Should Freelancers Get Advanced Degrees?

As I've said before, I'm in the home stretch of my Master's in English (I should be wrapped up in December! Clearly the longest home stretch of my life...!)

I seem to be an anomaly in the freelance writing world. I know several highly successful freelancers who haven't gone beyond a Bachelor's; others haven't gone on to higher education at all. You certainly don't need an advanced degree to build a successful writing career, but it can certainly add another level of credibility to your portfolio. I'm a bit of a nerd and like learning for learning's sake (for the most part), but I find myself anxiously looking forward to wrapping up this program!

So why did I pursue a Master's degree? Well, mainly, it stemmed from a deep dislike for my job (that's gotten stronger since...), and the realization that I needed to figure something out fast if I didn't want to stay where I was forever. Of course, this was post-recession, and the job market isn't looking much more promising now. Unless something really amazing happens, it probably won't be much better in December, either. But I'm trying to stay positive--recession or not, I'll still have my degree and that should be impressive to someone. The main game plan is to use it to land part-time teaching jobs to supplement my freelancing gigs.

Much like freelancing, I've pursued topics and classes that I normally wouldn't have otherwise, so I think it's definitely helped to broaden my scope of knowledge. It has also helped me become more disciplined and sophisticated in my thinking, which I hope will help me with client projects.

What about you? Have you pursued an advanced degree? Why did you decide to do so? How has it helped your career?

Why I'm a Better Student Because of Freelancing

This fall I’ve cut way back on pursuing writing projects and am focusing most of my energy on education—I’m teaching an English class at my community college, and am back in the classroom as a student working toward my Master’s degree after a year off.

I admit I was a bit nervous about being a student again. It took some time, but I got into the groove of being the teacher. I was also worried about ultimately taking too much on and being overloaded with work. I’m happy to say that my workload is busy but manageable—so much so that I’m starting to send some pitches out again.

But the real surprise is how much more committed I am to my class this time around and how not-intimidated I feel by the course material and, yes, my classmates (I always think they have so many more brilliant things to say than I do!) And I think that at least some of this newfound commitment to my studies is due to my writing projects. Here’s why:

I’m more disciplined. I had a highly productive summer and spent nearly all of August hunkered down at my computer writing articles. I couldn’t afford to blow off work (which I’m ashamed to admit I did for many of my undergrad reading assignments) or not meet my deadlines. I find that I’m treating my assignments for this class just like any other writing project, so I’m making time for the reading rather than winging it as I’ve done in the past and making a genuine effort. By doing this I feel as if I’m actually getting something out of it.

Thinking of paper topics is much easier. As freelancers our lives revolve around stories—finding new ones, reslanting old ones, and making them sound impressive in our pitches. Writing academic papers isn’t all that different. Most academic papers are an in-depth discussion or analysis on an element of the reading, just as many magazine articles are a narrow focus on a broader topic.

I understand the material more. Perhaps this stems from interpreting Shakespeare for my college classes, or perhaps it comes from having to understand a topic enough to write intelligently about it. Perhaps it’s a combination of both. Whatever it is, I haven’t struggled with any of the reading too much yet this semester.

There’s a light at the end of the tunnel! I’m a few credits away from completing my Master’s, and I compare this with being in the home stretch of completing the article from hell (and we’ve all had ‘em). Whether it’s prickly subject matter, hard-to-reach sources, elusive editors, or simply not knowing where to begin, writing-wise, there’s a tremendous feeling of accomplishment when you wrap up a killer assignment. If I feel that proud of myself after successfully tackling an article, I can only imagine how I’ll feel when I finish my degree!

What about you? How has freelancing positively benefited you lately?

A Freelancer's Education

I’m all about education this fall. Besides the classes I’m teaching and taking, I thought I’d give my freelance writing education a boost, as well. I signed up for the fabulous Steph Auteri’s first-ever e-course, 5 Weeks to Freelance Awesome. Though I don't know Steph personally, I think she'd be a hoot to hang out with. I love her irreverent and candid writing style (she blogs for YourTango.com and writes a sex column for The Frisky.com, and her writing can be found in a bunch of other places, too).

This is my first foray into taking any sort of class related to freelancing. I normally go for the direct approach and will email specific questions to certain freelancers, or contact them via Twitter. But that can only get me so far—I really want to learn more about successful self-marketing strategies, polishing queries, and breaking into bigger markets. The regional pubs have been very good to me and I’ve developed great working relationships with the editors I write for regularly, but I’m more than ready to take things to the next step, and I’m hoping this course will help me. Steph’s broken into some incredible markets, so if I’m lucky enough to see even a fraction of those results, the money spent will be well worth it.

What about you? How have you advanced your freelance education? What worked? What didn’t?