Hi,
I feel kind of awkward about this. But I’ve been getting a several emails a day asking for career advice. I really like helping, but I do have a day job and it pays by the hour so spending time on this costs me money. And I can’t make them all into blog posts or Blood and Milk would be nothing but jobs jobs jobs.
So, from now on, if you want career advice, you’re going to have to sign up for the newsletter. It’s not free. It costs $2 a month. But I’ll strip your question of personal information and answer it in as much detail as I can. You can sign up for just one month to see my answer to you, or you can stay on the list to see all the career advice.
I think this is going to be fun. It will give me a chance to vent in more detail and be less formal than I am on the blog. (I know, you’re thinking I’m not all that formal now, but you’ve never seen me in full late-night rant mode.) I am hoping over time we can grow this into a community of people who help each other find their dream jobs in international development.
This is how it works: If you want to write me for career advice, sign up for the newsletter. Then, email me from the same account you signed up with, tell me you signed up, and ask me your question. I’ll make your question anonymous and send the answer out to the list. I’ll answer your follow-up questions on the list as well.
Like I said, I feel a little weird about this, but I just can’t keep up the way things are. I think this will be better for everyone.
– Alanna
Edited to add: I am putting each newsletter that goes out into an ebook, and when you subscribe, I send the ebook with every newsletter to date. So when you subscribe, you also get the whole archive.
What a great idea! And I agree that a newsletter has the potential to be a lot of fun in addition to being helpful.
Thanks, Jessica. I am a little worried it will keep me from meeting awesome people like you, but I figure that $2 is a low barrier to entry.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jaclyn Schiff, Alanna Shaikh. Alanna Shaikh said: I am changing the way I do career advice: http://bloodandmilk.org/?p=1630 […]
Don’t feel weird about charging for your time and expertise – it’s totally reasonable!
I’m not sure you’ve got the best business model though – do you think people will stay signed up once they’ve found a job? Is there a way to keep them interested for the long term?
Down the road, you might consider charging employers for posting/linking to their vacancies. And maybe you could have a few volunteer ‘guest columnists’ or Q&As with folks in the field, to decrease your workload.
But at the very least, don’t feel weird!
Miriam – Thanks. I will do my best!
I think this is a great idea – you shouldn’t feel weird at all. You’re at about the price of a new non-fiction book – and for an intern, not anywhere near the cost of some other practical learning. And you’ve got to eat.
I’ll be recommending you.
I’m in agreement – it’s a great idea and I’ll be sending people who as me for advice in the direction of your newsletter.
I also think that you could get someone to combine some of your bests posts on this topic together with some of the letters/responses from your new newsletter into a PDF book which you could sell through the site.
When you get the emails, you can point people in that direction.
I’ve been thinking of doing something like that, but never get around to it. If you do, then I’ll happily send people over your way!
Now that’s a GREAT idea! I will definitely steer some of the people that approach me with similar questions to your newsletter.
I think this will be the beginning of something great! I’ve already got a full-time dream job in the field, but I’m tempted to sign up, just because I don’t want to miss anything.
Thanks Emily! I just spent an embarrassingly long time developing a curated list of development RSS feeds to send out to subscribers, so I think I really can add some value for people.
This is a great idea. I also work in international development and get frequent requests for career information. I will definitely suggest your newsletter to people in future.
You are kidding, right?
You must really think highly of yourself. Everyone with 2 cells in their brain knows you do. And as for those who say this is a great idea… you’re either fools or Alanna’s friends already.
Alanna Shaikh, your ego never ceases to amaze us.
The comment above from Sara Hanson is exactly why I was nervous about giving this a shot.
But, you know – career coaching is one of the ways I make a living. I don’t have to give it away too. And Sara, whoever she is, doesn’t have to like it. Or me, for that matter.
Ha! She has such a big ego that she is charging $2 a month for information… yeah ok Sara, whatever.
I think this is a great idea, FWIW. Only today I charged a student around $30 for an academic interview which I would have given previously for free – you do these things a few times, realise that you never get anything back from them and start to realise how many people’s MSc projects you’ve helped write. I know it sounds hard, but you are worth it, Alanna, all power to your elbow.
Alanna: You probably know this already, but get out the sandpaper and start rubbing your skin all over. Just like a journalist or a politician, your profile is high enough now that some people like to give themselves a cheap thrill by taking an anonymous swing at you. It’s sooo easy, and it means nothing.
You are totally right, Rick. The more people who know you, the more people you can piss off. That’s how the world works. I’ll keep my big girl pants on and hang in there.
Not a bad idea really. It is personalized advice and worth a lot. I don’t think you should be apologetic about charging because basically if you don’t no one wins and no one gets the help because you couldn’t manage the time. It’s an interesting experiment anyway. Boo to the trolls. 🙂
Go for it, Alanna. It’s a great idea. Don’t let some random troll tell you otherwise.
I _love_ this idea! My only suggestion: charge more. $5 is more worth your time and still less that coffee they’d buy to hear this from someone else.
Personally, I’ve taken a different tact with job seekers: the functional internship: http://wayan.com/community-of-practice/how-to-get-ict4d-dream-job.html
Great – I’m going to send all the poeple who ask me for free career advice to your site instead of failing to return their e-mails!
As a development econ prof, with no full time experience doing international development work I have a hard time advising students on how to get into the field. I will start sending student your way.
I wrote a brief blog post on your idea to charge for your advise (linked below). But in short, econ 101 teaches us that a price ceiling at free can be suboptimal for the consumer and producer.
http://sethgitter.blogspot.com/2010/07/job-advice-2.html
Is there any chance you might make the recent newsletters available to new subscribers or are we out of luck? Still, I look forward to whatever information you offer!
I’ve subscribed and read the back issues already. Well worth it. (Josh- A subscription gets you the archives)
I thought Sara’s jab was satire at first, but I guess it’s a bit of cruel trolling.