I want a new job. I'm not well qualified. What can I do?

Seriously, Rustic Etruscan, forget you. Employers don't care about your history, your problems, or your gifts, beyond what you can demonstrate will profit them. And as far as "profit them" is relevant, sooner is better than later.

"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect." "http://calnewport.com/blog/2013/04/10/in-choosing-a-job-dont-ask-what-are-you-good-at-ask-instead-what-are-you-willing-to-get-good-at/'" Note that your lack of practice or focus to date doesn't make you a failure. It makes you pretty normal. And your journalistic fuckups were probably rooted in completely ordinary http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_memory_biases and/or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overconfidence_effect, which people are still subject to even if they're also more often underconfident. So, again, normal. FWIW, your contributions to this site mark you as well above normal in insight and understanding, so I don't mean to say you're 'just' normal. I realize you've probably heard that plenty of times and can't make yourself believe it. But you don't need to believe it so thoroughly that you forget the past. You only need to believe it well enough to strategize proceeding nonetheless toward improving your position. ThePinkSuperHero's advice is very practical for the near-term--get another office job with slightly better circumstances and pay. You've held a detail-oriented position of responsibility ensuring that important things happen. That's worth something. Long-term, consider what skills you might improve to get a job that's even better. If you can't get paid for your writing as a journalist, volunteer as a tech writer for an open source project. Volunteer as an author for a hobby-related web site. Etc. Or branch out and look at options that used to sound dull to you until you realized how satisfying a solid paycheck could be, and then work toward that in an online program or something. I suspect most happy people aren't working their dream jobs, and a lot of people who're working their dream jobs aren't happy at all. So it could be anything.

FYI: For what it's worth, you write well. So you're good at something. And you should take pride in it, and work at it exhaustively. So don't tell yourself you've never been good at anything because that's just a lie. Nurture your gift. Also, if it's any consolation, there are a lot of people in the same boat as you. I know I am. I'm about your age, I'm an English major, my sanity is a little unsanitary. I wasn't happy at my job (office job $15/hour), so I quit. I'm about to start a new one. A little apprehensive but we'll see what happens. I know you didn't ask to be consoled, but I know for me it always makes me feel better to know that there are other like-minded people in the same boat as me. Start looking every night for jobs. Soul search and be honest about what will be good for you. Stop seeing yourself in negatives. I don't care what your progress is. NEVER GIVE UP.

Have you considered going back in the temp pool? You might come out of it with a job better suited to your temperament, and there'd likely be no interview requirement.

If you really want a change of lifestyle and a ton of money, find a job in the oil field. I have friends who barely graduated high school and are making 180k a year with a two week on/two week off schedule. It's hard work, but there are plenty of positions open up for someone willing to do it.

I've been helping other people out lately with almost the same situation, and I see a lot of similarities here. I think what some of the other responses have said are accurate - it's not that you're "not well qualified", it's that you are either not aware of or not admitting to the qualifications you do have. I find that many people downplay the soft skills they have because they believe that those skills are either not terribly valuable or so common among people as to not be worth mentioning - both of those assumptions are wrong! It's a hard habit to break (and you didn't specifically mention this but I'm going to say it anyway), but it's also important to stop apologizing for your perceived weaknesses and start promoting your strengths. The best example of this I can think of offhand is when we went to a friend's house for dinner the other week; she brought out some delicious looking appetizers and before anyone had even taken a bite she told us all, "I'm really sorry about the food, it's probably not very good." Don't do that! "I know your job listing is looking for someone skilled in foo, and my resume says I know foo. I've used foo for awhile, but I'm really not very good at it." This is where that mental newspaper should be rolled up and whacked across the theoretical nose (or something... I got a little caught up there). "You're looking for someone with foo? I have been doing foo for several years! Let me tell you about this time I used foo to get the company out of a sticky situation." It matters not one whit how you feel about your own competence. The best way I've found to break out of this cycle of doubt about my own abilities is also a great interviewing technique. Make a list of skills you have (I have an interviewing book my father got me awhile ago that has tons of sample interview questions which helped form this list). Your goal is to attach a story of success to each one of those skills - doesn't matter if it sounds stupid in your head or that anyone could have done what you did, the important thing is that you are proving your abilities to the potential interviewer by backing up your claims with real world evidence. For example, "works well under pressure" is a desirable quality in most job applicants, and a common interview question goes something like, "Tell me about a time you were faced with a difficult challenge and how you dealt with it." I relate a story about putting myself and other people in danger (and it was entirely my fault!) but extricating us from the situation in such a way that no one knew there was anything wrong until after the fact. Maybe a million people know your payroll software. Maybe you're the one person in the office that knows the software well enough to identify an error that would have cost the company significant money/litigation/whatever and corrected that error. Those are the kinds of examples you want to enumerate and hold on to. A lot of this is going to feel like lying. It's not. I like to consider job interviews and other situations where I am expected to speak and behave differently than how I normally would as an acting gig - you're playing the part of You, but this You is extroverted, confident, and immensely hireable.

Like ThePinkSuperhero said, you have marketable skills that, at the least, qualify you for jobs that at least have different and more professional atmospheres. https://www7.bc.edu/psc/erecruit/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/HRS_HRAM.HRS_CE.GBL at your alma mater that would fit you to a T. There's more like that at that university and probably at others. (I just searched for "internet" and "writing" on that job site, BTW.) I know it's hard, but you will have to pull the trigger on sending resumes and cover letters to jobs for which you doubt you are qualified for. You don't have to like it, but you do have to do it. You can think of it like research and development as the leader of a powerful government – yeah, a lot of stuff you fund won't pan out, but you're not going to make the gains you seek without risking the funding.

Piggy backing off off ignignokt's suggestion, I would in fact argue that there are a lot of administrative assistant type jobs in academia that you would qualify for, given that you have a BA and two years of office experience. Are you proficient in Microsoft Office software? Any other software skills? Can you multitask? Those are generally the basic requirements for a lot of these jobs. You might look at jobs in communication offices specifically, like http://www.higheredjobs.com/region/details.cfm?JobCode=175786975&Title=Staff%20Assistant%20III%2C%20Alumni%20Mkt%20%26%20Communications%2C%20External%20Relations. Seems to me you meet the qualifications, and your journalism degree would be a plus here. http://www.higheredjobs.com/region/details.cfm?JobCode=175786973&Title=Staff%20Assistant%20III is not in communication, but looks like you could translate what you do now to these duties. http://www.higheredjobs.com/region/details.cfm?JobCode=175786600&Title=Administrative%20Assistant another one. And http://www.higheredjobs.com/region/details.cfm?JobCode=175786541&Title=Program%20Assistant. You are smart, literate, and you write and speak very well. There are a ton of jobs you can do, many of which will probably be in nicer environments. Everybody here is telling you that you write well, so believe us :)

For one thing, forget journalism, it's a dying profession. I graduated with an English degree. It informs my work, but it didn't train me for my work. Look into Customer Service jobs with utilities or large corporations. Customer Service is an excellent entry level job into corporate America. You learn how things work at the customer interface, and there are a bazillion directions that you can take once you're there. I started out in Customer Service at the phone company. Then I went into Commercial Customer Service, then I graduated to Major Accounts, then I switched into sales, then I took internal training and became a sales engineer. The phone company was 'berry, berry good to me." I learned a new piece of software (Salesforce.com) and now I have a new marketable skill. Be willing to take classes and to learn new stuff and you'll always be able to work. Create a resume that stresses the skills learned on your job. The degree? It doesn't matter. You got it. My GPA for my bachelors was 2.0. It took me 7 years to get it. As for all that negative nelly, imposter syndrome crap, dude. No one knows how to do a job when they're first hired. To work at the phone company you go through 8 WEEKS of training, and you still have to sit with someone for a few months to get the hang of it. Start going directly to the career section of large, local utilities and corporations. Apply for Customer Care positions. The utilities may be union jobs, with benefits and union wages. In Boston area, the corporate jobs will pay well and provide benefits as well. Just act "as if" you weren't a giant screw up. View your experience through the rosiest light possible. Trust me, you're far ahead of others with your job experience.