Before I talk about how I managed to get the very first writing job back in 2011, let me tell you that it was not an easy thing to do. After I finished my college, I started university where I got admission in software engineering. I never thought I would be earning through my writing skills. Though I was a writer in my school and used to write for school magazine, kids section of local newspapers and reader’s digest, I did not had the courage to say myself a writer. I always wanted to make a difference. I was not doing any job until I got into a clash with my university fellows and all my friends left me alone to suffer. Thanks to them, that I tried to kept myself busy by doing a job in my free time.
I was that nerdy bookish girl who managed to get scholarships, good grades but NO practical experience. I knew I am gonna get a job and then I used to ask myself, HOW?
My parents were not allowing me to engage in any part time office job at such young age, so I tried searching over the internet about how to get home based jobs(It was a TOP secret back then) . I also started teaching assistant job in my university but that was not enough to keep myself busy. After all the searches, I got to know about rozee.pk and mustakbil.com. To be honest, I hated the user interface and display of rozee.pk and decided that I wont use it (That was my childish decision, its a great site though :-)).Mustakbil was also time consuming. It prompted me to make an online profile / Resume and no matter what job I apply for, the same resume would be shared.
I made my profile with my basic information like education, contact details and interests. I had nothing to rewrite in Experience and could not think of anything to list under skills tab. I felt very bad. I thought I am useless, I have no skills, I am of no use, my friends were right, my A grade and nerdy habits wont get me anything and bla bla. I applied and applied but no job 🙁
I started to discourage myself. I started to think that I cannot do anything until one day I got an email from a UK based company. The manager of that company was a Pakistani guy who was working in Manchester and used to hire Pakistani people for small projects. He talked to me on Skype and asked me if I know about writing. I told him everything honestly. I told him that I can write but I have never written professionally before. I really want to do this job. I am ready to learn and follow directions. Please help me with the things I don’t know.
He is a very nice guy and yes my teacher too. He used to pay me Rs 500 per day and assigned me 3 articles of 500 words each or 5 articles of 300 words each everyday. He used to spend time on teaching me. Telling me about how to write SEO friendly content, identifying mistakes in each article and correcting it and giving me useful and helpful links to study. I learned a lot from him. I am very thankful to ALLAH almighty and Mudassar Ali, the client I am talking about. He might never get to read this article, but I really respect him for being a remarkable teacher and bearing with me.
I worked with him for around 2 years, on and off and then got busy with university and stuff. He is the real reason why I started to get writing jobs so easily and now I am among top ranked writers on oDesk. He also taught me SEO and some other useful skills.
What I learned from him is helping others. I always try to do the same with the poeple I hire. If you are the one looking for jobs with no experience and less skills, I would love to help you out and get your career started. Join my venture Devstroke to apply for online jobs on oDesk and other platforms. I am all there to help you to all thick and thin. I also conduct training and seminars to teach and help poeple earn. Stay tuned to Likho Pakistan and Devstroke to get alerts.