All for the experience

Last week ended with me getting phone calls from the media sales agency, and consistently missing them. I'd call back and leave a message, they'd return my call and have to leave a message. This carried on the next week on Monday, obviously with a break over the weekend -- but by Monday I had decided I didn't want to work in sales. I knew I had to call the agency, or talk to them when they called me...I just couldn't do it. In the end I chickened out, and emailed them. I didn't get a reply, but they stopped calling, and that was what I wanted. Because I was avoiding their calls though I also had to keep calling back an agency I did want to talk to -- although the story from agencies about editorial or creative work has been the same almost every time; not enough experience.

Some agencies were more interested than others, and this one in particular chatted to me about my experience and what I wanted, but expressed doubts they could find me anything. However, within minutes of hanging up the phone to one guy I got a call from one of his colleagues who had my CV and thought she might have a job opportunity for me. Reporter for a B2B international finance magazine, a junior position with writing involved from day one and gradually more responsibility and the possibility for international travel. The more she told me, the more interested I was. She said she would send the company my CV and let me know if they wanted to interview me.

The next day she called with the news; they didn't. I wasn't experienced enough -- for a junior position, and not even worth interviewing. Naturally I was pretty disappointed, and I posted a question on a jobs board of a forum asking people for advice on getting experience in the form of unpaid work. I got a few responses, one person asked if I was "at least writing". I can't very well show a prospective employer my blog -- "We like the way you talk about this girl you fancy, you're hired" -- which is partly the rationale behind the occasional commentary on current affairs. Other questions involved where I had done any internships, since apparently it's not only a great way to get experience, but also a common way for employers to find suitable employees.

This prompted me to search for internship opportunities. Initial searches, although at first promising, seemed to suggest that internships in London were mostly aimed at international students. I'm still considering my own internship abroad -- opportunities in Australia, New Zealand and Italy have caught my eye in particular. However, anything involving an antipodean trip would cost me money I don't have right now -- and to fund such a trip, I would need the ever-elusive 'real job'.

So it's just as well a London-based PR firm have now offered me the opportunity to intern for at least a month, and possibly longer. I feel slightly apprehensive that I am now quitting my job to work unpaid, but I figure it's something I can't let pass me by if I intend to ever get out from behind the bar and into something more suited to me.

The other day a guy I once went to school with and worked alongside, behind the bar, several summers ago stopped in for a drink -- apparently after work. I tried to be polite and friendly, but still show no obvious sign of recognising him. He was dressed in a suit -- which didn't suit him in the least, he always seemed scruffy, however he was dressed -- and smugly asked me; "So what are you up to now?".
"You're looking at it", I said.