I’ve been applying to a lot of writing opportunities, both freelance and contract roles, with no response. The job landscape is a nightmare now.
Even my previous clients aren’t responding, not even a simple no. And that’s after I did a preliminary research on their property and shared a basic outline of how I can help level up their content game. These are the most detailed pitches I’ve sent (using SEMrush for research, Claude for data and landscape analysis, plus my own judgement).
And crickets!
Most job opportunities I’m coming across seem like a rough fit for me. AI-workflows and AI-assisted writing/editing roles are ruling the roost. I’ve been using that in my previous role, using AI to create briefs, create a Claude skill to help with editing docs as per our style guide and remove AI slop, deep research on a topic to help get started with the initial info gathering, etc. So, I’m OK with that. But the focus on them irks me, because I know what’s expected when someone pushes for them.
Productivity gains at all costs.
Using AI has atrophied my writing skills, and surprisingly, my reading skills too. I don’t know how far away I’m from AI psychosis, so I need to be super aware of how much I use it. But there’s no question that in my current job profile, I’ll HAVE to use it. It’s expected.
So, that got me thinking. What if I use this 2 month buffer I have (at max) to upskill for an adjacent job position that’s not writing, but that’ll still use all my skills. This Support Engineer position at Kinsta caught my eye.
I check almost all its bonus requirements, but I’m rusty at them. And I don’t have any online customer service experience, which seems to be the most important of them all for this job, but I’m hoping I can get past that. I do have agency and freelancing experience where I’ve dealt with dozens of clients, some in real-time, but never at this level.
And then there’s thousands of posts and comments across communities, from my college Orkut days to tech forums to subreddits these days, I’ve always like helping with tech requests.
Either way, whether I get the job or not, I’ll be better skilled for whatever comes next after this. I’m hoping against hope that I can land something stable and secure soon!
