Opportunities

They’re gonna have to introduce conscription
They’re gonna have to take away my prescription
If they wanna get me making toys
If they wanna get me, well HELL, I got not choice

Career opportunities are the ones that never knock
Every job they offer you is to keep out the dock
Career opportunities, the ones that never knock

Careers
Careers
Careers
Ain’t a-never gonna knock

Joe Strummer, The Clash, "Career Opportunities"

Jobs. Wow, really. I'm going to have to get one. I think I have pretty good skills, and regardless of what it is I grab a hold of after May graduation, I'll still be able to build toward magazine writing with freelance work.

Over the turkey break I stopped by a friend's house, an older friend from back in the day who is now teaching in the Real World. He asked me what I was writing about lately. I stammered something about how I'm putting a lot of work in at the Buzz. True true, but it felt unsatisfying; I wanted to say, "Oh, I've got work coming into x, y and z publications." But I don't.

I've had a pair of summer internships and loads of time with Illini Media. I'm a research assistant (read: type transcripts) for a fairly prominent magazine writer. I blog regularly (no, not just here). So my resume isn't weak -- at least I hope not -- but I feel pressure to do more and more. Thankfully, I've had a lot of multimedia training through the News-Gazette class this semester; I'll continue that trend for next semester.

We'll be coming out the other side to a dying industry in a tanked economy. Reading through everyone's blogs, I can tell that those concerns are weighing heavily on all of us. There is hope; though, for times of upheaval are the best for the innovative and creative. If you think you need multimedia experience, do it. Make multimedia. What is going to make you better, make you more of an asset to a company, do it.


The voices in your head are calling
Stop wasting your time, there's nothing coming
Only a fool would think someone could save you
The men at the factory are old and cunning
You don't owe nothing, so boy get runnin'
It's the best years of your life they want to steal

Strummer, The Clampdown.