Pros
Fun chance to use my love of creative writing, ability to interact with families in my community. I loved what creative freedoms I did have in the magazine. I am proud of the articles I wrote and the fun extras I added to the magazine.
Cons
The way the job was presented to me was a gross misrepresentation of what the job actually turned out to be. I actually reached out to the former CC before me with my questions because I was not getting answers from anyone at BVM. I didn't even know how/when I would be getting paid!!! What I finally came to understand, was that BVM is a national company that probably has plenty of reputable magazines, but the way they run their business is strangely a lot like an MLM. Essentially, I didn't work for BVM, I worked for my magazine's publisher. The problem with that is that my publisher was insane. So first of all, from what I understand, the publisher essentially pays to start a magazine in their area, sort of like franchising a restaurant. Then the publisher can hire whoever they want to write for them (my job) or take photos, do the design work, whatever. So I don't know if this is typical, but my publisher did two magazines and I wrote for 1. Her job was going around to local businesses to try to get them to advertise in the magazine. Maybe in larger towns this works, but the prices charged to these businesses was INSANE. More on that later. I didn't feel good about being a part of it. I was told I would be paid $500/month. This wasn't great for my work experience, but I was also told it would be 10-15 hours a month max, and that they'd be expanding the magazine soon so I'd get a raise. As it turned out, I was working 40+ hours A WEEK. A lot of this came down to a controlling and obsessive publisher. She was so unprofessional and lacked boundaries. She texted me at 3 am. She made changes with my name on them without asking me. Oh, and she republished things I had written for one magazine into her other magazine without compensating me. Whatever you write for BVM is theirs to publish as often as they want. You get paid pennies ONCE. The worst part was that she was such a pain to the business owners as well. I spent half my time trying to work out miscommunications between her and her businesses. Then she would call and tell me, "I make 50,000 a year from this client, you better not lose this for me!" When I finally quit (after only 3 months) she vacillated back and forth on our phone call from complimenting me ("I just love the way you write!") to insulting me ("Maybe you just don't know how to manage your time.") Frankly, I just wasn't willing to put up with her garbage for $500/month. The fault likely doesn't entirely lie with BVM and is mostly with this manager- however, there was NO ONE in the company I could turn to about her, there were no professional boundaries, and there were several red flags about BVM itself along the way that, as I mentioned, made it seem like an MLM. To top it off, the last cover family I featured was some of my friends, who also happened to be business owners in the area. She asked the PHOTOGRAPHER hired to do their photos for their number, and then proceeded to harrass them until they let her give them a presentation on the magazine. After I had already quit! They believed I was the one sending her to them and it was just disgusting behavior. Also learned through them what an outrageous amount was being charged for ads, and the reach of the magazine in our area is VERY small. Ultimately, could have been fun, but the original ad I responded to advertised the position as "40k/year" when it actually paid 6k/year? Like, come on. I don't know how this company gets so many positive reviews on here, but go check out Reddit. I'm definitely not alone in this and I wish I had more thoroughly checked them out before joining the company.
