Work experience

My second copy of The Snow Dragon is here, all beautiful and shiny and utterly useless. Maybe if I ever get a novel published, I'll run a competition where the winner gets a copy of my novel plus a copy of The Snow Dragon. Although I'm not sure that, having read The Snow Dragon, anyone would bother with anything else I've written... but hey, it was fun to write.

Anyway. I'm still unemployed, and need experience to get into my chosen field: anything in the newspaper/publishing industry — but ideally, editing. Every industry job I apply for, it's the same response: Good application, but we need experience. (Either that or a polite form rejection.)

Then Dan, wonderful person, was talking about me to a customer who works for a local community newspaper; she said they don't have any vacancies but they do often do work experience for students, and she passed on her card for me to call her.

Got in touch with her yesterday, met the editor today — and now I'm off On Assignment! All unpaid, all work experience; I don't care. I just want the experience. The deadline's Friday midday; if I can get the interview, photo and article written up before then he'll give me some more work to do.

It's just encouraging. I don't mind starting at the bottom and working up, but I've just had trouble finding that place to start. I had been planning to do cold calls/CV drops at the local newspapers, but it's nice not to have to do that. Although, if this work experience ends and I still can't get a job, I will do the cold-call/CV drop thing.

But it's nice to be moving forward.