So I finally got an interview and scheduled my “sick time” for promptly at 2:30pm yesterday afternoon. I actually have had to get a lot of teeth work done, and still need to, so it seemed like an appropriate LIE. These things we all do, so don’t play like you don’t!
I had an interview with a design firm in a very plush part of town. What appealed to me was their casualness that was expressed in their company profile and job search. The “We don’t care if you hire us, we just like to have fun… whatevs” attitude. That should have been clue one, but I am so caught up in the corporate world and that sort of attitude appealed to me. Or did atleast.
To explain the whole horrid affair would take a book of empty pages and a sweet visit at the lawyer’s office. It all started very cordially with two females, one an owner and the other another artist. We sat and had a lovely casual chat and began looking through my portfolio. Then in walks the “husband” who is co-owner of the firm and the interview went from polite and fun to let me claw his fucking eyes out! Man. It was horrible. Not only did he berate his wife in front of everyone, but continued to publicly display everyone’s life story. “Oh, her and her fiance haven’t had sex yet. She’s waiting until after they are married”, “what, I don’t want to think about having sex with you!”, “I really don’t give a fuck about this shit, you know, I just do my thing, and I’m really good at it”… blah blah. He insulted me a few times as well as the other women in the office. He ironically, left the male co-workers alone. <— Interesting.
He showed me the work that they produce there, and low and behold it’s all half-naked women. “Isn’t this hot? I really think this is hot.” If I was the type of person that sometimes I wish I was, I would have stopped him in his soliloquies moment and said - “you know what, i can’t work for an asshole like you” and left. Instead I endured for over an hour and left there drained and feeling like I needed a lobotomy clinic STAT.
To top it off, he kept interrupting the “interview” if you want to call it that, to talk to one of the freelancer’s parents on her cellphone. “Give me that phone, I want to talk to your mom”. And proceeds to talk in front of me for the next 10 minutes while I sit and twiddle thumbs. He blew through my portfolio not even looking at it, just kept flipping it and saying - “wow, these pages are my favorite”, the blank ones in the back. Hey, if I suck, I suck, and I’d be the first to admit it, but what sort of professional does that? Completely disrespectful.
Despite it all it was a really good experience for me. I realized that I don’t want “super casual” to the point that everyone knows my business and that I am disrespected on a daily basis. The money would have been great, the experience probably decent, but as far as working environments go, I would have killed that fucker. Seriously. There are parts that I enjoy about working in a corporate environment… and I never thought that in a million years I would say that. But it is true as true gets.
I’m positive not all firms are like that, I just have to find the ones that aren’t and hope that they show interest in my work.
I sent a very short and sweet email this morning saying thank you for meeting with me, but I am not interested at all in freelance or full time work with your firm.
Kitty needs to keep her head and hope up…
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