Employment Advice for a Young Adult? (sales, school, college)

[Anonymous1133]

I am 23. I live in central Bergen County. I have 3 plus years of magazine reporting/editorial experience and 1.5 years of experience within the broadcast media industry. I am an excellent employee with a following. I am currently unemployed and having trouble obtaining work. I would appreciate any leads especially being as my parents (who are not financially stable) are divorcing and my car broke down this past week. In advance, thank you for your time.

PS - No, I can not even obtain unemployed benefits since all of the work I did within the past three years was freelance/contract (essentially off of the books re: W2 forms). However, I have excellent and highly reputable references to speak on my behalf in conjunction with hard copy samples of my published work. I am posting this in Bergen County forum because I figured this would be the best forum to post in if local work is available.

[GoodSchoolols]

Unfortunately the publishing field is dying so finding work will be difficult. I would suggest you re-invent yourself. Do you have a college degree? If so you could probably find work or even go to a staffing agency. I would recommend you familiarize yourself with Excel maybe see if you can take free classes or even learn via YouTube. You can get an entry level job earning more than you would with editorial background doing anything with Excel. You have to reinvent yourself. That is one small example. Become anything and work your way up.

[EBWick]

In the meantime work at something like waiter/bartender that pays well to pay your bills while you look for another job in your field or further your education. These days you have to be willing to jump around and use all your skills.

[EnglishMajor1983]

Originally Posted by GoodSchoolols

Unfortunately the publishing field is dying so finding work will be difficult.

As somebody who once dreamed of working in publishing, that is so hard to hear I do realize it is the truth, sadly.

[Anonymous1133]

I appreciate your responses. Before my career I worked many odd jobs since I was a young teen including administrative jobs. Therefore, I am very familiar with most administrative programs. Also, being as I did work in radio and publishing, I am quite familiar with marketing. There were several radio jobs that I was so close to receiving but they chose somebody else. In the meantime I am looking for Account Executive or similar jobs in Bergen County. Does anyone know any companies looking?

[GoodSchoolols]

Originally Posted by Anonymous1133

I appreciate your responses. Before my career I worked many odd jobs since I was a young teen including administrative jobs. Therefore, I am very familiar with most administrative programs. Also, being as I did work in radio and publishing, I am quite familiar with marketing. There were several radio jobs that I was so close to receiving but they chose somebody else. In the meantime I am looking for Account Executive or similar jobs in Bergen County. Does anyone know any companies looking?

Job boards are your friend. Sign up for daily job alerts that fit your criteria. In any case, I would only filter by location.

[EBWick]

Another thing I've learned in this no-loyalty business environment. Always update your resume and unless the job is the best thing ever, always be looking for a gig to replace it. Things change from day-to-day in the business world today and it's best to be ready to move on either voluntarily or if you've been forced out.

[Anonymous1133]

I agree with you EBWick! Right now I am worried. Ideally I would like to find something in radio/editorial/tv right now. I sent my cover letter, resume and references to a couple local Bergen County newspapers but have to heard back. It is really bothering me as I know I am qualified for, at the very very very minimum, a reporter position. Hell, I even applied at New York Sports Club for the time being. Do you know of any related media outlets, businesses or corporations that are or will be hiring?

[SweepTheLeg]

Originally Posted by Anonymous1133

I agree with you EBWick! Right now I am worried. Ideally I would like to find something in radio/editorial/tv right now. I sent my cover letter, resume and references to a couple local Bergen County newspapers but have to heard back. It is really bothering me as I know I am qualified for, at the very very very minimum, a reporter position. Hell, I even applied at New York Sports Club for the time being. Do you know of any related media outlets, businesses or corporations that are or will be hiring?

Some advice:

Unless you plan to work in sales in radio, and even those jobs want experience, don't bother looking in radio in NYC. You don't have anywhere near the experience to be working in Market #1. At most, you could hope for a part-time street position, and working in the city, just crossing the river will burn a lot of what you'll make for the day.

If you want to work in radio, you should be prepared to move around the country, a lot. I'm sure you're already looking at All Access, but if you aren't, start now.

Radio is unforgiving, tough work that doesn't pay a lot. You do it because you love it, not because you want to get rich from it.

I have a few friends who are successful in radio. One is single and has been working his ass off for the last 10 years. Because he is single, he can get by on the paltry salary. Two of them, the only reason they stayed in radio is because their wives were the breadwinners and out-earned them nearly 2 to 1.

[MontclairNative]

Local blogs (Patch, Baristanet, etc) are starved for content. Hit the streets and submit some freelance material in the hopes of getting a staff job, then take their model to an underserved area and franchise the blog site as editor and hire some ad sale people of try to do both. Alternatively, set up your own blog in these underserved areas then "sell out" to the Patches of the world. Go where the growth is.