Career Panel--Black Americans In Publishing

So I will be on a career panel at the annual Black Americans in Publishing Career Fair. What info do I have to offer you ask? I think I have a good amount of info to offer minorities beginning the job search.

Cause let me tell you, it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. Or maybe it was, I just expected too much, not sure. But I started looking for a job in January and landed one at the end of March, I guess that wasn't so bad. But I had the fact that I was still in Boston working against me. Folks was like "yeah, contact us when you get to NY."

Plus I had high standards. Call me cocky, but I didn't want to use my master's degree to land a position photocopying as a an editorial assistant. Yeah people were really trying to push entry-level positions on me despite the fact that I had worked before grad school, despite the fact that in grad school I did the whole internship thing, despite the fact that I studied publishing for two years, despite the fact that I did extensive freelance work for publishing companies, despite the fact that I ran a website dedicated to publishing.

But Momma raised me never to settle. So I made a list of all the things I wanted in my position post-grad school. And I used that list when I was applying for jobs (although I did apply to jobs I had no business applying to, but you know how it is, you get a little desperate.)

I was lucky to find a position that fit all my requirements and then some. But it was kind of by chance.

So back to my original point I have a lot of imformation to impart.

I think I know almost every publisher website in New York. I know the names of the eight black editors that work at the major houses. I probably reached out to all of them, whether I knew them or not. I don't necessarily suggest that, but you got to be aggressive.