Out of the blue

Back in the day, I wanted to be a magazine editor, and I worked very hard in college to do well in my writing courses, write for the school newspaper and work a few magazine internships (that's where I met Dan!). Despite my careful preparation, after I graduated, I had a hard time selling myself in job interviews. I remember bombing an interview at a high-profile woman's magazine, and I couldn't even get a job writing obituaries at my hometown newspaper.

Then I landed a random interview for a job on the sales and marketing side of magazines, and I remember thinking, "I don't know anything about sales and marketing. I have no idea what I am talking about. So if I don't get this, so what?" Yet somehow, I was able to convince them to hire me. Surprisingly, I ended up being very good at sales and marketing.

As everyone knows, I have been looking for a job for a while and my friends hooked me up with an informational interview at a television news organization. It felt a little over my head. Sure I had gone to j-school, but that was eight years ago. I felt like that dream was long behind me. Besides, I was a magazine major; I have zero experience in broadcast. There was no way this was going to happen.

Yet when I sat in that newsroom trying to explain to my interviewer why I'd be great at broadcast journalism (even though I don't know anything about broadcast journalism), I felt a strange sense of deja vu.

Today they hired me to work as a freelancer! I start in a week, it's an entry level position (weird hours, little money and I don't know how long the assignment will be) but I will be a working journalist! From the way I feel, I realize that this dream of mine hadn't totally died. I feel so surprised that this is happening to me. I keep waiting for someone to tell me it's a joke. I'm completely outside my comfort zone and feel both excited and scared.

My biggest wish is that I will like it, and I will be good at it. I see this as a new adventure for me. But most of all, I am happy that it appears that my days of unemployment are coming to an end--at least for now.