Thursday, April 30, 2009

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After spending the past two weeks in the mind-numbing world of restaurant promotions, I've taken a month-long online copywriter internship with UK home deco company, mydeco.com. No more forcing fliers into stranger's hands on the streets for me. I'm trading that life in for professional development with a progressive, creative atmosphere in Notting Hill.

Joining a group of about 30 keen digital minds, I'll be writing content for home decoration micro-sites, ensuring that the content is optimized for search engines. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has become a must-have skill for any self-respecting/working copywriter. While I've done some light reading on the topic (Lesson #1: If your site is about your Advertising Portfolio, do not title it "Steve Is Awesome," even if it may be true), I'm not at a point where I can market myself as an online/digital copywriter just yet.

After speaking with the marketing manager about the role this morning, I can tell that I will be getting a crash course in everything digital over the next few weeks. SEO, CMS, HTML, CRM, SMS... the list goes on. World Wide Web of online copywriting acronyms, here I come.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Brutality. Theft. Unemployment. Just Another Week in London.

It's been an interesting past few weeks. Life in London is never boring, that's for sure.

I'm sure you've seen the reports of the G20 protests that took place not long ago. The fallout from the protests and ensuing police retaliation is still taking place in London. Considering that a man may have indirectly died due to police brutality, there's been a microscope on the Metro police ever since. Just the other day, another police officer was suspended for being overly aggressive. While people tend to complain about video monitoring, in an age of ubiquitous mobile phones, it's hard to imagine seeing a news report nowadays without mobile phone images and video - for better or worse.

My own mobile phone was recently lost to the beast that is The Joiner's Arms in Shoreditch. It seems to have quite the hunger, as I'm not the first person I know who has lost their valuables there - I don't mean their "wits", although that applies as well. Thankfully, I had insurance on my phone. But as you would expect the insurance company is making me jump through hoops to get a new phone free of charge. I should know whether I'll be receiving a replacement iPhone by early next week. Please, insurance gods, be merciful.

While I'm at it, I'll pray to the gods of employment as well. Now that my part-time promotions job has ended, and with no more promotions work in the foreseeable future, I'm back looking for part-time or full-time work. I really can't say when the next opportunity will present itself. One thing I can say is being unemployed is a great way to get charity fundraisers to leave you alone. Although one lady did have the nerve to ask, "So... when do you think you'll be working again?" If only I knew the answer to that...

There are a few opportunities out there though. I'm still waiting to hear back about a second interview for a position as a copywriter with a really interesting data research company. I've also recently applied for three new positions; all with marketing or advertising companies. But who knows what will happen. And I can't be waiting for work to find me, so it's back to researching the jobs section on gumtree.com. I wonder if I can put that down as a special skill on my CV?