Freelance Job Supports Second-Act Career as a Pastry Chef

By Adrianne Bibby

Our FlexJobs success story this week is a brilliant illustration of a phenomenon that’s been widely documented: the second-act career.

Meghan G., the focus of this week’s member success story, used her experience as a writer and editor to forge an entrepreneurial path to a new career as a pastry chef.

Sharing her job search success as a FlexJobs member, Meghan said she struggled to find part-time work after she made the decision to go to culinary school and pursue her second-act career. Using her FlexJobs membership, Meghan found a job as a freelance writer and editor with Tipton Communications, a public relations and communications company focused on the healthcare, corporate, and human resources sectors.

Making a Major Career Transition

A resident of Frederick, Maryland, Meghan described her journey to a second-act career. “I have kind of a ‘dual life,’ I call it,” Meghan wrote, responding to a series of questions FlexJobs asks job seekers who’ve found flexible work using our services.

“Like many people, I changed careers later in life, and I went back to school in my 30s,” Meghan said. “I started as a newspaper reporter/writer/editor, and then went to culinary school and became a pastry chef.” To achieve her dreams, Meghan said, “[I] have started my own cake business. My cake business is small and seasonal, and I have never completely left my first life as a writer/editor.”

Doing the Work You Love

In her efforts to find flexible work, Meghan relied on the communications skills she acquired during her journalism career. “I have always looked for steady part-time or freelance work as a writer/editor,” Meghan wrote. However, her early efforts to find work were far from easy, she said.

Flexible work was a priority from the start in her job search, Meghan said. But, her skills and background notwithstanding, Meghan described her efforts to find work “a struggle until I found FlexJobs.”

While still relying on her writing and editing skills as a source of income, Meghan is on a new career trajectory that she loves. “My new freelance job allows me to pursue a second career as a pastry chef,” she wrote. “Many people stay in jobs they hate for years, and I was able to leave mine and become self-employed.”

Using FlexJobs Services to Support Entrepreneurship

Not that her self-described “dual life” has been easy, but Meghan said she’s confident that her career choices are the right ones for her. “It’s a juggle and difficult at times,” Meghan wrote, “but I was made to be self-employed and FlexJobs really helped me to do that.”

Meghan told us: “In the past it was hard to determine what were legitimate options. It was hard to weed out the bad ‘work-from-home’ scams. I’m not worried about that [at FlexJobs].” Once she joined FlexJobs and took advantage of the membership benefits, Meghan found the kinds of jobs she was seeking. “The first two positions I applied for, I was successful,” she wrote.

Tips and Inspiration for Other Job Seekers

For people who are weighing whether to take the plunge and become a FlexJobs member, Meghan offered some encouraging words. “I would advise them to at least try it,” Meghan wrote. “I think my first position I found was early on. And you can cancel at any time. I canceled and then when I needed work again, I rejoined.”

She also offered nuts-and-bolts advice for FlexJobs members. “I just [chose] a lot of keywords for what I was looking for: writing, editing, proofreading,” Meghan said. “I wasn’t as concerned about the specific company.”

She added that the FlexJobs membership was worth the cost. “It’s not a burdensome expensive subscription,” Meghan wrote. “I have a lot of experience so I may have a little better luck because of that, but I would say in any industry you need experience, so keep it up!”

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No matter what you’re looking for in a job, a FlexJobs membership can work wonders for your job search, too. Take the tour and learn more about how FlexJobs can power your job search.

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