baby, it's all about the hustle

This post was originally entitled "hustle, hustle," but the new title sounds cooler and more Pulp Fiction-esque, don't you think?

I'm deep in the trenches of networking... it's as if my life depended on it. Actually, my livelihood does depend on it, so you can imagine that I'm feeling the pressure. I've only really just begun my full-time job search as this last year was dedicated more to freelance work, grad school research and prep, and travel. While I look for full-time work, I'm also hoping to build an NYC client base to add to my Japan one and so, the hustle.

Unlike when you work a full-time, salaried job, with generally structured and paid for working hours, when you work for yourself, every minute of every day is a potential minute when you could be getting paid. The great thing about being a freelancer is that you can work any time you want, all hours of the day or night. The bad thing about being a freelancer is that you can work any time you want, ALL HOURS of the day or NIGHT. So, while that can be great for a night owl like me, it also means that you always feel like you have to be out there, hustling up business because no one else is gonna be doing it for you.

There are pros and cons to both sides of the work spectrum (full time/salaried to freelancer flyin' by the seat of her pants), and I've enjoyed working in both contexts, but they are definitely very different emotional experiences. Just ask my stress bumps (aka pimples).

Click on the other links throughout this post for some more hustlin'.

the hunt

I'm sure there's an "Eye of the Tiger"
reference I could make here if I'd ever
seen the movie "Rocky."
(Taken in Chiang Mai, Thailand. October 2010.)

So, I'm back to that old problem of tackling my "To Do" list (always capitalized... so annoying).

Luckily, this time I'm not in a winter-in-Tokyo-induced funk, so everything is definitely more manageable and, at the end of the day, even when it seems kind of overwhelming, I remember that I'm only a hop, skip, and a jump (a.k.a., a short 30 mins on the train) to the City (always capitalized... very cool).

Next up on my things to do is "FIND A JOB!!!" (in ALL CAPS and with punctuation... frustrating, but good motivation).

First things first, if you're out there, reading this (Hello! Welcome to my blog!), and you are looking for an editor (especially one specializing in development economics research with international managing editor experience), please contact me!

Second, I'm looking for all kinds of editing work, including in fields that I've actually had more writing than editing experience. I like writing, I really enjoy it, but I LOVE reading. Now how cool would it be to find a job reading topics that I love too? Not that development economics isn't the cat's (er, tiger's?) pajamas, but, let's be honest with ourselves, it isn't exactly a topic that shows up on the New York Times' Bestsellers List very often.

Third, I'm looking for writing work. I've written for women's lifestyle magazines, Tokyo lifestyle magazines, food blogs, photo blogs, and my personal blog (Hey again, how you doin'?).

Fourth... oooh, gotta run! I'm networking all the time now and the train waits for no (wo)man!