Being hired as a film and art and culture editor at Time Out Dubai three months after graduating was a mixed blessing. For one thing, it was exactly the job I wanted for a title I never thought I would write for so soon after earning my degree. But it was also kind of hard to suddenly have to take a 13 hour flight to a place I had never been before.
Unsurprisingly, Dubai was a major culture shock, but it was also better work experience than I could have ever hoped for. Besides killing myself to come up with feature ideas each week to impress my editor, I had to find entertaining stories each week for both the art and film sections AND design and lay out each of these sections myself. I haven't included every article I wrote there because that would require a whole set of web pages itself, but highlights of my year at Time Out included interviewing Terence Stamp, Reza Deghati and Albert Brooks.
I think I'm a way better writer after Dubai and, of course, there's the added fact that I met this guy there, who vastly improves my life in every way.