Juiced On Writing

Last Friday I applied for a writing job in second life. I presume for various reasons including my naivety and lack of experience in-world, that I may not be successful in securing a position with that particular job application. Despite this, I still wanted to take a look at the whole from an experience level also.

In real life, I am the queen of job applications, having been successful in any job I’ve ever gone for (aside from some local part-time ones where there was less to do with professionalism and much more to do with being somebody’s daughter or cousin in the selection process).

But when it came to applying for a writing job – which I do have some experience at – and one within Second Life, I knew I was up against a lack of knowledge, and indeed a lack of process knowledge of how things work within a virtual world.

Firstly, this particular position (or two or three) was as a staff writer for an excellent in-world magazine, but there was also a possibility of being some kind of editorial assistant, or perhaps a blogger. An application form was available, in the form of an in-world note – which I then had to rename and send through to the magazine editor. The application form included a lot of text describing the job positions and process, but I remained unsure if I was supposed to delete that off and simply send through my own note.

The job application itself simply asked me to describe myself and win the editor over. A text note within Second Life gives you no allowance for headings, even font choices, or bullet points for that matter. You can’t even add hyper-text into the note. It’s pure text with no formatting.

After some hours of thought and research (there is NO research – no one on the internet appears to have dealt with the issue of what a job application or resume within Second Life should look like) I decided I had two or three options for my first writing job application -

1. Prepare a text based resume-like notecard – which would be very long if attempting to document years of work in bullet point form.
2. Write a few paragraphs about myself trying to summarise my experience in this way.
3. Write out a full resume on a separate notecard, write a few introductory sentences (kind of like a cover letter) – and attach the two.

As it was, I decided on Option 2, and spent some time then trying to work out the voice of the text – should I be chatty or overly formal, given this was a job application? But then, I did want the editor to pick up on my own sense of humour, as it has some bearing on my writing style.

Either way, my newness at Second Life would be possibly the reason why I possibly would never be considered for the positions – if any existed that is, or it might be an opportunity, a fresh pair of eyes, and an enthusiasm sometimes lacking in the jadedness (and/or elitism) sometimes encountered with some others within Second Life. It all depended on what the editor was looking for. Applying for a job virtually has many more nuances to it than in real life.

At the moment, Second Life appears torn with the news from Linden Labs announced over this weekend that adult content will be segregated from the rest. There is also a side unrest towards the instability encountered far too often recently. Even I am frustrated by the amount of times I’ve been lagged in empty spaces, found myself treading neck-deep into phantom land, or found my inventory items going missing completely. These subjects appear to be central to every second lifer’s mind, and both have repercussions towards the economy and future of the virtual world. But they also have some opportunities for writers.

As a new person within Second Life, I had hope of making a full life within. I am exploring more and more events and places on a daily basis. But finding a job within Second Life is not as easy as the rest of this virtual world makes everything else.

Starting with my newbie errors in even writing out a resume or job application onto a notecard. Whether I did this correctly or not, I possibly will never know as there is no feedback, and on the internet I can find few tutorials or guidance about this particular topic. So here’s my understanding (right or wrong) of the subject.

What should a second life resume or job application look like?

From EHow, the suggestion is the following -

SL Resume

Write the following into the About You field in your profile, and in a separate notecard stored in your inventory :

1. Second Life Name – First and Last
2. Second Life Address – either rented or owned (or if you don’t have this, an email address to get you in real life)
3. One descriptive sentence introducing your likes and something about you
4. List Equipment you own relevant to the position you are applying for (in EHow’s example they were talking about a host or dance job, so in this respect listing microphones or dance animations owned would be relevant).
5. List Jobs relevant – from Second Life. (I would debate this one, as a newbie, as I would suggest that some real life positions are relevant also, if you haven’t built up an in-world resume as yet) – events, jobs taken, classes taken.

My Own Viewpoint

Although the above seems reasonable, I’ve got to make a point from a newbie’s standing. How do you go about getting that first job to build an in-world job profile? How do I get that first event planning experience, or first writing job? Even in Second Life, there are cliques of people – found even when I attend some writing events. How do you get “in?” It’s the same question asked worldwide through online forums, real life school yards, groups in business, and yes – second life also.

Outside of Second Life, my resume consists of creative and magazine experience, digital graphics work, and corporate management – resource, development, deadlines, people-management, training of people, organising events, editing department magazines and newsletters, and testing software.

Within second life currently, the whole premise is in creating a completely independent second life, and this can involve working in areas which are totally new or foreign to ourselves. And that is all okay, provided that people also have a look at what value can be brought in from our real lives also. What skills are transferable, and what are needed?

And for many jobs – unless it’s for something like designing / building where you may have the evidence available towards your skills, then how do you prove that your resume is truthful? Has anyone gathered perhaps feedback or a notecard from previous employers (a personal reference?) within Second Life? And given that notecards are editable by nature, is a reference worthy to be considered more evidence than simply listing the jobs anyway?

There are job fairs and recruitment fairs within Second Life which may well answer my own questions, but I must await these to see if any help. In the meantime, realising that getting that first Second Life position under my belt is the best bet to finding paying work, I am looking at providing some free blogging work for one job, and have today applied for this one. I am keen to take on my first writing position within Second Life, and seeing just how far I can go in developing those much needed relationships.

Sadly, journalism within Second Life appears to be having a downturn, if the closing down of many once-popular SL newspapers is anything to go by. Not only do newspapers and news sources appear to be dwindling but I’ve noticed that even in-world many of the magazine kiosks are still dishing out magazines with the last edition out being from many months ago. Magazines are dying away also, and those that have recent editions appear full of advertisements to keep them going (similar to RL, if we’re honest). This reduction in newspapers and print media doesn’t bode well for writers within Second Life at all, and is sad to see. As a newbie, I really need all that news and magazine / lifestyle copy to tell me about places and events I wouldn’t have a hope in hell of finding out about otherwise.

Perhaps my musings are somewhat valueless at this point in time for myself, but I will continue to try to find that first writing position within Second Life, and to develop my resume and skills within Second Life. We are, afterall, writers, and nothing will stop us writing – and writing about our worlds.

Second Life Resume LinkMes:

• How to Make a Second Life Host Resume (EHow)
• A discussion on dwindling news in Second Life by Prad Prathivi at metaversally speaking. Well worth reading, including links to newspapers.
• SLProfiles.com – a social networking website where people can put up their SL profiles, pictures, and advertise events and jobs. The profiles can include a resume of work within Second Life, and some formatting also. (Note: the majority of work advertised in SLProfiles is for escort or DJ work, although at the time of writing there are two writing jobs advertised – one unpaid.)

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