by Leo Wiles
17 July 2015
If you’re hanging out each Monday for Friday to roll on, chances are you’re in the wrong job, which can be a huge reality check when you work for yourself.
I, however, love every day of the week, including time spent at ‘work’ – wherever that may be on any given day – or those languid weekends spent having PJ days, or simple pleasures like picnics in the park.
Most of you may have scratched your head at that last sentence, but having moved up North to sunnier climes (sunnier than those from my native Tassie, Victoria and Sydney, that is), we’re still enjoying 20 degree days… jealous much?
Not so enviable, however, was the last year. I spent it cracking yet another new marketplace. It’s not the first time I’ve done it, and it’s been a long slog, but I feel like I am at least halfway there with people now commissioning me and requesting quotes.
While I still write features, I’m just as likely to be called to work in my other journalist capacities. Namely as a photojournalist, covering events – although there’s a steady influx of commercial and promotional work for tourism, local businesses and entertainers too.
I put this diversification largely down to seeing the writing on the wall a few years back. I tried to return to work post children and realised I was a technological dinosaur. A communication and media qualification followed, which taught me the much-needed video and audio skills a reporter needs these days.
It also made me fall in love with photography – and it served as a springboard to a filmmaking career producing sets of films for local businesses, as well as a series of documentaries. All of these require research, writing out questions and careful editing – it’s just done on video.
Change can be challenging, but with the right approach, it can also allow you to ditch old ways that aren’t working and adapt to the opportunities around you. For example, when I had a stint in Vanuatu some years ago, I stopped writing celebrity, medical and financial copy to deliver travel stories.
Now I have a new local patch and a new phase of my career that has allowed me to invigorate my passion for storytelling and work on a far wider range of projects than my time on Bauer’s weeklies or England’s dailies allowed. It’s certainly the reason why I simply can’t hate Mondays.
Have you put your journalism skills to work elsewhere? We’d love to hear your story in the comments.
Photo by Timothy Lamm, Unsplash
That sounds great! And yes, I’m pretty jealous of those 20-degree days as I sit here shivering! 😉
I think we all are, Megan… 🙂