Jobs for the endlessly energetic.

I met with a young woman recently who had left the education beat at a small-city newspaper to go work for AOL’s Patch.com. She got a pay increase and a pretty open-ended mandate: to cover her community in whatever way she sees fit. Not everyone thinks being a Patch local editor is a great job—there can be long hours, and you spend a good chunk of your time getting people to amass restaurant listings. But it is worth knowing the opportunity is out there if you are looking for something new, want to work at home and like being in charge of something. You can probably squeak some education coverage in there too.