I ATTACK THAT
Custom type for a “client”
April 11th
Interview with the a door company for a graphic design position. I would be the sole designer working in the San Fernando Valley office for significantly more than I’m making now. I get there, observe the space I will be working in. The walls are grey and purple with lime green accents on the trims. The recruiter meets me and tells me the marketing director will be out shortly. The marketing director comes in and we go into his office. The walls are white and bare, his desk is cluttered, I remember seeing a map on the right wall but its fading from me. He begins to tell me about the company and what the plans for the future are, he also asks me to tell him about myself but before this he asks if I’m vaccinated (I am wearing my mask) I respond yes and then he asks me to take my mask off to see what I look like. He then explains that they hired someone and they were wearing a mask the entire time so when the mask came off they were all shocked to see how the person looked, I believe he was conveying that the person had unpleasing features. I explain my experiences and ask basic questions, the conversation then turns into him asking me how much it would take for me to come on board, I give my number, he then says let me speak to the CEO if we can do this but he is very firm about how much they want me to come on board. By now I am just giving high salary requests because this place already looks like a bad place to work. This is all based on what I see when I first walk in. People are glued to their computers, single cubicle offices with window walls, I don’t see people really interacting with each other and they all look pretty serious. I ask for a tour of the place and I ask where will the designer be sitting, the marketing director does not give me a firm answer about where the designer will be placed and begins to give me the tour. I act like I’m interested in the tour but I can’t wait to leave and go home. The tour ends and I walk to my car relieved that the interview is over. A few days later the recruiter calls me to ask me if I’m interested, I say no its not a priority of mine to pursue this opportunity because there are other companies I am interviewing with and I want to hear what they say.
April 15th
Interview with an established publication company. I meet with the Digital Design Director. This is the second interview, the first was with the recruiter. The director asks me if I gotten myself familiar with the website I say yes and that I saw the types of things that I would be creating I give one critique that some things looked busy at certain screen lengths but it wasn’t a shot at the designs. The director begins to show me how things look and different sizes of designs they create but the example fails because of resizing issues on the browser. He then asks me why I want to work for them and I respond that I like collaborating and moving up in my career. He responds by saying we really don’t collaborate all that much here and moving up maybe in the future there will be opportunities in different departments. I say that collaborating isn’t a deal breaker and that there is something special about just doing quiet work and getting things done efficiently. He nods his head in agreement and responds in an affirming manner. We pull up my portfolio and begins to compliment my digital designs, foundations, typography and scale. I accept the compliment confidently and he begins to ask how I made some designs I respond with the programs used and techniques for each. I also explain that I looked up what programs they use and began to watch tutorial videos, I also mention that the programs I know share the same features and that the skills should transfer over easily. The interview goes into the 45 minute mark, we were allowed 30 mins but I ask about the team and the culture he begins to explain that this role isn’t the most creative work but he assigns portfolio pieces from time to time. Also he mentions that the team has creative projects outside of the job so that helps to alleviate the monotonous work. I ask him what he does outside and he asks me the same, I explain my creative projects and he seems genuinely interested. He ends by saying that my work looks good and that talking was enjoyable but he can’t make any promises and that maybe in two weeks I’ll hear back from them. The zoom chat ends, I go about my day.
April 20th
Interview with a Community College in north LA County. The interview is with a panel of 6 people. Faculty members and the Art Director. They have a slide show for me to read along as they ask me questions. Their faces are dull and all seem to be in the upper age group except for one. Little excitement in the zoom, things feel awkward for me. The interview begins and I start talking about the job description and how I would succeed in this role. I don’t really want to go into detail with this interview because it was so boring and awkward but I did create a presentation tailored to the college with my 5 best works. I presented it to them in 15 minutes and it went ok. It was practice but the timing was strict, I gave my closing statement and I was cut off by the moderator for time. They thanked me for my time, I said the same to them. Zoom ends, I leave to pick up my daughter.
These are three out of the 5 interviews I had in the month of April, not sure why but I was getting a lot of hits on my site and recruiters were reaching out, I declined some because of pay and general interest. I will write out the other two in a future post. I also excluded the initial interviews from these and others because it’s all part of the same job process. Out of all these interviews there is one that I really want because of worker autonomy and job stress level, and company structure. I want it so much that I have had two consecutive dreams this Monday and Tuesday. I sent out a follow up email to that company thanking them for their time and interest in the job. We’ll see what happens. The positives are that things are moving along and people are generally impressed with my work.
Edited: for typos/grammar