Butterfingers Job Hunt

Well, this time last week I was on Cloud Nine: I had just submitted an application for a job with a design firm in Burbank that prints about 30 publications for various law enforcement and firefighting associations around the country.

Following the information I got in my job-hunting boot camp seminar, I tried to find the e-mail address of the woman who was listed as a contact, but to no avail. Feeling gutsy, I sent an e-mail to the CEO, since I did find his e-mail.

Low and behold, he called me up within a few hours and I had a phone interview with him. He was online, looking at my portfolio website as we talked, and he was very complimentary about my work. It seemed like all was going swimmingly. He told me that the woman listed as contact would be calling me sometime this week to schedule a full interview.

Monday and Tuesday passed without a call. Wednesday afternoon, I saw a job posting from the same company for a web designer. So on Thursday, I called up the place (I had found their phone number by then) and asked to speak to the woman. After a moment on hold, I was talking to the CEO again. He said the production manager had decided to go in a different direction with the additional position, and that they were looking for someone with more experience with the web.

He immediately asked me if I would be interested in free-lance work with them, and I said yes, but I was really looking for a full-time gig. He said he would keep my resume on file and keep me in mind, repeating that he really liked my publication design work. I thanked him for talking with me personally about this and we hung up.

SHIT! SHIT! Shitshitshitshit shit! Not only did the job sound right up my ally, but the design firm seemed just the right size; a place I could work publication and get my feet really wet in the web with a team of people who really knew what they were doing.

I sat down and designed a thank-you card for him (his name is Mark, too), and let him know I appreciated him taking his time to talk to me, even though the news wasn't good. Most people would have left it to the receptionist to do. It felt good to get at least that much respect, and from the CEO of the company.

So I went online and found a posting for a job with a real estate development firm in Koreatown called Real Estate Idea, Inc. From the information online, it seems they do condo conversions and development in the mid-Wilshire District. I could take the subway to work. And they were offering a nice chunk of change for the work, which was very diverse.

Looking over their website, it was obvious that this was a group with one foot in L.A. and the other in Seoul. Some of the writing on the site had serious syntactical errors, and one or two sentences just kind of petered out without really saying anything, but you got the gist of what they were trying to say.

They actually wanted nothing but snail-mailed resumes and cover letters, and that always gives me a leg up, since I am very good at writing cover letters. I'm not holding my breath, though.

Being very bummed out by Burbank falling through the cracks, I sat down and did an financial inventory. All the bills and credit cards are paid off and we've got enough in savings to carry us for almost a year without any income from me. Also, we have a massive amount of untapped credit at our disposal (not that I'm eager to use it).

So, I'm seriously thinking of starting my own design studio. I know I've said that before, but I'm coming up on the two-year mark of unemployment, and I'm thinking maybe this is the message I'm getting from God and I just don't want to hear it.

Steve is very supportive, saying he will gladly handle the accounting and collections side of the business for me. That leaves the networking and marketing end to me. And the designing, of course.

The logistics of setting up a business are overwhelming for me, though. I'm not quite sure where to begin.

I think I'll begin by praying and asking for help.

Tune in next week for an update.