[Ipg-smz] Thoughts on a Career Pause

[Tom Henderson]

+1

On 5/29/19 11:19 AM, Tara Calishain wrote:
> Last fall I left a job which ate my life for a dozen years. 60-80 hour 
> weeks (unpaid overtime), difficult work, no support from higher-ups. 
> Nine years without a vacation. Three years with no days off (and I 
> don't mean I worked five days a week. I mean I worked seven days a 
> week for three years.) I won't even tell you about sleeping in a 
> warehouse five days a week for four months.
>
> It's been almost seven months since I left and I feel like I'm only 
> starting to feel human again. Sometimes when I go outside and realize 
> I have nobody breathing down my neck to get things done, I cry.
>
> I have been looking around in a desultory way for work, and did get a 
> columnist job at The Saturday Evening Post. Then David Strom (bless 
> him forever) hooked me up with a newsletter job for Inside.com. The 
> pay does not knock my socks off, but it's a good base with my column 
> job, Saturday Evening Post, Patreon, and freelancing.
>
> I will pitch and write articles (please think of me if you need 
> something done), but other than that I am not hustling. I have made 
> the deliberate choice to go into a lower gear for a couple of years.
>
> During that time I plan to:
>
> -- Exercise regularly, cook better, and lose some weight.
>
> -- Learn to draw. I'm not a visual person and I want to better that 
> part of me.
>
> -- Learn Spanish, because when I was in high school I took German like 
> a knucklehead. (Nothing against German people, but there's a ton of 
> people around here who speak Spanish.)
>
> -- Spend much time with my 95-year-old Granny and do things that make 
> her happy. (These include finding instruction manuals for old cooking 
> devices, burning 80 episodes of "The Old Fashioned Revival Hour" to a 
> CD, and sharing funny dog videos.)
>
> -- Write fiction, because my mother keeps telling me to.
>
> -- Goober around a little with ResearchBuzz.
>
> It's going to take me a long damn time to stop apologizing for not 
> working 40 hours a week, but I don't care. I haven't been a happy 
> person since I was nine years old, but I want to try to be once more 
> before I die.
>
> Go for it.
>
> Tara
>
>
> On Wed, May 29, 2019 at 11:04 AM Liam Kelly <ljkelly1888 at gmail.com 
> <mailto:ljkelly1888 at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Hey all,
>
>     I'm thinking to leave my position as editor of a crypto-centric
>     blog to pursue a few different options.
>
>     Likely I won't find anything as well-paid as this for a few
>     months, but I've been at this publication for a few years now and
>     I have the impression it's time for a bit of progress.
>
>     The idea is to leave editing to the side and gather as many
>     bylines as possible in hopes of landing a staff position at a
>     larger publication.
>
>     But I was curious about a few things:
>
>     - If not writing, what other skills would *you* develop during a
>     similar break?
>     - Am I crazy to leave a position in which I'm paid a flat rate to
>     both write and edit?
>     - And, finally, any general thoughts on some personal experiences
>     related to this subject.
>
>     I've got savings, a handful of smaller clients that I've been
>     working with, and a dreadful feeling of stagnation. All of this
>     has culminated in this plan.
>
>     Thanks in advance for any suggestions, relevant stories, and/or
>     links to things I should read before making the "leap."
>
>     Best,
>
>     Liam J. Kelly
>     -- 
>     Ipg-smz mailing list
>     Ipg-smz at netpress.org <mailto:Ipg-smz at netpress.org>
>     http://netpress.org/mailman/listinfo/ipg-smz_netpress.org
>
>
-- 
Tom Henderson
ExtremeLabs, Inc.
+1 317 250 4646
Twitter: @extremelabs
Skype: extremelabsinc

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