There is major good stuff happening in my life right now in regards to work. One of you lovely readers gave me an incredible gift that I wouldn’t have even dared to wish for — a dream job. It’s all rather surreal and I am infinitely grateful! I have no idea how long this opportunity will last, so I don’t want to say too much right now, only that it involves proofreading.

It’s no secret that I have been growing more than a tad disillusioned with the transcription field. I’ve determined that it’s nearly impossible to make a decent living in that field without working inordinately long hours to make up for low pay. Other fields that require the same strong language skills pay a lot more, but transcription clients just don’t seem to get that and only pay very low wages. I work too hard and have too much education to settle for being this poor (in a purely financial sense).

One of the things that transcription gave me was an immense freedom of schedule, which is why I stuck with it for so long. When this latest opportunity came up, I had to decide if I was ready to be a little less temporally free to gain some financial freedom. The answer was yes. I’m at a part of my life where I’m okay with working weekdays, having weekends off, and having to request time off for vacation… since said vacation will be for me to travel between my Canadian and Mexican homes! Everything falls into place, doesn’t it? I truly believe that.

I’ve finished basic training and am starting this coming Tuesday. At this time, the job requires me to be at my desk 24 hours a week split up into eight-hour shifts Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I really need to be at my desk during that time. I can’t slip out to switch loads of laundry, go to the post office, or do chores, just like being at an onsite job, only without having to deal with other people and a commute! It’s a good schedule in that it still leaves me four days a week to do other things and I still have two week days for going to town. There is a possibility of getting more hours later that will restrict my schedule further, but I’m just taking it a week at a time.

I am still an independent contractor/freelancer and am still doing transcription part-time for now. But this new job will really pad my resume in a field that I’ve been trying to break into and so I will likely leave transcription behind as more opportunities in proofreading develop. Since I’m not an employee, I don’t have any sort of job security and so I’m loathe to put all my eggs in the same proverbial basket and drop my loyal transcription clients. Once burned, twice shy, and all that.

Who knows if my new schedule will be visible in my blog posts over the next few weeks and months, but I thought that I might as well give a heads up in case I go quiet. Some of you actually worry when I do that! 😀