Having missed a solid 10 months on this blog, I should recap a bit. In 2011, I’ve made the effort to step back from job-hunting the traditional sense. I’ve grown exhausted from sending my resume and not getting replies, from interviewing and being turned down, from wasting days research companies who aren’t interested in me, and from telling people I’m looking for work. Instead, I’m trying to reinvent myself as a self-employed one-man agency, and do work for myself. Plenty in this biz are solo-practitioners, and it’s time I started owning up the reality that no one is going to hire me.
But I’ve kept the doors open, of course. In the first part of the year, I did a lot of on-site work, for clients with whom I had pre-existing relationships, and managed to cook up a few gigs on my own (outside of any placement firms, and thus with a higher rate), which was nice. For a while there in April-July it was one right into the next, and I was very busy and very well-paid. I was hoping that somewhere a full-time role, or long-term freelance gig, would emerge, but alas, it didn’t.
I would continue to apply for the occasional job is something came up. Preferring, of course, to take an inside track with the recommendation of a friend, I haven’t entirely ceased being a job-hunter. Recently, I applied for a role at a major public institution here in the City. I don’t want to say, exactly, but it’s a publicly-funded academic institution, rather than a corporate in-house group or an agency. Aside from the universities, I haven’t worked at an institution like this, but because of the reputation of this organisation, I think the opportunity would be great.
Honestly, the details aren’t important. The interview went very well, and I presented myself as capable, full of ideas, organised, knowledgable, and in all other ways, an awesome candidate. But I called today to follow up, to see if there is a chance for a second interview. Was told that the job is in a “holding pattern” due to the HR person getting tied up with other things. What a bunch of shit!
I cannot express my frustration in interviewing, genuinely enjoying the prospects, and then being told the hiring process has frozen. It shows deep and severe problems within the organisation that they can’t follow through with a hire, especially when the role is supposedly vacant! (I say supposedly because I wonder how a group can function with an empty desk in a critical operational and managerial role.) The worst part is that there is nothing I can do. Yes, I can call again in a few weeks time if I don’t hear from them, but there’s no way I can force them to hire or even to conduct the second interviews.
There is one potential weapon I can use. The Squeeze Play. Made famous by that episode of the Honeymooners, if I have another job offer standing, I can perhaps incite some action on the part of this organisation to interview-and-hire me or risk losing me. Turns out I have a second interview coming up tomorrow.
This job is much less glamourous, but is also an in-house role. It’s at a large, well-established non-profit that ultimately is in the health care industry. My role would be within the HR department, responsible for the recruiting and retention propaganda. It’s a funny situation because they’ve got me in the healthcare industry, wrapped in the HR industry. I, however, am of the design industry, and I always will be. This is a potential source of dissidence, but we’ll take it as it comes.
I’m actually a little surprised that I got a second interview, considering I didn’t exactly play nice on the first interview. I presented myself — accurately — as a rebel. My ideas are there to change things, not to maintain the status quo, especially when the status quo is last century’s corporate crap. It was also very tedious to interview with the head of HR, who’s entire profession is interviewing people. She’s an ace at dodging questions and at posing really bizarre questions to me. She also critiqued my portfolio closer than even some of the more seasoned design pros I’ve chatted with. It was a bizarre experience, but apparently I made it through. We still haven’t talked about salary yet, so who knows what that will bring.
