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Just the Beginning

By Jennifer Ravegum

Here I am world! I know you need someone with my talent and skills! This is how I've been feeling lately. Working for a large bank for the last 5 years, easily working my way up , up, up the corporate ladder, and then, BOOM! In March it is announced that the company is downsizing and I along with 300 other people in my building will be on our way to joining the unemployment line by September.

I have to admit at first I was giddy with excitement. The world is full of opportunity and I am just the type of person to take advantage of every one of them! I am still giddy when looking at all the opportunity the world has to offer at this point in my life, however the thought of leaving the security of my job and the life I have built based on my career is to say the least a bit scary.

I need to keep reminding myself that I never wanted to be a banker. I actually used to think it would be the most boring job in the world, and sometimes it was. I am fortunate to have been a manager in a busy call center and am now a corporate trainer, jobs with lots of variety and lots of people. I am an officer of the company with a pretty nice paycheck and more than great benefits, not easy to walk away from this type of deal, and if I choose not to, I have the opportunity to stay on, as long as I am willing to commute 4 hours each day. I don't think so, not for a career I never really dreamed of.

Now with the world of opportunities before me I just want to take every one of them and run! I am driving myself nuts with the number of possibilities dancing on my brain. I have done a little self exploration and at least I know some of what I want. I read a good book, "What Color is Your Parachute" by Richard Nelson Bolles, excellent for giving you ideas on how to discover your passion. I also have read a few books on how to make money at home with different careers. I bought a brand new shiny computer to search the web and to of course begin writing my novel which I know the world has been waiting for. With all of this exploration I have discovered the following: I want to be self employed, I want to be in a career where I can share ideas and solutions with others and I like to offer advice on subjects I know about. This leads me to using one of my favorite talents, writing.

People seem to get real excited about my writing, even when I do not see much to get excited about. My mom always said my creativity is in my writing, she and my sister have the drawing and painting skills. My teachers always appreciated my writing, even when I was barely passing in any other subject. Even in college, I forgot to study for a literature final, I didn't even read the assigned book, but when I showed up for the essay exam, I walked away having written an A+ paper. Now, in my current career, I can type a quick email or even minutes from a meeting and people will respond saying how impressed they were with it. It doesn't matter to me what subject it is, even if it's boring, I can write about it and often turn it into interesting reading for other people. So I have concluded, either I can write or those around me cannot read! This brings me to my first career choice; I want to be a freelance writer.

I started looking for jobs as anyone would, on the Internet. Day one of browsing probably less than one percent of what is out there on freelance writing and what do I find? Everyone else is out there too! Apparently, I was not the only one getting A's on those essay exams. My next discovery was that very few people are getting paid the big bucks to write freelance. I, like everyone else, want the big bucks!

It's easy to think to your self that maybe you are as delusional as the rest of the world in thinking I can build a career based at home, using my talents and knowing there is always a need for what I want to do. However, I am determined not to permit those thoughts to enter my mind. I have not gotten as far as I have in my career lumping myself with the rest of the pack. I know what I can do and I need to make sure other people know it too. I have confidence that I can beat the odds and make a go of this. I can diversify what I want to do enough to make a tidy profit. I still have time before September when I am released to the world and I can spend that time either writing and getting my name out there, or I can continue searching for a career no one else has and therefore everyone will want to pay me to do which most likely does not even exist.

I decided to write. I started right here at www.allfreelance.com, looking through the job boards and seeing what jobs are available. There are many interesting jobs out there. There are not a lot of great paying jobs out there. So you have to start somewhere and I thought this is a great place for me. Where better to write then in a community of writers. Other people may begin this journey as I have and be looking for ideas on how to get started. I hope that as my journey continues I will learn a lot more and be able to share it. If the number of jobs lost around the country is the same as in my home town, then I think many more people will be looking for ways to support themselves and to create their own job security.

With that in mind I offer this advice:

Dream big, look at what you have always wanted to do, use your skills and your talents to discover exactly what that is. Then start looking for ways to do it.

Read every little piece of information you can find on what it is you like to do. You do not have to do every exercise or read every page to get benefit from this activity.

Search the Internet, just browse through different sites, read the message boards to see what people are saying who do the work you want to do.

Watch out for scams; do not look for someone else to make your dreams come true.

Set small goals for yourself that build to bigger goals and do not be discouraged when one person or even 100 people tell you no. Keep doing what it is you want to do.

Take every piece of advise you get and keep it in mind for when you might need it.

Think about how you can get your name out in front of the people who should be seeing it, even if it does not pay your bills this month. Next month someone may offer you something that will.

Remember, do not be limited by what you have or have not done before. Think back to the last job you had, it is a sure bet that you had to learn new skills to do it well. Finally, what people say is true, you can be whatever you want to be when you grow up and I believe you can be a lot of other things before then.

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Jennifer Ravegum has been working for the last five years as a banking manager and corporate trainer for customer service. The majority of her writing includes promotional and educational works geared towards employee service and performance. In her freelance writing career she is focused on writing promotional and instructional materials as well as non-fictional prose. Jennifer can be contacted at JenRav@msn.com

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Just the Beginning

SPOTLIGHT CONSULTANTS FROM OUR FREELANCE COMMUNITY

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