that wacky job market

I haven't said much about what I've been doing for work since I left my previous full-time job. I didn't want to rant in a space where potential employers or clients might see it -- I've been extremely careful, perhaps unnecessarily so. In retrospect, I wish I'd been able to keep a daily account of what's happened since then, something like Dipu's The Layoff Times, but I've never been good at updating a site every day. And it is a challenge to decide what's appropriate to share publicly. But I decided I wanted to tell the story, even in the vaguest and most discreet way.

I left my full-time tech writing job in late September 2005. I'd been looking for full-time work for months before I left: full-time high-paying technical writing jobs and low-paying publications jobs with small companies and non-profits. I had a close call in May and was bitterly disappointed not to get that particular job. I planned to get a new job before I quit the old one, but that didn't work out the way I wanted.

After I left my previous job, I stopped looking for technical writing jobs. I felt like I was burned out on tech writing and needed a change. I had told everyone at my previous place of employment that I was leaving to pursue a freelance writing and editing career. It was a good public reason that helped me leave on a positive note, and it wasn't an impossible scenario. I continued to apply for full-time publications jobs, primarily with non-profits, but these positions were few and far between. I thought that the ideal situation would be to find a part-time job, even in tech writing, to provide some stability so I could pursue freelance work the rest of the time. I particularly wanted to focus on my film-related feature and review writing.

I found out that sadly, there aren't many professional part-time jobs and the ones that do exist tend to go to mommies, usually mommies who worked at the company previously and want to return half-time to the same work. I worked harder to build up regular freelance gigs. I parted company with one client halfway through a job when he decided that my writing was awkward and poor and he could do better himself. (I can't wait to see the finished Web site someday and judge for myself.) We parted amicably, and he paid me for my work, but the job was a kind of tryout for steady freelance work with his friend who worked in a PR agency, so that possibility died. Another friend-of-a-friend was eager to have some work done for his small business but then vanished into thin air. I landed a gig with a publication that never has commissioned any work from me, although I'm hoping something will come through in the fall.

You don't have to tell me that this is how freelancing works. I know. The problem was that I didn't have enough of a steady, stable base to generate regular income. I've heard from more than one source that if you're going freelance, you had better have existing clients before you give up your day job. This is excellent advice, and it's not that I didn't listen ... it's that I didn't really intend to go full-time freelance when I quit my day job. It just sort of happened in the absence of any other work. I hunted and networked for more freelance gigs and tried to ignore my bank balance.

With one thing and another, SXSW rolled around and I spent a lot of time preparing to attend and cover as much as possible, seeing movies and writing about them as quickly as possible, and recuperating afterwards. It was a full-time commitment, but only for a couple of weeks. Once I recovered from my post-SXSW cold and got back to my daily work routine, I realized there wasn't much work for me to get back to doing. I also faced the fact that my financial situation wasn't pretty.

Therefore, in mid-April, shortly after tax time, I made the decision to start looking for full-time technical writing work again. I figured that I had a much better chance of landing a tech writing job than I'd had with general publications jobs, which required more of a graphic design background than I have. (I got through two interviews for one design-heavy job and at the end of the second, the company's owner looked me in the eye and said, "You know, you're not actually qualified for this job." Great timing, lady.)

I was a little upset at first, because I didn't think technical writing was something I ever wanted to do again. I wished I could have made some miraculous overnight success of a film-writing career. But online film writers and aspiring film critics are everywhere these days, and there's a long line waiting for the paying gigs. It's going to take more time and work to build a reputation in the field.

The happy surprise was that I liked many of the technical writing positions I applied for. In fact, I realized I was looking forward to doing some technical writing and editing work again. Contract writing jobs were fine with me too (except for the health-insurance problem). It took me this long to realize that I was perfectly happy with tech writing ... the burnout I suffered at my previous job wasn't due to the type of work, but to the work environment itself. Some of my friends will roll their eyes and tell me that this should have been obvious. All I can say is that I loved my place of employment when I started working there, and it was not immediately evident to me that both the company and I changed over the years to the point where we weren't a good fit anymore.

For the past few weeks, I've fielded calls from recruiters and learned how to deal with them, gone through quite a few phone interviews and a couple of in-person interviews, and am feeling very positive about the odds that I will be back in technical writing soon, earning a decent living again. I've heard some horror stories about job hunting (see Dipu's above-mentioned blog for a particularly frustrating tale), but I feel confident that I'll find something to do, even if it's a six-week contract job.

I'm still writing about film and working on various personal writing projects (notably a Web site that I hope will go live soon; I'm still wrestling with the design and learning the content management system). I have no intention of abandoning that potential career, even if it can't be full-time for awhile. I'm also still looking for freelance work, because if I ever decide to try full-time freelancing again, I will want a lineup of already-existing clients. But I am so pleased to learn that I don't hate tech writing, that the market for tech writers is improving, and that potential employers and recruiters consider me a serious candidate for these jobs.

That's the story so far. Hopefully I will be able to update it soon with even better news.

Posted at May 26, 2006 11:14 PM