Page 115 - Marky Stein - Fearless Career Change_ The Fast Track to Success in a New Field (2004)

Ten Success Stories About People Just Like You

Letters of recommendation after a period of vol-
unteering or an internship are an absolute
necessity if you’re going to use either strategy in
your fearless career change arsenal.

The second line of attack turned out to be strategic education.
She enrolled in a semester-long class in what is called copyediting.
Copyediting is similar to proofreading, also using a specialized group
of characters and symbols to make corrections to the text on a page.
Before Nancy finished the course, she had a job offer for an
associate editing position in a small educational publishing house.
(We’ll talk about how she was able to get an interview in Chapter 8.)
About three years later, with two promotions under her belt,
Nancy and her family have traded in the cold rocky coast of Rhode
Island for a telecommuting job from Santa Fe, New Mexico. Nancy
does her editing, and some writing, from her computer at her
desk in her desert home and still works, by fax, mail, and e-mail,
for her original publishing company. When she sits out on her
hardwood deck with her laptop and a cup of coffee overlooking
the contours of a desert landscape, she e-mails me a simple mes-
sage, “Life is good.”
For a quick review of Nancy’s fearless career change strategies,
consider the chart below:

1. Transferable talents Yes Writing and editing from
school and work.
2. On-the-job training No
3. Strategic education Yes Partial course in copyediting.
4. Short-term education No
5. Internship No
6. Volunteering Yes Proofreader at a local news-
paper.
7. Just Dive In! No
8. Entrepreneurship No

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