Forum / This economy

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  Ann Bogle

  Oct 08, 11:07pm

  I'm interested in knowing whether anyone has a story to tell -- their own or someone else's -- about retraining for other professions following training in creative writing/English literature OR about applying the training in some other way (than to teach English at a college, university, or high school).

  I have a friend who recently left his post as a prep school English teacher due partly to health reasons and is offering to edit novels and other mss. freelance. Freelancing I found it very difficult to conclude payment arrangements, and I found that certain types of people were likely to pay as agreed and other types were not likely to do so.

  Areas I'm considering are legal secretary and hair stylist. I used to be interested in postal work, but ... . Radio talk show host has come up in conversation. I know two radio talk show hosts. One was born to it, to a radio family in CA, the other fell into it quite by accident.

  Modeling is out. Ten years ago I found myself called into modeling agencies in MN and I realized I didn't want the work and didn't follow through with it. It was startling in more than one way. One, I had not sat in a literary agent's office due to my writing, ever, yet there I sat at these other top MN modeling and acting agencies, with no modeling or acting experience whatsoever. Acting unions are not strong in MN, I think. There was something political about it. I was 39 then, so that was another surprise.

  The economy is officially quite bad. I'm wondering whether it is still worthwhile to try to find "right livelihoods." I sincerely hope it is. A friend was saying today that with our (his and my) trainings, we ought not to be adjunct English teachers, that we belong in more stable teaching posts, but for both of us, there are barriers, age, one. I am so grateful for and aware of how good the training was -- so want/need routes not tired from trying.

  Stories about work.

• 
  David Ackley

  Oct 09, 02:50am

  If I were starting now, Ann, and were interested and able to do the training, Teaching English as a second language ( ESL, TESOL, whatever) is a promising area. I have a friend and a niece both of whom took advanced degrees in that area, the friend as retraining( She was originally an anthropologist, taught college) and she's worked all over the world, principally in the Middle east as teacher, now a consultant and text book writer/program developer. My niece teaches part time at the University of Texas in Austin. So that's one idea, and by the way, just to teach doesn't always require the training, in for example high school level/adult ed programs.

  Small to medium sized private social/human service agencies often have entry level needs; getting in the door and then making yourself useful in other ways than just the job description can often get you better opportunities. Community Action Programs( surprisingly still around) a possibility. These places often need grant writing, a good way to secure a place: write the grant that funds your position.( Done that.)

  Avoid hair styling: beauty schools pump them out by the carload; there are probably hundreds trained and un-or under-employed in your area.

  I started out with an MFA teaching full-time in an alternative Liberal Arts college. When it went belly-up I did a number of different things of the bartending, carpentry etc ilk. But also part-time jobs in Adult Ed/GED level counselling, teaching. These turned out to be good experience for the eventual return to more interesting work in the College setting, administering offcampus programs for adults. There, a writing background was always useful and sometimes key, for proposals, publicity, journalism, grantwriting, you name it: turns out, you're always having to write something.

  If you look hard, you'll probably find people with a lit/writing background in almost every agency and company. A friend of mine with a BA in journalism is communications manager for a paper company as just one example. Another's entry-level job(with a BA in lit) was speechwriter for the CEO of a hightech corporation.

  One other thing:doing a job and getting one are different matters. But the latter isn't as complicated as people make out, since it's often a matter of being in the right place at the right time. I've gotten several jobs by the simple expedient of walking in the door and talking to the person who hires; doesn't always work, but more often than you'd think.

  all the best in your quest

  david

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  Ann Bogle

  Oct 09, 03:13am

  David, thanks -- all helpful, especially the information about ESL and ABE and GED training. I worked unpaid at a literacy center that served all these needs, and it was satisfying work. I'm not averse to retraining as long as there's a chance after it's done. Aveda operates a salon school in Minneapolis, and today I emailed with someone who teaches there. The training available at that school is excellent. I was thinking, if nothing else, it would be a skill I could barter. One of my friends ran into enormous dental expenditures, and her dentist let her barter poetry -- the dentist was that fascinated by someone's ability to write it.

• 
  Meg Pokrass

  Oct 09, 05:14pm

  i think we should consider being professional muses.

• 
  Ann Bogle

  Oct 09, 05:28pm

  http://www.fictionaut.com/stories/frank-hinton/ordering-a-muse-over-the-phone

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