Continuing Education and the Freelancer

I might have mentioned before that I was in the middle of getting Hubspot's Inbound Marketing certification as well as some other pro certifications. It's a little while later and I'm still at it, but that's mostly because I couldn't get the inbound marketing course completed before they changed it, which sent me back to the beginning of the new version. Hubspot has also released a Social Media certification course, which I jumped right into as soon as it was released. I'm hoping that these certifications will make my resume a bit more desirable, because as much as I want to make a full time income with fiction writing, I know that it's better to keep my options open.

The only thing I'm wondering is: will these certifications actually make a difference in what recruiters and HR pros will think of my overall appearance on paper? After all, these courses are teaching me everything I already learned about marketing and social media just by jumping in head first years ago. It's a great refresher, but the only new knowledge I've gained so far is how to put actual marketing/social media plans on paper (or in a spreadsheet). The rest I've already done, tried, failed, and succeeded at. I will stress that I haven't completed either course yet, so I may gain some more new insights into these topics--and I'm very grateful that these courses and certifications are free, because there are many more certifications that are just as desirable to slap on a resume that charge $100 or more to take the test.

These certifications have become a top priority, even in the face of being a little behind on my Camp NaNoWriMo project for July. It's a small sacrifice for (hopefully) a bigger chance at better things to come.

All Those Revisions

It may not seem like good news, but I've ran out of things to submit. I've been able to put my best stuff out there to see if anyone wants to pick it up, but the rest of it needs work. I'm still continuing to research lit journals and publishers, but for now I'm going to concentrate on revisions. Hard revisions. I'm like most writers--I love the craziness of the first draft, I'm impressed with myself on the final draft, but the middle is a wild mess of paper cuts, nail biting, procrastination and internal screaming. You know, the usual.

If you want to join me on this crazy ride, you can still come by Patreon and check out what I have there. Just a buck gets you access to some pretty cool stuff. A few more bucks gets you access to a few more cool things. And of course you can check out all of the public posts too--those are a more subtle type of cool.  Sunglasses emoji cool. We know we're cool but we'd never say it kind of cool. Like a type of cool that just... okay. You get the point.

On the freelancing front, I'm ramping up my qualifications. It was suggested a few weeks ago that I get my HubSpot Inbound Marketing Certification. This is apparently something a lot of clients are looking for now when they hire freelancers (especially for writing branded blog posts). I've jumped in and am learning about a lot of things I already figured out over the past ten years, but now I'll be able to prove that I know it.

Before this I was also working on certification from Google, and honestly I don't know what the specific certification is called, though it seems to be geared towards European business owners. Still--very useful information, and certifications don't hurt to have on the old LinkedIn profile.