The Maelstrom
I am looking for a job. I am actually looking to use some of the skills I have been teaching to college students for nearly ten years: copy editing, technical writing, proofreading. But the past sixteen semesters have been bound up in academia. It's a cheap duvet, is academia - warm, but full of sharp feathers: uncomfortable, and designed to undermine your confidence - but it is pain and fear in familiar terms. It has become my primary discourse: my first language. I know where I fit, and what I can expect, and sometimes I even know what is expected of me. I have been working with some amazing professionals to find a place for myself in what my rhet/comp friends call "alt-ac," or "alternatives to academia." These people I work with are impressive; men, for the most part. They have sharp resumes, dark tidy suits, and a familiarity with business discourse that I absolutely lack. And they are all facing the same thing I am: joblessness. We swirl around a maelst...