Eat What You Kill

I have been offered one job so far in my search: a three-week gig updating and rewriting a technical manual at IBM, for which I would not be paid, but would be reimbursed for expenses. The job would have required me to buy a laptop and register myself as a business, which together would have amounted to paying several thousand dollars to cut my Thanksgiving short. I declined, partly because it was a bad deal financially, and partly because I just couldn’t muster enthusiasm for the subject that week.

I am now in the process of applying for a position of grant-writer. This company has a slightly more generous compensation plan: a percentage of every grant you bring in, also known as “eat what you kill.” The subject is genuinely fascinating, though, so I’ll probably give it a try if they’ll let me.