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Debi for Rent!

My pal Debi just posted her own “for rent” page on her site. She’s in the Chicago area, and is not only giftedDebi Lewis with all those skills she describes — planning your company website, writing, editing, research, porting databases to the Web, even fiddling — but is a genuinely nice, patient person you’d enjoy working with. Heck, she and I really need to come up with some joint project that will “force” me to use up some miles on a trip to her neck of the woods (though her cooking sounds so yummy-haimisch I might have to pack tent dresses and elastic-waist slacks).

I have to thank Walt Crawford for the “hire me” concept. Among other things, his example freed me up to state clearly what I’m available for, clarify some limitations, and remind people that I’ m available.

I suspect one reason I rushed into a job that wasn’t quite right for me, without asking the important is-this-me-and-do-I-really-want-this-job questions, was that I felt very uncomfortable with people asking, “But what are you going to do?” (Sometimes with the emphasis on “you,” sometimes with the emphasis on “do,” sometimes with the entire sentence in italics with square quotes.) I was eager to say to people, “But of course, I have work lined up!” I even passed up a job that might have been a very good fit because it meant waiting a couple more weeks and moving to Florida without A Job lined up.

But once I’m fifty, I will never make that kind of mistake again! (I can’t wait to see what kind of all-new and entirely unanticipated mistakes I’ll make when I pass that divide.)

Again, thanks, and I’m all ears. I’ve had some great opportunities come up that way, including some that I hadn’t anticipated, such as speaking gigs in faraway places, and I’ve also had tips such as “write so-and-so about adjunct work” — the kind of insider baseball tip I need. Thanks much for all the link love… it puts food on my table and a smile in my heart.

Back to an article (for pay) and then to redo my c.v. in a “teaching” version (which I have a model for because my MFA program has a session every year called “Life after MFA,” complete with fabu handouts).

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This was written by K.G. Schneider. Posted on Friday, June 8, 2007, at 8:54 am. Filed under Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Follow comments here with the RSS feed. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.