Career Changes

Moe Tkacik has had a long writing and reporting career for outlets like Philadelphia magazine, The Wall Street Journal and Jezebel, and announced yesterday that she was tired of working for people who don’t get it, and decided to start working for herself:

And this morning I woke up, took a shower, fed the cats, fed my last 434 pennies — well, they weren’t formally “mine” for the most part but they were, you know, pennies — into a Coinstar machine at the local Pathmark, spent 365 of them on an egg and cheese sandwich, and decided to finally take the plunge into the terrifying abyss of raw capitalism.

As of today, I am no longer a decommissioned wage slave of the obsolete managerial elite, I am a mendicant entrepreneur, a Web 2.0 Panhandlr, the star of my own millennial Wild Western, and the devoted full-time employee of You!

As someone who has worked for a lot of people who didn’t “get it,” and is now self-employed, I fully support Moe Tkacik’s new venture. Her announcement and her ideas for how she plans on earning money can be read here.

Over the weekend, I talked to a few friends who are fortunate to be working journalists, and have staff positions at various publications. A few told me they are already feeling burnt out from their jobs, which have become increasingly more difficult as budgets get cut and they’re asked to do more. One friend in particular who has a coveted staff editor job at a widely circulated magazine has decided to quit to become a communications director for a museum, which will have better hours and a lot more money.

Let’s seize the day, folks!

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