Best Jobs In America

Best Jobs In America. This is what they should hand out to incoming freshmen!

If you could do it all over again, which would you be?

[caption id="attachment_293" align="alignnone" width="600"] Best Jobs In America[/caption]

Don't Quit Your Day Job

It's nearing December and I know now that satisfaction in my career probably won't come to me any time soon. Part of it is not knowing what I want out of life and my future, the other part is fear that once I find it, I won't be able to achieve it.

For over a year I was pleased with my freelancing efforts. I got to stay at home, I got to sleep in and make my own schedule. I got to move cross-country without worrying about finding a job when I got there. Everything I created while working was mine, every success was mine. I was stressed out,  focused on my clients constantly, but when I provided good work, I got instant feedback and support. The possibilities in freelance work are endless when you're good at what you do, be it writing, design, or even tech support.

After my contract with Blue Volcano ended, and work for Firestarter slowed down to trickles and bursts of random tasks, I knew I needed something regular. If only to please my money-conscious husband. So for the first time in a long time, I entered the mass of job seekers. This time, in Portland. I went to career fairs and was bombarded with sales positions, I went on Craigslist and was stricken with  automotive service writing positions, and was so annoyed that I got a LinkedIn JobSeeker membership to contact employers directly. It took a week and I ended up at Bonfire. After a month of great work and praise, I was on the jobseeking hunt again.

Only this time it wasn't a hunt. More like an angry, wandering prowl through websites and doubtful possibilities. I didn't want to go through job loss again. I didn't want to fail again. I didn't want to put myself into that position again, in a small agency where my job could be dissolved without cause. I didn't want to take a contract that could be over tomorrow because the employer ran out of money.

There's a job that I've wanted for months. Technical Writer at my husband's company. They're paid fairly, it's stable, and there are so many employees that there's room to grow.

It's been clear to me that no matter what I do, how many people I contact, how many times I contact the recruiter, they're not hiring any more writers. They're looking for engineers. Another slap in the face with my degree.

So where am I now? Really hating myself for taking a job that I really didn't want in the first place for a paycheck. A meager, sliced up one at that with all the taxes and insurance payments that I didn't have to worry about before. I'm not using my brain at all, I feel pretty stupid and it's been barely a month since I started doing data entry in a cube. I feel even more stupid knowing that I'm the laughingstock of the office because I took this job with my stellar resume.

I'm kind of hurt, and lost at the moment. Trying to figure out what I want out of my career, so I can go after it, and leave this grey box of click...ctrl+C...click...ctrl+V.

Freelancers: You're Not Invincible

As a freelancer, it's easy to think that you can do anything. This is especially true when you've never failed on a project, have met all of your deadlines, and have been blessed with great clients.

Up until yesterday, I was pretty confident that if it had to do with writing, or social media, I was on it. I've done alright on oDesk and have taken on some big contracts for companies all over the country. But I had a contract practically handed to me in a Skype interview, and it just didn't feel right to accept it.

When you get an assignment for something that you aren't exactly qualified for, you have two choices. One, you can take it on and research like a crazy person to prepare for it. Or two, you can admit that you can't do it and move on.

I was so confident that I could take this contract as a Research Analyst that I pitched the guy everything I had. I matched the description perfectly, and I made a stellar impression. Then he explained the job, and the scope of it... just astounded me. I've done social media work before, managed entire accounts on my own, but I specialize in content and communities. So when he asked for projection plans and budgets, I was quick to point out that I'd not had the opportunity to control that side of an account before. He was so confident that I could make it happen that he said not to over-think it, and to get him a plan by the next day. I would be writing all the posts for the blog and social media, as well as managing the advertising and publicizing of the product. I'd track everything, propose costs and execute... Everything.

Now, I know people who do this kind of thing on a regular basis. One of my previous employers (Blue Volcano Media) can take an account already knowing the time frames and costs to get X amount of followers by X date. It's not rocket science once you've done it a few times, but I haven't! I've worked for a company like this where the goal of the account is to get followers and make sales, not to increase engagement and interaction with the brand. I wrote it about it in my blog post Social Media Marketing as a Science. Sadly, my part in that company was as a Community Manager, not as a strategist or scientist.

I signed out of the interview with the potential employer raving about my talents, and how much he trusted that I could get this done. It was fee-based, or fixed-priced, though, so I had to come up with how much to charge. I actually don't have the slightest idea of what to charge most of the time, so I asked for a ballpark price from a friend. That's when it really sunk in: I can't do it.

I'm not afraid of failure and I'm not afraid of turning down an account, but it was so hard letting this guy down. He was excited, but I had to tell him that I didn't have the experience needed for his project and would have to withdraw my application. He then switched tactics, asking for me to only do the research and writing aspect of it. Once I get the courage to turn something down, I'm pretty blocked off from it, so I had to do it again and explain that research and writing is so tied to the marketing side of things that it'd be best to hire someone who can do it all, or be prepared to have a team on it.

Not only was it best for me to turn this job down, even being as jobless as I am, it was better for the employer and his vision.

Hootsuite Analytics Tutorial

One of my first tasks as a Social Media Specialist was to create a tutorial for Hootsuite Analytics. I'd only just started using HootSuite for monitoring social media, let alone for tracking statistics, so who was I to create a presentation to be shown to clients?

I love Prezi. I can do anything on Prezi. I can create a presentation and think through the process with Prezi. When I'm given a task to make a PowerPoint, I run to Prezi to conceptualize it, plan it out, and get everything I want into it. There is nothing like being free of slides and just spreading out in an online space.

So I came up with this tutorial. Looking through it now, it's very simplified and dated, and almost comes off as a Social Media for Dummies lesson plan. It's very step by step and perfect for a business owner just venturing into Insights and scheduling tools like HootSuite, RavenTools, and Time.ly.

Layers By Scentsy

Layers By Scentsy[/caption]

Ever have someone walk past you who smelled so good that it seemed to emanate from their pores? Clothes, hair, car... Just a breath of fresh air from all angles. I've actually trailed people before, just trying to place their cologne or perfume to find at a Macy's.

In the past, every time that I'd come across one of these heavily fragrant people I'd light a bunch of candles and spritz body spray and soak in body wash. I'm a scent person, I can trace any scent, can remember things by smell from before I was in kindergarten. But I could never quite get that amazing, head-turning fragrance.

Layers by Scentsy answers that call with scent solutions to compliment your home Scensy system. Take a bath with bath tablets, moisturize with Shower Cream and Body Lotion, grace your pulse points with Solid Perfume, scent your clothes with Washer Whiffs... If you want to smell deliciously good everywhere you go, Scentsy Layers has you covered!