Nothing beats the excitement of landing a new job, right? Well, maybe the burst bubble feeling of finding out your new job isn’t what it was cracked up to be, or that you were catfished by your new employers. Now that feeling is hard to beat. For all the wrong reasons.
Continue reading “What to do when your new job isn’t what you expected”
I’m obsessed with hearing people’s stories. Not how they met their husbands (although, if it’s weird and wonderful, I’m all ears), more how they found what they’re good at, their huge mistakes and big breaks. As I mentioned before, I’m a big podcast fiend and, while most of my choices are pop culture podcasts, I absolutely devour any conversation with a successful woman talking about how she carved her career path. Continue reading “Podcast recommendations: Career and Business Podcasts for Women”
‘It’s all who you know.’ Is there a more discouraging sentiment when you’re starting out in your career? After finding out that your arts degree is in fact worthless, I can’t think of a more sinking realisation than the one where you realise connections, not your First Class Honours degree or last slave labour internship, are what catapult you further up the ladder.
After a few years of feeling all ‘why me?’ about growing up in a small town and therefore having no ties to the all-important Dublin-centric media, I started to realise that the personal connections thing works both ways. If I could just bump into people and make a good impression…that was an opportunity to make the connections I was so lacking. Sounds easy, right?
There’s just one problem: I loathe networking. Continue reading “Networking tips for people who hate networking”
If I got a euro for every time someone asked me ‘do you work in your pyjamas?’ when I tell them I work from home…well, I’d make more money than I do as a writer. After ‘who do you write for?’ that’s easily the most common question I get asked about my job and lifestyle.
As I mentioned here, the freelance economy is booming and in the US, 10% of employees now work from home. Whether you’re a writer or a virtual assistant, the market for freelance, remote workers is growing but for the majority, cubicle life is forever what they think of when it comes to work.
Contrary to what that oh-so-realistic cultural icon Carrie Bradshaw has led you to believe, working from home – especially as a journalist – is less ‘lusting over Louboutins’ and more ‘hey, have you met my husband? He’s called Macbook!’ Continue reading “Working from home tips: How to be productive and not get cabin fever”
I have a lot of opinions on being a freelance writer in Ireland in 2017. Although it’s offered me opportunities to work at companies I used to dream about while growing up in a small town, I still feel like the whole house of cards could collapse at any time, that every publication I write for could go the way of the dodo and we’ll all be replaced by ‘influencers’. Welcome to the Freelance Fear.
It’s an interesting but challenging time to be a journalist. Each week I hear that a journalist I thought was killin’ it has become a press officer or joined a tech company and there’s a strong sensation of ‘don’t wanna be the last one on this sinking ship’ when I meet other journalists, even editors. While it’s admittedly tough out there, at the same time it seems like everyone is a freelancer and there are few staff jobs anymore. In the US alone, more than a fourth of the workforce is now part of the freelance ‘gig economy’ so this way of working isn’t going away any time soon. Continue reading “Freelance writing tips: 5 lessons I’ve learnt”
Lisa Hughes 