn't respond, you follow up until they do - which I haven't done). And maybe try to contact some people higher up. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
As always, tips are welcome. To those who already gave me tips, thank you. My LinkedIn profile is here, and here is some of published work. As always, you are welcome to drop some money in this Livejournal's tip jar (to those who previously donated - thank you)