Last week I took myself on a little cross-country roadtrip to Bristol. From where I am in Essex, that was 175 miles and a three-hour drive. For some of you, three hours, near enough right the way across the country from East to West must seem incredible -- or comical. To people around here, it solicits the question "You're going there and back in a day?". What the hell else did I have to do with my day?I'd never driven that far before, and certainly not on my own -- as you can see from the illustration, Portsmouth is slightly closer (by about 50 miles, and forty minutes or so) and Brighton is closer still. I didn't take my Dad's car this time -- which I have been driving a lot when I have to go out of town, and especially when I'm delivering meals, because it has so much boot space, but luckily I am now in possession of a TomTom and was eager for the opportunity to use it.
I first set it up with an American female voice. I forget the 'name' of the voice, but I think it gets slightly weird when you're referring to your satnav by name. I chose the voice purely on the strength of liking how it sounded, but quickly once on the road I found there were other differences. Like how on approach to a roundabout, it starts to tell me "At the rotary, turn left..." and I'm wondering what the fuck is a rotary?". Obviously, it must be a roundabout using my superior powers of deduction -- but I'd never seen a roundabout during my time in the US. There were other disagreements between us, like how the satnav character insisted on giving me distances in fractions of a mile. "In two-eights of a mile..." what? What kind of a distance is that?
I actually made it to Bristol with about an hour to spare, when my arrival at the destination was announced with much-trumpeting. With no sign of the actual destination, I simply carried on down the road I was on -- since it was the right road -- and figured either I would find it, or would find a pub to ask directions in. 20 minutes later on down the road I was worried I was going to end up in Cardiff -- and toying with the idea of actually visiting Cardiff after the interview, since I've never been there -- I turned around and made my way back to the original supposed site of my destination. I found that I really had been at my destination to begin with, I just hadn't noticed it.
The interview itself was for a copywriter job. I'd submitted the best damn cover letter I could think of, using confident phrases like "I am the copywriter you are looking for" and "I understand that there will be a lot of interest in this position, but I do not believe you need to look any further than my own abilities", and made it through a telephone interview before they invited me for the face-to-face meeting. I knew afterwards -- and probably halfway through -- it was never going to go down in history as one of the best interviews ever. I just hadn't felt confident enough, although I lied through my teeth about how wonderfully organised I am, I knew that without direct copywriter experience they weren't going to go for it. I was just too damn PR for them.
Today -- almost a week later -- I get a message on my voicemail from someone in HR at the company, asking me to call them back as they had feedback for me. I'm only too aware of the words and phrases people use, and sometimes I read too much into it -- but in situations like this, it's all too clear. If someone is leaving giving a message with good news, they want to associate themselves with the good news so that you will feel positively towards them. If they have bad news, they will want to disassociate themselves so that you don't connect them, and don't shoot the messenger. So whenever I get a message saying they have "feedback" or want to talk to me, I know it's not good news -- otherwise they would say they have good news.
And I was right, I didn't get the job. Apparently I answered their questions very well in theory, and they said I was clearly confident, but that they didn't feel I was experienced enough for the job. A little unfair for what as far as I could tell was a fairly junior position, but I think the lack of copywriter experience and the background in PR did count against me. They thought I was confident though? That's strange.
An interview I had on Friday in London for a freelance contract similarly didn't lead anywhere. Although in this interview I did feel confident and reasonably relaxed, the feedback was that they wanted someone more senior (I thought they would before I even met them, the job description had been asking for someone more of an account manager level) and that I didn't seem confident enough. Who knows about them -- but this agency in the past have refused to interview me for a permanent job because my grades haven't been good enough, ignoring my media experience and my post-grad. So they're obviously bastards.
Yesterday I got a phone call. Following my interview with the bookshop last week they would like to offer me one of their Christmas temp positions. I think I might have intimidated them slightly with how damn pleased and enthusiastic I was about being an offered a temporary job in a bookshop doing only 30 hours a week, but this is great news. For a start, this is the only time I have been offered a job after an interview. Yeah, I know, it's a temp job -- just how rubbish would you have to be? But that doesn't matter. They liked me. They didn't think I was over-qualified or under-qualified, or not "the right fit" for their team, or not the right gender or anything else. I am *employable*. I start training next week, and work the week after. Since it's only 6 hours a day, I also intend to try and fit in a second job around it, too.
I got an email yesterday afternoon following from where I sent my CV out to two agencies, a few weeks back. We should all remember my fictional girlfriend interview? This was the other agency, who didn't respond at the time. Turns out they want a freelancer about my level to help out for a while, even if they don't have anything permanent. So I quoted them £110 a day for my services (ha -- and you thought my art was over-priced) and met them today for an interview and a test. The interview was fine -- short, but I felt confident enough. The test was in three parts; write a press release, craft an itinerary for this celebrity to promote their item the press release was for, and answer 10 "pop quiz" questions on the entertainment side of the media.
The questions at first stumped me; then I noticed the laptop I had been given to work on had a working internet connection. It's not cheating, it's being resourceful. The press release I wrote I thought was good, but it seemed a little short and a bit too much like writing a news story from a press release, which naturally is where the bulk of my experience is. The important thing is I can write well, even if I need a tiny bit of guidance or training. I must have taken too long on the other parts as I had barely begun the itinerary before my time was up. If they offer me this position -- which will probably be until mid-December, if not longer -- I'll have to regretfully tell the bookshop I can't take their job after all. If they don't want me, fine -- I have something to fall back on.
I want to write a different post about work and my life and feelings about them both -- but this is long enough for today. The main thing is, for now I have a job in a bookshop and I am pleased about that.
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