Member Articles

(As opposed to an "internship.")

"A job with medical benefits."

(As opposed to freelance work without medical benefits.)

It didn't seem like too much to ask -- I mean, I wanted to have a job and be employable, too -- and the fact that I was going to have to use my imagination in order to find a job I'd be able to do didn't bother me. It also wasn't that hard: while I had been showing myself to be a big failure in math, I had become an excellent typist writing all my English papers and bad poetry, and when I got to New York City and started interviewing for jobs at various book publishing companies, my talents were suddenly obvious. By the time I arrived at the personnel department (now called Human Resources) at Random House I had applied for but been rejected by twelve publishers. Which meant that I'd had thirteen times to practice the standard typing test. The day I finally got my first real job with medical benefits I typed 103 WPM with no mistakes -- which was a big deal back then on those old IBM Correcting Selectric Typewriters.

"Stay there," the personnel person said.

"Is there a job?" I asked.

"No. Not really. But we'll find you one."

And they did. And I stayed there for ten years, working in an eclectic fascinating business where almost no one had been destined for success in an incredibly obvious way. Book publishing was filled with smart people who were just a little bit lost, just a little bit unsure of what the future held, which is why it was such a great place for me. Typing my way into a career instead of testing into it is just one example of how "failure" has always been my ticket to "success." Stay tuned for more examples.