The Unemployment Diaries

Fine Tuning (17.02.10)

Today’s a day for another Unemployment Diary confessional: I turned down a job. Well, more accurately, I was on my way to getting a job and I tripped myself intentionally before the home run.

Why would someone who has dedicated a blog to her unemployment problem sabotage an opportunity to be paid to write? It wasn’t right. I know I said I’d go to the outer edges of the earth to work at a newspaper, but actions are harder than words.

The job I may have gotten was as a news editor in East Coast Canada at a bi-weekly paper. Not bad, except, packing up and moving to a small town is not what I want to do for a number of reasons. Don’t call me a hypocrite, just call me human and allow me to add a clause to my question: How long does it take a Journalism minor to find a job in a dying industry (at a news publication in Ontario/Quebec OR a city with a population of more than 20,000)?

It’s easy to find work, but not the kind that pays. I’ve committed to the next few months in Ottawa for family reasons and so far have found I can write for Metro newspaper on my own dollar. I’ll take it. I start tomorrow. Seriously.

Obviously, I’m still looking for paid work, but in the meantime, no bills + no job = Ang takes free work. No. Not that kind. We’re still talking journalism people.

Recently, when I was in Toronto helping a friend with his play, I decided to interview some of the actors backstage about working “pro-bono” in their field.

Here’s what one of them had to say:

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A quick google search of Lyndie also reveals she acts in a web series called B.J. Fletcher: Private Eye. Check it out, she’s the one with a gun!