Also - less free, more lance.
I got my job at Time Out Chicago in large part because I worked for free at Chicagoist (I’d also been working in other jobs for seven post-college years so it’s not like I was new to the job market). That job led to my gig at Playboy which, despite my dislike for the way it ended and the several months preceding the end, led my current job as Director of Digital Strategy and Development for Chicago magazine.
Granted, in my job at Chicagoist I wasn’t just writing. The experience I got in hiring and managing people, editing, and event planning for an online pub made me qualified to do the job at TOC. So if the free job just allows you to get more experience writing then maybe it is a bad idea. And the original post above - from whence this text comes - from was written by a designer so maybe in that field working for free is a bad idea.
But working for free providing me with excellent exposure. So never say never. Or never say “do not,” I guess.
Indeed. Practically everything I do for pay today is a direct result of years of working for free. And that site I run that more than 250 people have written for, mostly for free, over the past seven years has provided “good exposure” for writers who’ve gone on to land jobs everywhere from Time Out Chicago to Engadget to, er, a book deal. And Gapers Block itself is widely recognized as a respected publication, and a design inspiration. (A design inspiration that was designed for free, and provided “good exposure” for its designer.)
Also, let’s not forget that money is not the only measure of work’s value.
So, rather than “Never work for exposure,” let’s say, “Be selective about what you do for exposure.” Or maybe, “Don’t let yourself be taken advantage of.”
EDIT: I don’t mean to make this sound like Naz and I created GB for the exposure. We created it because we wanted to benefit the community, to celebrate it. We did it — and still do it — as a labor of love. The good (excellent, really) exposure we gained was an added bonus. That it’s now a semi-successful business is beyond my wildest dreams.
I chafe at sweeping statements like this poster because they don’t take into account the myriad reasons people do things. We should value our work, sure, but there are so many exceptions to this rule it’s barely a rule.
