Can a person have stellar work experience without earning income? I can't answer that question. But I can assure you that a person can have a shitload of work without earning any income. And incidentally, I come prancing with my lengthy resume into Portland's job market (which heretofore shall be called No Man's Land).
Rainbow Media... Magnolia Pictures... The WB... Movie Camp Portland...
(Should I tell them about my publicity work for the documentary about
vaginas?) What did I do at these places? I may have started out doing the shit no one else wants to do, but I did acquire some responsibility and respect. For nothing.
When I say "nothing," I originally mean no pay. But now that I've been
around for nearly quarter of a century, I can glance back with enough wisdom to assert that "nothing" is also the result of these "opportunities." (Not entirely true: I did get a hat from Movie Camp PDX. A pen from the WB. An ex-boyfriend from Magnolia.) Every time I give my time and energy to this cause, I expect it will be different. Yet the only job I was ever offered was to work at the WB news desk, and I was only a sophomore in college, and we were standing in the bathroom when the HR lady asked me.
Now, we can add a small, weekly newspaper to the list. I am there for (at least) 20 hours a week. It won a Pulitzer a few years ago. (Verbal exchange with the writer who earned it, to date :_______________________________________________________.) I am starting to feel bad for the trees used to print my resume.
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