It’s been a long time since I haven’t posted anything about my job. The reason why is simple: me and my cubicle are over, I said good bye a few months ago to start my own biz so to say. I’m a free lance now!
Once upon a time, in my office in Paris…
When the idea of moving abroad was just an idea, I was happily working, making cook books for an old publishing house in Paris. When I said that in my family, they thought I was cooking all day and taking pictures. It wasn’t like that, I would have liked it too though.
The job of an editor is basically a team job, I was a sort of project manager, working with an author, a photographer, sometimes an illustrator, marketing people, sellspeople, etc. Everybody was trying to do his best to make nice colorful cook books. I loved the fact of doing many books at the same time which were all at different steps: one was still an idea (what’s trendy?), another one was being written (please, Mr Author, can you send me your texts on time?), or one need to be edited before being printed (it’s crazy how much typos you can make in one recipe), or the pictures of a book needed to be made again (they are not good enough!). Writing and speaking French was a basic required skill and I thought that if I left for a non-francophone country, I wouldn’t be able to do this job anymore. It’s not impossible to work as an editor in another language than your mother tonghe, but it requires to be 100% bilingual, specially when it’s about writing and rewriting.
I was scared to quit my job – which I considered as that time like my dream job, I was wondering if it wasn’t a mistake to leave everything to “follow my husband” (I just hate this phrase) ; I wanted to go abroad, but at the same time, I was scared to be alone, to meet nobody, and to start everything from scratch. And I even projected myself after that: “And what about my job when I’ll be back in France in a few years?”. There was no answer to that – these are probably the many questions that every spouse ask herself (or himself) when it’s time to leave for another country. Eventually, I followed the flow, and my will for change was stronger than my fears.
A job made in USA
A few days after getting my work authorization, I’ve started to look for a job in publishing. Most of the ads were for publishers/editors. Working in English, editing, suggesting changes: I didn’t feel that I could make it. So I started looking for something in between editorial and technical. Eventually it worked well and I found something interesting.
The work space was quite different from what I was used to in Paris (a big company in a big building, cubicles with no window, no coffee break, but well on the bright side, I did a great team trip in Arizona). The job in itself was also different – 100% web based and it was about education this time. I was glad to learn new things, and basically the general idea of a publishing house was still there: finding the best content and making them available for a certain audience.
Publishing still… but on the other side now!
At the beginning of January, I was contacted by a French publisher (thanks to the blog!) in order to update a tourist guide about New England. Being payed to travel and write about this: how can I say no?! I was delighted. At the same time, I started a yoga teacher training. Doing everything as the same time was a liiiiitle bit too much, so when it was time for me to get a new contract at my firm, I declined. I wasn’t sure about anything, but once again, I wanted to give it a try!
Since then, I’m working on this guide which is almost done now, and I’ve started working on other projects. It’s going well so far and I’m still working around books, which really pleased me! If you were asking how we could afford to spend so much time visiting New England, you know why now: I needed to see everything!
Share your own experience! If you have left your country to be your +1, what where your motivations? do you regret it? how do you manage your professional career?
