The Emerging Careers event gave me a lot of ideas on what I would and would not like to do with my future. I talked to Fitz Fitzgerald, Lynda Del Genis, Lydia Woolever, Katie Lindholm, and Barbara Hauck.
First, I sat down and talked with Lydia Woolever, associate editor of Baltimore Magazine, because I overheard talk of internship opportunities with her magazine. Ms. Woolever’s background really inspired me, as she had written for Esquire magazine, which is quite an accolade. The group and I picked her brain about what her secret to success was and she replied, “internships”. From my talk with her at the beginning and after the event, I learned that she basically leap-frogged from internship to internship until she landed her jobs. I asked her how she got her first internship–which was with a newspaper–and she said that she compiled a portfolio of things she’d written and submitted it. She is so inspirational because she has accomplished so much already. I promised her I’d email her a cover letter and resume. Keep your fingers crossed that she takes me on as either a writing/editing intern for Baltimore Magazine!
Next, I talked to Fitz Fitzgerald. I was not particularly interested in his main profession, which had something to do with educational publishing, but moreso his hobby: critiquing fiction. Aside from journalism, I am very much interested in editing the fictional work of others. Mr. Fitzgerald spoke of how a poet he critiqued initially didn’t like him for his criticism, which, for me, was funny and relatable–for one, I can identify with wanting to attack someone that harms my babies (my writing), and two, I’ve had much experience in critiquing sensitive writers. I asked Mr. Fitzgerald how he got into this sort of work and he said that he joined a group of freelancing editors. He told me that if I wanted to do the same, I should google such groups–he couldn’t think of any of the names off top of his head. One thing he reminded me though was that doing this sort of freelancing didn’t pay much–which was a little disconcerting, but kind of what I expected.
After speaking with Mr. Fitzgerald, I spoke with Ms. Del Genis, a technical writer. I wanted to talk to her because I found her to be one of the more interesting people on the panel due to her eccentricity. More than this, she left a cliff-hanger in he panel answer regarding something called “Global English”, which I wanted to know more about. She said that in her world of technical writing, “Global English” was growing to be very important and will probably be even more important in the future. So, I asked her what it was and got an answer, which I will try to re-word here–if I even understood it correctly: “Global English” is a way of writing English in such a way that it is so simple and basic (structure-wise, word use-wise, etc.) that a machine (can’t recall the name) could translate it into any major languages well enough for actual human translators to further translate. Ms. Del Genis said that despite making more money as a technical writer than she would’ve as a teacher or creative writer, her creative life has been sacrificed to work. I appreciated her candidness in telling me that. I tried to suggest/ask if she would be willing to devote more time to her creativity and take a slight loss on money, but she seemed a little hesitant to make that change. Technical writing, I think, is still an option I’m willing to leave open, but if I do get into that field, I hope to not donate so much time to it that it silences my creative side.
Lastly, I talked to Ms. Hauck of Agora and Ms. Lindholm of Scribe America. Ms. Lindholm talked to our group about being a medical scribe, which is something I don’t think I’d be interested in–despite the perks of the job being so awesome (expense-paid travel). When I talked to Ms. Hauck my main intention was to figure out exactly what Agora was all about. I knew that Stevenson and Agora had close ties being as though a lot of alumni have gone on to work for the company, but I had never had a clear understanding of what they published. Much to my disappointment, I cannot recall what Ms. Hauck said Agora publishes, however I remember that she told me that Agora does not publish fiction. She did say there are ways to be creative with what you write and encouraged me to intern, or better, apply for a job. Before the event, I probably would’ve thought to myself, “Nah”. What I learned from the event, though, was that I should broaden my horizons and be open to more internship opportunities because I can learn a number of skills as well as things about myself through different, unexpected experiences.
Overall, the event was spectacular. I appreciate Jennifer Jericho and Dr. Smith for putting on this event for us. I only wish the panelists and other guests were required to bring in a list of websites/sources that led them to their own career. I think that would be helpful because one can only remember so much of what they say and they’d probably think of more valuable information to give if they had time of their own to compile some.
PS: Them roast beef sandwiches was on point.