March 21, 2013

The Story of How I got to Write for the Guardian



I got to right for the Guardian in December 2012, but it didn’t just happen over night. I explain how it all came about.

[You can read the Guardian article here]

After leaving the sanctuary of academia at Queen’s University Belfast, I got a rude awakening. The economy was flat and jobs in the legal sector were scarce. Lawyers were a human resource in abundance, and so there was no allocation of a job for me. Sigh…


This was a story repeated around the country. A lot of young graduates migrated, some bumped a long in low paid jobs, some sat on the dole, others just sat back in the hope that things would improve.
Not me, I was determined to agitate, make noise and make things happen. I wasn’t going to sit on the sidelines and watch the world go by. I wanted to express myself, have my voice heard and drive conversation on the issue of youth unemployment. And that’s where my blogging really came to the fore.
I pushed my writing for the Huffington Post,  discussing in depth youth unemploymentand the deficiencies in education. I talked about the problems for Ambitious Minds. I also wrote for the youth agency in England, Uni’s Not For Me. And for Slugger O’Toole too.
All these efforts were part of a targeted blogging campaign, done with one goal: to be heard by as many people as possible. It was encouraging to climb, hand over hand up the blogging ladder.
Then the moment I’d been waiting for came: I got asked to produce a piece for the Guardian. It was wonderful to get the opportunity, and I really took my chance.
And here’s the link to it. Please check it out!
The opportunity to write for the Guardian really boosted my blogging confidence and if anything, gave me a stamp of credibility – well I hope! Since then I’ve continued to go from strength to strength.
I’ve even started to attract commissions. Since the Guardian gig I’ve continued with my usual columns and expanded my reach. Blogging and sharing my story with Million JobsInstant ImpactBubble Jobs and Ben Galley’s blog.

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