As we left things in the last post, I successfully Jason Bourned Fruit Towers...
...and now, I was awaiting further feedback following Innocent's lovely social media plugs, huzzah!
As this was churning, I recycled this new campaign to aid my job applications further to the roles that I was applying to - with the hope that it displayed initiative, enthusiasm and shaky camera skills. It was at this point I was 3/4 months into my whirlwind adventure and it was fast dawning on me that my finances were at an anxious all time low from being out of regular work - I needed to sort this and quick.
Now don't get me wrong, since taking on the responsibility of Chief Adventure Extraordinaire - I always had an eye on my finances and because of my escalating popularity I was getting more freelance work in than before, so perhaps it helped mask this impending doom. In particular, the housing company Greystar who specialise in student housing - had been giving me a lot of work over the coming months with a view to take me on a retainer level - which would be ideal.
As well as this, I took on a catering/barman role for the company Hubbub Catering - who I still work for every now and then. They're a fantastic group of people and it was great to have a very good mate as my boss there at the time too.
On a side note, I've discussed this with a few people and I've come to the conclusion that retail and/or bar work should be compulsory for everyone to do. Much like compulsory army service in some countries. You always hear about how difficult and annoying it is to work in retail, with general lack of respect from customers, strenuous tasks, late shifts, generally low pay - if everyone did a year or two in this area your empathy and compassion for shop assistants, bartenders and even other humans will increase ten fold and everyone would respect each other a lot more - maybe this could even lead to world peace? Anyway, I digress..
I had these roles ticking away in the background and I would get stuck into them when called upon, which suited me fine. I work very well in irregular routines and odd hours (I'm currently typing the first draft to this at 9.23pm on a Friday night). Now, the only problem was exactly this, it was all flexible work but inconsistent and unpredictable too. I needed to begrudgingly take something on more of a daily routine (and regular payment) to help me carry on developing my shenanigans.
I'll be the first to admit I definitely placed all my eggs in one basket with Innocent, I just wanted them so bad. We have similar styles and ethos - they seemed keen too. After the beer probe in my last blog post, they seemed to tease me on with nearly monthly email updates saying something similar each time along the lines of 'We're too busy to meet, but soon - we'll organise a meeting" After the 3rd/4th time they did this my patience was dwindling a bit.
(Update 2/10/15: Innocent got back to me recently and thanked me for the Hellsize Brewing Co beers saying they enjoyed them a lot - they continued to say that they're re-thinking what they need for the creative team at the moment in terms of recruitment and hence why it's taken so long to arrange something. Sounds a bit limbo like so no point in waiting around even more than I need to! Onwards!)
To date I've had nearly 20 job offers from a range of roles and specialisms. Some did genuinely seem interesting and the rest, well, just awful. I've always had a huge gripe about the job market well before this 'social campaign' that I started for myself.
But man, no wonder millennials feel depressed in job searching and even when they are in a job itself. It's that feeling of underachieving in a grossly underpaid role - especially if you're in the creative field.
After a break from direct applications - I awoke on a bright Monday full of glee. I buckled up and propped myself in front of my laptop with my coffee hand ready clawed around a super large porcelain Starbucks mug. I then commenced to figuratively headbutt my way through tedious clicks, attachments and sycophantic opening lines.
Two days later. I'd gone to 5 interviews.
Without bragging too much I've become pretty good at interviews as you'd come to expect by this point. But this week felt different, I felt a buzz of excitement.
Then, the Friday hit. Three new job offers. All looked interesting.
Then, the Friday hit. Three new job offers. All looked interesting.
The following was my decision making behind the outcome - allow my indulgent thinking out loud but I think it'll be good for me to write and document this - especially now when I'm looking back at it, these were my notes from my notebook so please forgive if tenses are a bit all over the place:
1) hiive - creative hub for opportunities and networking - digital/journalism work looks really fun. Offered full time internship but with a low salary, good networking - proposed increased salary or flexible hours instead. No dice.
2) Gander - start up, coming in as sole creative and right hand man. Seemed very exciting but unpredictable and confused what the exact role would entail. Wanted me in full time freelance which is a bit of an oxymoron - meaning no job security. Money was okay. It's a no from me, strike two.
3) Design Against Crime - now this was an interesting part time role social media/designer role at a research design innovation company based in Central St Martins in Kings Cross. 3 months initially, with good network and opportunity to stay longer. Any sort of social media experience in this day age is gold dust on a CV -could really make the role my own too.
I decided to go for the 3rd option. Now, I'm currently 3 months into and it seems like it's going well, learning new things but I'm keeping my eyes peeled on the horizon.
Especially because I have 2 cards up my sleeve: an idea for my 3rd campaign and an idea for a very big idea for a project which may well involve you, dear reader.
All will become clear in the next few months, in the mean time, let the adventure continue... Until next time..
TTFN.
