■December 28, 2006 - Interview & holiday break

So my anticipated job interview happened on Thursday the 21st at 3:30 PM. The night before I prepared like mad. I printed out the job description, a professional summary of myself, what I submitted to them for their screening questions, the text-only version of my resume (it includes job descriptions) and their mission statement. I thoroughly studied all of it.

I loved the fact that they had screening questions. They had to be answered when I applied to the job on their site. These questions allowed me to reveal my personality and knowledge. The following is what I submitted to them. Bah, but I didn't backup the actual questions, I'll have to guess 'em.

"What type of environment do you work best in?" (tis a multiple choice question)

A team environment.

"Do you have a portfolio website?"

Yes, at http://<censored> (Sorry, my contact info is there)

If I may, I would like to add to question #1 here. Working in a team environment is extremely important. Teams take full advantage of the knowledge and experience of all co-workers into a given project. Everyone thinks differently and has their own perspective of the world. The feedback and assistance from others is important to strengthen a designer's abilities. In other words, a designer can only grow so much on their own. I'm a strong believer in the power of foundation. In order to gain a higher level, one must have a full understanding of the basics. Also, feedback from others is important for the quality of the design. It's as important as having another person read over something important you wrote, because sometimes there are typos we never see even if we read it several times.

"List three websites that you think are well designed and explain why. This is so that we can get a feel or your design style."

Wow, I have too many to list. Rather, I can list these by category. This big-time marketing company has a very innovative Flash design:
http://www.leoburnett.com/
This company's site is awesome and absolutely gorgeous: http://2advanced.com/ In terms of handling massive amounts of information in a clean, simple, and organized fashion, I like Newsweek:
http://www.newsweek.com/
And the majority of the other sites on my list can be found here:
http://www.thefwa.com/
But the tricky part is that I don't have a set design style. I've always been a big fan of variety, especially since I'm a strong believer of this design philosophy: "everything is connected". It means anything we could possibly think of is somehow connected to anything else we could possibly think of. The designer who fully understands this philosophy is destined to be successful.

"What is your preferred HTML editor?"

I use HTML editors, yet I don't. Since I have HTML/XHTML/CSS memorized I mainly code by hand. I do, though, use Dreamweaver for the handful of common tasks that would take longer if coded by hand. I like to focus on browser compatibility, legibility, usability, color theory, and the overall balance of the design.

"What web languages do you know?"

HTML, XHTML, CSS, Flash Actionscript, and a bit of PHP and Cold Fusion.

"Clients will often want changes. Is that something you can handle?"

Somehow I'm finding humor in this question. It smells like you once had a problematic designer who opened up a can of drama every time a client wanted changes. With any experienced designer, that's not a question to ask - it's a given. Since I code by hand and with table-less CSS, my code is very clean and changes can be made easily.

Anyway, the interview went nicely. I arrived on time and fully prepared. The company is a large building with four floors. I arrived at 3:10 PM. I had to fill out detailed background info paperwork. It took me until 4 PM to finish! Thank goodness I brought a copy of my detailed text-only resume. I even brought with me the addresses, phone numbers, and attendance dates of my high school and college education, which the paperwork asked for. I anticipated this thanks to my Brandsmart job interview from earlier this year. I learned that major corporations like to make you fill out background info paperwork before the actual interview begins. It's like giving them a new resume! A resume that complies with everything they want to know because they don't trust your own resume having the info they want to know. But what really bugs me with this paperwork is that is asks for a salary requirement and the salary you had in previous jobs. That's not fair. :( That totally kills the part of the interview when the salary is argued. It's worse enough with salary-asking being like a secret auction to begin with. It gives the potential employer the upper hand.

Potential employer: "Muahaha! I was going to give you 60k, but since you put down a lower salary I'm going to give you that instead! Fwahahaa!"

Upon completion of the paperwork I was picked by the Human Resources guy, Manny. Within a real nice professional-lookin meeting room the interview began. Sort of. All he did was introduce the company and give me run-down of the benefits. And they're very nice benefits that begin on day one! DAY ONE!! EXCELLENT! Such a generous action is unheard of in Florida. Around 4:20 PM he finished and took me to Stephanie. Stephanie's the supervisor of the designers. So now was the real interview. First she wanted to see my work. Via my portfolio site, I presented and explained to her the graphic design and web design work I had on there. I was about to show her my illustrations/photography/animation/3D work, but asked to see more web design work, which was a polite way of saying "I don't care about the irrelevant work." She wanted to see any -live- websites I've made. Ack, I just have one. I explained to her that at my current job we mainly using templates (other peoples' work). She understood. Next she proceeded by reviewing with me the three 'favorite' sites I submitted in the screening questions. I scored a couple good impression points by busting out my printed copy of what I submitted.

Next she asked me some questions intended to reveal more of my personality, work habits, and work philosophy. One question that stumped me for a while was "What do you want to avoid in your next job?" Yep, that's a good question. With all the BS from my current job, I have A LOT to say for such a question. Things like I want to avoid a crappy salary, a boss who trashes weeks of work in a blink, a businessman boss who thinks he's a designer, a high turnover rate, and more. While still unsure of how to answer the question, I began by ruling out people. I told her I don't have a problem with people. That I think highly of the people around me and I've always got along well. From there I found an answer. I told her I want to avoid instability. That's what all my complaints boil down to. Next I showed her the neato Holiday Greeting e-Card I recently made for my current company. She was impressed that I made it from scratch. Next she brought in her boss and introduced me. I liked it that Stephanie explained to her I don't have much work to show due to the heavy template usage at my current job. My e-Card was still open so she got to see it as well.

When Stephanie's boss exited, she was about to conclude the interview when I butted in with a request to talk more. I busted out the company's mission statement and proceeded to give her specific examples to support exactly how I comply with every point. She seemed impressed. Afterwards, when she asked "Are you done?" I double-checked my notes in front of her and purposely shuffled through them to show her I came prepared and enthused for the job. When the interview finally concluded she walked me to the elevator. Originally she didn't plan on doing that. I don't remember what I told her, but the decision to walk me was made quickly and it showed she was interested in me.

Throughout the interview I explained to her, and Manny as well, in pieces as to why I want to leave my current job. At first I said it's because I'm looking to grow and I want a company with opportunity. As time went by I added by revealing more details. In the end I completed the story by being completely honest, telling her (in a professional way) I want to leave because my current employer is fucked up. They fired the whole freakin department (5 people including supervisor) that was there when I first started.

Overall, the interview went well. Nothing embarrassing or awkward happened; it flowed smoothly. The whole time I was showing interest and asking questions. Ah, and the interview had no mention of pay. I forgot to ask her about it. Considering that she never brought it up suggests she wants to talk about it in the second interview. Ah well. Next on the agenda is a design evaluation. She recently e-mailed me directions to design a mock company newsletter. It is due before January 3rd. One that day all submitted newsletters between my competition and I will be evaluated and a final decision made on who to hire.

This week is my week off. :) Surprisingly, the president granted us a paid vacation. I did stuff here and there, nothing major. For Christmas I just had the usual family get-together. My friends have been busy and they work this week. Bah. :\ My most highlighted event is the outing to Santa's Enchanted Forest. It's an amusement park of sorts that comes down to Miami every December. I have this experience covered in my sexy new PHP-driven photo album, right here.

Oh! This'll probably be the last entry for this year. Ya know, that PHP photo album is working great for me. It's a web application. Web applications are what's hot these days. And the majority of the best ones are free! For my first 2007 entry I'd like to try a PHP-driven blog.

■;December 18, 2006 - Tablet! Interview!

[Mood:Excited] My self Christmas present for this year is the Wacom Intuos3 6x8 Pen Tablet! I've always wanted one of these things! Geez, this thing is AWESOME. It's way better than I had anticipated. For those of you who don't know what this thing is, it's a graphics tablet. It allows you to draw on the computer. The tablet follows the pen's location. For example, if you move the pen to the lower left of the tablet, the mouse arrow moves to the lower left of the screen. Click the photo toward the right to get a closer look of it. It comes with the pen, a holder for the pen, and a mouse. The tablet includes a set of buttons on each side that you can assign key strokes to. For example, you can set one of them to execute "Ctrl+Z", which is Undo in most programs. The greatest thing about this tablet is that it has pressure sensitivity! The pen is sensitive to how hard you're pressing it. If you make a mistake you can flip the pen around and use its back end as an eraser! And the eraser is pressure sensitive as well!! The tablet is fully compatible with Photoshop and Flash.

Any drawbacks? A couple. It's awkward to use the tablet to replace your mouse. The tablet's mouse doesn't help the case any better. The tablet's inclusion of tip replacements suggests the pen's tip can break or wear down over time. Using the tablet is a drastically different way to use the computer, and it takes time get used to it. You also need to get used to applying your drawing habits to the tablet. It took me several days of practice to get comfortable with it. Unless you're an illustrator or heavy Photoshop user, I wouldn't recommend for you to get a graphics tablet.

Oh, and check out two of my first graphics tablet drawings! :D The tree/field picture was drawn in Flash. Doesn't it look like an ink drawing? The winged woman was drawn in Photoshop. Doesn't it look like a scanned ball point pen drawing? The possibilities are endless!

In other news, I got a job interview!! Finally! This is my first job interview since I started looking for a new job a couple months ago. Other places have wanted to interview me, but they didn't seem like stable companies that pay well. The interview is on Thursday mid afternoon. I'm going to have to leave work early to make it. The tricky part is that Friday is a paid day off since this weekend is the weekend before Christmas. Leaving early on Thursday makes it easy for others to assume I'm doing that on purpose for an early vacation. Anyway, this company is PBS&J. I'm having a hard time understanding exactly what they do. My closest guess is that they manage construction in a variety of areas. I don't know what they're paying but it must be good since this is a major corporation with tons of locations all over the US. What makes this job so awesome is that it's in Miami where the majority of my friends are. Even better, it's right next to the Florida turnpike. Without traffic it'll probably take 30 minutes to get there. The only drawback I can think of about the company is how bleh the website is.

■November 29, 2006 - Company survey!

[Mood:Excited] Muahaha! Excellent! On Monday we had to fill out an anonymous company survey on the company intranet. They assured us no one would be held accountable. Boy did I have a field day! If you've been reading my other entries, you would know I have quite a lot to say about this company. I was completely honest and put down everything I felt. The majority of the survey was general questions with multiple choice options. The end of each section had a text field where we could put down in our own words our feelings. I kept a backup of my feelings. The following is my first and most brutal entry. I started out nice so I don't come off as a sour apple who only has negative things to say.

"Please comment on your views about our company"
I think this is a great, promising company. The company hasn't been around long and already it has accomplished so much. I'm impressed by that. Its opportunities almost seem endless. The past couple months I've seen much improvement in the communication between other departments. At the rate we're going I can easily see the "walls" between the departments completely breaking down in the near future. However, the company's emphasis seems to be pointing to all departments but multimedia. The evidence suggests Anthony does not have much faith or appreciation in our abilities. This is especially evident when it is considered how easily an employee with 9 years of design experience was laid off. Current standards render our college education and qualifications meaningless. Our salary is below the minimum average that web designers are supposed to be making in the city of Fort Lauderdale. Knowing the whole department before Jonathan and Alex was laid off isn't very encouraging for job security. When I tell friends and family all that has happened, I usually get a response like "What kind of company are you working for?!" It's not easy for an employee to feel proud, challenged, and satisfied with their work in an environment like this.

That puts down how I feel beautifully. The multimedia department is unappreciated and underpaid. And then next entry:

"Please let us know your comments about Opportunities & Conditions"
I have not experienced any sort of discrimination from other co-workers. Everyone here is kind, respectful, and fun to work with. Forty-five minutes for lunch isn't long enough for people who want to go out to eat. It has proven to be inconvenient to have to wait a year to get the 5 days of PTO. The PTO benefits should be pushed to start on the first year instead of after. At the very least, to have them granted after the 90 day evaluation. As for opportunities, I do not see any for multimedia besides supervisor.

It's true! You can't do shit in 45 minutes. Whoever goes out for lunch needs to rush. Even so, people usually end up 10 minutes late coming back. And the lack of immediately PTO (paid time off) just flat out sucks. The next entries are about reviewing the supervisor. We don't have a supervisor, so the vice president is the one we need to review. Reviewing supervisors from other departments is optional. I decided to review two others: Greg and Brenda. Greg is the head of SEO (search engine optimization) and Brenda is the head of customer service. Of all supervisors, we work the most with them. I only had good things to say about them. Everyone at my job is awesome. It's just the job itself and the president that sucks.

"What suggestions do you have for this manager that would help him/her be a more effective manager?"
Nothing, Claudia has been wonderful.

"Please tell us your thoughts about this manager"
She does a very good job executing Anthony's direction, which at times can be quite a challenge. When she knows something will be difficult for us, she does everything in her power to make it as easy and as comfortable as possible.

"Please tell us your thoughts about this manager"
Greg is awesome. Of all the other supervisors, he's the one multimedia works with the most. He works with the intention to make things easy for everyone. He's never pushy with the tasks he wants multimedia to do. He's always in good spirit when he approaches us, even when there's a situation that needs immediate attention.

"Please tell us your thoughts about this manager"
Brenda is wonderful. Of all the other supervisors, she's the second-most supervisor multimedia works with the most. She has been very helpful – no, no just Brenda, the customer service department as a whole has been very helpful to multimedia. Everyone is so passionate and eager to assist us. The clients are always in their best interest. Brenda is the most enthusiastic of them all. If we ever have a question she's always there to give us a detailed, helpful answer. On multiple occasions Brenda has shown a strong desire to make company processes better and more efficient. To top it off, Brenda never has a frown. She's always cheerful and brightens up the room whenever she enters.

Lastly:

"Please let us know your comments about job security in this company"
I already answered this in the first section. I consider job security to be this company's #1 problem.

And that concludes my adventure with the company survey. The president said later this week we're going to have a company meeting about it. One thing's for sure, at this meeting we should bring a chair! (usually we stand during company meetings)

■November 12, 2006 - Critical thinking

[Mood:Insightful] I've been thinking long and hard about this: I should stay at my current job and give it a chance. So the reality is that web designers are on the decline. I figure the best place for someone of my limited experience right now is in a corporation that has two separate departments handling the designing and coding. According to the evidence I've gathered so far, employers are seeking web developers or web developers/designers (pfft, as if there are many coders/arists). That suggests they don't necessarily have much money so they want "Jacks of all trades". The benefit of being in a promising corporation (my current job) is that they don't want Jacks of all trades. They want designers who are good at designing and coders who are good at coding. That has its ups and downs of course (which I expand on in below entries), but due to circumstances, the available evidence suggests I'm already in the best possible place someone of my stature could be for the area I live in. That and, on Monday the guy who helped get Microsoft off the ground is coming. He's from TA Associates, an investment company. If all goes well, this company will go public. That means everyone gets a raise and it'll turn into a major corporation almost overnight. In my benefit, that'll also mean an increased probability of the company compensating people for their education (i.e. bachelor's degree).

This decision kinda hurts. Thinking about continuing to do "business emphasis design" makes me sick to my stomach. Of course, I can easily overlook that if I get a generous pay raise. And there's still the possibility nothing will happen from the TA visit. Time will tell. For now, the available evidence says to stay at this job. Although I'm still going to continue looking over Monster and Career Builder. It never hurts to keep an eye out on the market.

Lately I've been fascinated by how people interpret the world differently. For example, the other day some guy came to deliver something and he noticed my brother's rims near the door. He got all excited and asked me questions about them "How much did you get them?! They're really nice!" What fascinated me was that I had absolutely no interest in those rims, yet he got a boner over them. As an artist I want to understand how other people interpret the world.

Lately I've noticed how a lot of people around me worry about things that I'm not worrying about. For example, my co-worker has been expressing to me various things that make him uneasy. Like having the vice president move into our section of the office. That doesn't bother me, but it intimidates him. And fairly recently I dated someone who often made me feel like I was on trial. If someone keeps on worrying about the stability of a relationship, it's doomed to end. I learned that, relationship-wise, I don't get along well with people who worry too much and like to give nasty guilty trips whenever they're upset.

■November 6, 2006 - Web design today

[Mood:Disappointed] I've been expressing my feelings on the matter of today's web design to others. The people at my favorite Mac board brought up several good practical points. Simply put, internet trends have shifted and all the money going into the internet is going to the web developers (the coders). Previously, 'HTML designers' were high in demand because the internet didn't have a huge demand for anything beyond HTML. And web design isn't the only career in a decline, graphic design and photography is as well. What makes it worse is that graphic design and photography are much more easier. Anyone can download a cracked Photoshop and call themselves a graphic designer. Photography is in trouble because the net has made it very easy to obtain cheap stock photography. Heck, at my job all we use is cheap stock photography. Half the time we just use free stuff from sites like Morgue File. Someone posted something very interesting - Dilbert's "Salary Theorem". It puts this problem into an equation:

Dilbert's "Salary Theorem" states that "Engineers and scientists can never earn as much as business executives, sales people, accountants and especially liberal arts majors." This theorem can now be supported by a mathematical equation based on the following two well known postulates:
• Postulate 1: Knowledge is Power.
• Postulate 2: Time is Money.

As every engineer knows: Power = Work / Time.

Since: Knowledge = Power,
then Knowledge = Work / Time,
and Time = Money,
then Knowledge = Work / Money.

Solving for Money, we get: Money = Work / Knowledge.

Thus, as Knowledge approaches zero, money approaches infinity, regardless of the amount of work done.

Isn't it scary how much that theorem makes sense? But what makes me hopeful is the fact that matter cannot be created nor destroyed, only change form. What I'm trying to say is that because money/creativity/quality in web design is on the decline must mean it's gone elsewhere. It's my theory that the net is going through a major transition period right now. It's my job to look around the boiling pot and figure out exactly what will explode in popularity in the future. For example, video is the rage these days. And did you know 3D net browsers are in beta right now? Who knows, 5-10 years from now we might be designing websites in real 3D. I'm going to find whatever will be popular and grab it by the balls! Being ahead of the game is one of the things I can do to get more money.

I've thought of a phrase that beautifully describes the kind of work I do:

business emphasis design
  1. Design that focuses on the money-making aspect rather than the quality of the
      design itself. In other words, it's design that favors quantity over quality.

Yep, that's what I do all day. The world should pity those who are really creative yet bound by the torturous chains of business emphasis design. I'm getting bored of this job. Every now and then my attention span takes a sudden drop and I enter a blank stare. After a while I ask myself "Uh... what was I doing?" Ugh, it's just, a lot of the work is so awfully repetitive and not creative at all. This is very unhealthy for my creative mind to have to endure.

It's been a little over a month that I've been looking for another job. I'm still not having much luck. This past weekend I applied to all the nearby ad agencies, and I got no replies.

■October 31, 2006 - WTF!

[Mood:Pissed] Definitely, "WTF!" describes my current feeling beautifully. This all started with Career Builder's salary calculator. It has proven to be a pretty accurate one. Naturally, I checked out what a web designer in south Florida makes.

NO. FUCKING. WAY.  ...PENNIES. Want to know a fun fact? THE MAXIMUM IS LESS THAN THE MINIMUM OF WHAT TEACHERS MAKE. WOW.  ...WOW. This is a shock. This is almost enough to bring me to tears. What happened? What the hell happened?? Web design is... the future, right? I mean, it's a 'high tech' job, isn't it? I mean, it's something that needs studying, something Average Joe can't easily do... right? >_< At least that's what I thought. Just in case you haven't figured out the graph, it's saying the maximum salary is $42,625 a year, the average is $38,000 a year, and the minimum is $31,750 a year. Heh. And you know what? My current salary is below the minimum by almost a thousand. Fun, eh? Ugh, it hurts. I thought my current job was bad enough already by paying everyone else the same as me, especially considering my qualifications and bachelors. Now I have evidence that further supports my claim of BS. But still, god damn, this can't be the end result of a web designer's pay. There must be some sort of qualification to change things for the better. Or maybe some type of hybrid job like web design/special effects/3D etc., just something dammit. I refuse to accept this reality. Again, I must point out that my brothers have only been doing IT for a couple years and already they're making more than $50,000. Speaking of which, one brother just got a high raise today.

In lighter news, something good happened at my job. In a year they're going to be changing their name and image to eMedia. They had all of us come up with logos and layouts for eMedia. As it turned out, they chose my work. That means for the first time ever I have created the corporate identity for a company. I already put it on my resume as a highlighted accomplishment. Yay. :) But that doesn't change how I feel. I most definitely still want to leave this place.

OH, GEEZ. With the project we're working on now, Anthony (the big boss) had the supervisor from sales critiquing our work. FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! It was bad enough having Anthony critiquing our work. (Note: Anthony is not a designer. He's a business man.) But the sales supervisor? WOW. That's bad. That's really bad. I don't know where to begin explaining how someone like him is not fit to be giving us critiques. That's equivalent to telling a janitor to oversee the work of scientists. It's like this...
Me: (shows sales supervisor some work)
Sales supervisor: "Change that model."
Me: (waits for him to say more; awkward silence ensues) "...so, is she too old? Is it because she's not looking at you?"
Sales supervisor: "Huh?"
Me: "I need direction." (note: this model has already been changed several times already) "Our other pictures of lawyers are already being used in the other designs." (I'm trying to emphasize that options are wearing thin)
Sales supervisor: (no response)
Me: (since he's being so indecisive and not giving me any direction) "Can I show you the photos we have?"
Sales supervisor: "Uh, whatever, just keep that model."

Anthony appointed the sales supervisor 'in his place' to approve our designs for this particular important project since he's been really busy lately. The sales supervisor is the employee Anthony has known the longest and is closest to, so he trusts him. This experience proves that trust can be a double-edged sword. I can understand the sales supervisor's experience in selling and applying that knowledge to the content of our designs, but it's a different story to have him telling us how to design.

So it's been a month now looking for another job. I've been persistently checking Career Builder and Monster. I even found a couple government jobs. Also, I went around looking for local web design or ad agency places. I haven't had much luck in either area. I've gotten two replies so far. The first place was way too far (a 70-100 min drive). The second place was College.com. They said they're still deciding on an office, they're still working on getting medical benefits, and I'll be starting out as a contractor. Yuck, no way. I've brought this up before; I'll do it again:
• Rule #1 - Never get a contractor job. Doing so means at tax time you'll have to pay a lot of taxes (in a full-time job they pay the necessary taxes).
• Rule #2 - 'Corporate promises' take forever to happen. Many times they never happen, or happen in a partial way. In this case, those medical benefits would likely take forever to happen.

So yeah, that's what has been happening lately. And, I must say, web developers are huuuge now. HUGE. Seriously! ASP.NET, PHP, Linux, Javascript, AJAX, DHTML, etc. - employers badly want people who know those languages. I keep on coming across job ads wanting web developers. And they seem to pay well. Since the internet is bigger than ever these days, everyone wants heavy duty web applications. They want dynamic online stores, complex client databases and advanced online services.  Let me tell you, if you're going into web development you're very lucky. It sucks; I wish I could go into that stuff, but that would require me to switch to the other side of my brain. Dude, I'm an artist. Career Builder's depressing web designer salary stats suggests web designers aren't big in demand these days. All web developers know HTML and at least basic CSS; I suppose employers are satisfied with the meager designs web developers can produce whenever they're working on those heavy web development projects.

I have another fun fact. The vice president told me that around 200 people applied to their web designer job ad in nearly a week, with an average of 30-60 resumes a day. That means it's especially important to apply to a job ad immediately.

■October 1, 2006 - October!

[Mood:Bored] Tis October! Ah, my favorite month of the year. I've changed my site's logo animation to my famous Jogurt Sailor Moon trick or treat. Do you have any Halloween favorites you like to watch every year? I do; two, actually. Hocus Pocus and The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Why Hocus Pocus? Somehow I'm drawn to it. It's just (thinks) how should I word it... well, the Disney cheese factor is so high, yet they tried to make it cool somehow, and they failed miserably in that aspect, which makes it so great. XD Ultimately, I think it's really cute and fun to watch. I don't get tired of it.

Why The Nightmare Before Christmas? This one's a favorite movie of many. It's just a masterpiece. Tim Burton's style is so bizarre, dark, interesting and sinister, yet somehow its appropriate for all audiences.

In other news, I've signed up with YouTube! Here's my account page. So far I've uploaded some of the trailers I've made for my site recently. I wonder if I'll become a YouTube whore. Heh. I tried other popular sites and didn't become a whore to them. Like:

LiveJournal. I already have this journal. I don't really care to hear feedback for my journal entries, so LiveJournal never attracted me too much. Oh hey, my account is still up. The only reason I signed up in the first place was so that I can reply to a group that was talking about my Sailor Moon RPG site.

MySpace. Wow, it's such a popular website. But it never attracted me. :p I signed up some time ago. I ended up deleting my profile because the place disgusted me. I signed up again recently. XD But only to find friends in my area. I still have a limited social life due to unfortunate circumstances. And for a  nerdy person like me to meet people, my options are limited.

Forums in general. Forums don't seem to be as big as they used to ever since the birth of LiveJournal and MySpace. Still, I was never really a huge fan of them to begin with. I mainly just lounge around my FantasyAnime forum. I still occasionally stop by a few other forums.

So yeah, I haven't been the type of person to dedicate myself to other websites. All my internet spare time goes toward my site. :) And toward my mission to spread the wonders of anime, RPGs and classic gaming. But since YouTube can be a tool to exercise my mission, I might just be a whore to it.

I just skimmed through my previous entry. Wow, I sound so feisty. XD Just note that's not normal of me to have such feelings. I just want more money, and that I'll be happier in a place with higher standards. Er, I mean normal standards.

■September 28, 2006 - Looking for another job!

[Mood:Insightful] I've decided to start looking for another job. Why? Ah, where should I begin... for starters, I'm not pissed with my current job and nothing bad in particular happened. It's just that I feel like I'm wasting my time there. I'm interested in two things:

1) Money ...and this place isn't paying me enough.
2) Growing ...as in learning and becoming more creative. At this point I've learned most, perhaps even all, of what this job could possibly offer in my growth as a web designer.

Disclaimer: What I'm about to say will sound egotistical, big-headed and self-centered. =P Really though, I'm just emphasizing that I deserve better.

(clears throat) Why I deserve better. First I will explain to you my competition in the field of web design. As I've pointed out before, I was either the best or one of the best in all of my college classes. My five months desperately looking for work led me to believe "Well shit, I guess I'm not that great after all." But my experience so far with my current job led me to believe that I am as good as college graced me to be. My co-workers represent my competition. Here's what I have that they don't have:

• A designed resume. Yes, I'm the only one there with a resume I illustrated in Adobe Illustrator. Everyone else just has a plain 'ol MS Word resume. This is very important! All designers must have a designed resume. It only makes sense. Designers have been designing their resumes since the 70's.
• A portfolio site. I'm the only one there with one! It's a requirement for web designers! Don't you think it's odd if a web designer presented their work on paper instead of on the web?
• College education. I'm the only one with a Bachelor's degree. A couple have an Associates and the rest have nothing.
• People skills. Now that Renee (the awesome girl with 9 years exp.) is gone, I believe I'm the one who speaks the best over the phone with clients. I'm friendly, polite and patient. These are skills I obtained from my previous jobs. Comparing myself to the guy that was hired the same time as me, I've achieved a higher familiarity with other co-workers, most particularly other supervisors. I greet everyone who walks by desk. I especially did that when I first started; whenever a new face came by I would introduce myself. I don't see the new employees doing that. One of the new employees is also awfully quiet. I'm shy at first but it doesn't take long for me to get comfortable around people to chat and joke around. For these reasons I believe I can say my people skills are above average.
• Software proficiency. According to feedback I've received, I've lived up to everything I said I knew in my resume - and beyond. When I say "I know" how to use a certain program, I sure as hell mean it. I'm so proficient with all the major design software, web code and computers in general that I'm asked questions on a regular basis. I've become the guy to come to for answers.
• Productivity. I'm the fastest guy there. Really! We have a marker board where we write down everything we're working on and check off what we complete. My list is the longest! I'm given the most to do because I've proved myself to be reliable, as someone who gets things done. Lol, that's probably the most egotistical thing I've said yet. But believe me, I've even been told "Alex, I'm giving you this project because I know you'll get it done." And I often hear "Damn, Alex! That was fast." And one time I was told "Umm, that guy isn't doing a good job. Can you take the project off his hands? Or, on second thought, just help him out."
• Typing skills. I'm the only one who knows how to type without looking at the keyboard. O_O This one shocked me. This is a skill I assumed everyone has. Also, it seems only a handful of people in the whole company type properly, because the majority of the in-house e-mails are equivalent to IM chats. Sure my grammar has its kinks, but so far it's evident my writing skills are above average.
• Attendance. I've never been late or missed a day, and I come early everyday. The same can't be said for everyone else.
• Learning. My mind is a sponge when it comes to computers. In computer class I'm the guy skipping ahead to the later chapters while they're still going through chapter 1. I don't know anything about dynamic web languages, yet at this job I learned the basics of Cold Fusion in ten minutes. If I have 'a secret', I suppose it would be my persistence to avoid the second rate people and go right up to the hardcore nerds and/or the experienced professionals for help. That and I ask a lot of questions because I'm persistent to get better. Even if I think a certain question is stupid or I already know the answer, I ask it anyway just in case there's a detail I'm not aware of. None of my other co-workers seem to express that kind of passion. I especially don't see them taking as much advantage as I have of Renee's years of experience. I often when up to her desk to ask her for a critique. Most particularly, I'm the only one who's taking advantage of her offer "Even though I'm part-time now and working at home, feel free to e-mail me or call me for a critique! :)" Seriously, Renee is a genius; I miss her. Critiquing is one of her passions so she really enjoys helping others with their designs. Anyway, for these reasons I believe I can say my learning rate is above average.

So yeah, those are my reasons. The most disappointing factor is that I'm getting paid the same as everyone else. Geez, with my qualifications! This is why Renee left (one of the reasons). She was practically getting the same pay as us! As I've explained in my previous two entries, I feel this job hardly demands creativity. You know how people often refer to unoriginal musicians as manufactured talent? Well I refer to the design work I have to do as manufactured design. The big boss often has our creative freedom equivalent to Communist Cuba.

I'm not too sure about web design in particular, but with other jobs it's common practice for a Bachelors degree to automatically grant you higher pay (i.e. government jobs). Well, let's see if my four months of "relevant work experience" from this place will be enough for other places to desire me. Obviously, I'm still going to continue working with my current job; the bills got to be paid. And just because I'm dissatisfied with my job doesn't mean I'm miserable with it. Everyone there is nice. If fate wills it, I wouldn't mind if I end up working there eight more months (to add up to a year).

I, of course, discussed all of this with my family. They wholeheartedly agree. As my father always says "You're not a charity worker - always strive for more money! And continue to study!" He especially warned me not to tell anyone I'm looking for another job in order to prevent people from envying me. Oops, I already told two co-workers. I'll make a mental note not to bring it up again then. Well, I didn't directly say I was looking for a job. I just told them I'm going to buy a domain for my portfolio site and send out my resume to learn more about the field, and that if I get a good offer I'll take it.

■September 4, 2006 - Work Drama: Episode 1

[Mood:Dramatic] OMG, drama! >_< At work! Sheesh, I'm there only three months and a big situation already erupted. I'll tell you all the juicy details, with plenty of italics for emphasis. The situation first began when I began working there. The other new guy and I replaced two other designers. >.> These two designers were fired for slacking off. And they were the supervisors. So my department (multimedia) was in need of a supervisor. They pulled in the project manager, Donna, to be our supervisor. Donna stressed to the president "I do have design experience, but I don't know HTML or Cold Fusion...", but he said "Doesn't matter, you'll do great." As the weeks ensued, the relationship between Donna and the president further weakened. According to Donna, the president turned to be quite disrespectful to her.

Before I continue I should tell you what kind of person the president is. First of all, we think he's bi-polar. He changes his mind constantly. One minute he likes a design, the next he doesn't - literally. One minute he's praising us, the next he's saying we're crap (behind our backs). Presidents of successful companies tend to be direct, dominant, opinionated, uplifting and a visionary.

Basically, the president did a lot of things that were unfair to Donna. On multiple occasions he was dissatisfied with what we were producing in our department. It came to the point where it was said "Since you're so dissatisfied with the results, why won't you tell us what to do?" He did exactly that. He worked with us and told us exactly how he wants everything to look. Several weeks of beautiful design work was stripped down to tacky, simplistic, repetitive designs. Around 95% of all the work we did was tossed down the drain, only to create simple material we could've produced in 5 minutes if only we knew in the very beginning he wanted something like that. This happened last month; this was the point when the drama was reaching the critical point. This bothered all of us, but it bothered Donna and Renee the most since they were the ones approving all the work our department was churning out. (Renee is the 6-monther with nine years of design experience up her sleeve.) I had no idea how severe the situation was until last week.

Early last week it came to everyone's attention that Renee was going to switch to being a part-time contractor so she can devote more time to her son and her home business. Evidence suggests she made that decision because this job isn't making much use of her nine years of experience. On Thursday, Donna announced that she turned in her two weeks notice! Meaning she quit. The president decided he only needed Donna until Friday instead of two weeks. To that decision, Donna replied "Heh, I'm not surprised..." Donna was busting her butt. She worked on her breaks and did all sorts of things to improve performance, but in the end it wasn't appreciated.

So what's the moral of this story? Well, it's not that this is a bad job. It ain't too shabby, actually. That week when the president slashed away at our designs was the only bad thing that's happened so far. The moral is that being a supervisor for this company is a deathwish. The president can be really nasty during meetings. Our department is in the room next door to the meeting room. Whenever they have one of those meetings, we can hear the president yelling. Excluding the veteran, everyone else in the department and myself already confirmed that we don't intend to stay with this company a long time. I've concluded that I'll stay with this job for a year or two, then move on to a job where I'll be surrounded by artistic people. Because as I explained in my previous Aug. 24th entry, I yearn for artistic stimulation. Although I'm not exactly sure yet what that next job would be.

In other news, it turned out my raise was just $15/h. At first they said $14/h, but I refused and a couple days later they offered $15/h. I had to take it. Well, considering my lack of relevant work experience and how difficult it is to get a decent full-time job with benefits in south Florida, $15/h is a great start. That's approximately $31,200 a year. FYI, according to Salary.com a minimum average for a web designer is around $24/h, which is around $50,000 a year. Bah. :\

■August 24, 2006 - Graphic/web design & stimulation

[Mood:Reflective] So it's been almost three months since I've had my shining after-college job. On Monday I'll have my review and get a raise, hopefully to $16/h since that's what the three-monther who got fired was raised to. Anyway, I've learned a great deal from my work experience so far. I'll approach the topic with a vocab phrase I adopted midway through college:

non-artistic graphic designer
  1. A graphic (and/or web) designer who isn't artistic. Most designers fall under this
      category.

Yes, the world is full of non-artistic graphic designers. During college it was quick to come to my attention that the graphic/web design field lacked artistic designers. I only met three other artistic designers! I didn't anticipate that in my future I'll discover that the graphic/web design field SEVERELY lacks artistic designers. So much that it makes me question if I'm in the right place with the career I've chosen, that I should move to a career that is more populated with artistic people like me. Of the places I was interviewed at during my job search and my current job, there aren't any artistic designers.

You might be asking yourself "What's the difference between a non-artistic and artistic graphic/web designer?". It's a big difference. Non-artistic designers design simple. They seldom care for illustrations, they'd rather have photos. Their main concern is to come up with something that "looks good" instead of "looks nice" (if that makes any sense). Since non-artistic graphic/web designers make up most of the design population, that's one of the main reasons why most of the design we see is simple. Their criticism revolves around this simplistic mentality. They tend to favor designs that they could picture themselves conceiving. Such overwhelming simplicity suffocates the artistic designer.

As you may have guessed, I do feel suffocated. Lately we've been working on layouts for important new websites that will be sprouting about soon. The high importance means the layouts we produce go through heavy, detailed criticism. These critique sessions are so draining. I mean, I'm not saying I can't handle criticism. I handled the criticism I got well from the smaller projects we've been doing the past couple months. But the detailed criticism with these recent major projects is just so draining. It physically and mentally makes me tired. The heavy simplicity drives me crazy. The simplicity is so extreme that even my fellow designers are going nuts. It's the president (who isn't a designer) who's insisting on the extreme simplicity.

So why is it important to me that I meet artistic designers? I'll introduce the notion with a vocab phrase:

artistic graphic designer phenomenon
  1. Occurs when two artistic graphic designers befriend each other through school or
      work. Their artistic abilities allow them to understand each other. Through daily
      interaction their creativity and abilities considerately increase.

One of the main missions with my life is to grow as an artist. I want to be more creative and develop a larger imagination. The quickest and most efficient way to act out my mission is to meet really creative talented people. One of the reasons why I chose graphic/web design for my career was because the field requires people to know multiple programs. So then I would meet really creative talented people who are also multi-talented, meaning they would be into illustration/ photography/ multimedia/ 3D/ animation as I am. Little did I know such a desire would be asking for a lot since I now see how there are so few artistic designers.

Lately during meditation I've noticed a decline in my imagination and creativity. It wasn't hard to deduce out why. I hardly get any creative stimulation from work. I haven't been doing anything creative at home either. So there's been nothing stimulating me! The creative suffocation at work can't be helped, but at home it can. Lately I've been trying to get myself to do more projects. The past couple weeks I've been in a 3D mood and been doing stuff in Maya. Check it out - I've made "Tomb" and "Cave". They're neato! Currently I'm working on two Flash cartoons: an artistic one and the infamous unfinished Blue's Sister. I'm trying to come up with more ways to stimulate my imagination and creativity. It's a scary feeling when I think about what the result would be if I continued getting no stimulation.

Ah, and here's the e-mail from the vice president that I mentioned in my previous entry:

If I tell you that I have spent the last two hours (in between interruptions) looking at photographs and reading stuff on your site, you wouldn't believe it… but it is true (I hope you don't mind)… I think you are extremely bright and creative Alex. I really hope this company is helping you in your career. I am positive that one day in the not-so-far-future, I'm going to read or see something great that you've done, either in a newspaper, magazine, internet site or art gallery!

Keep up the good work Alex. You're really appreciated here… thanks for sending me the link to your photography, I loved every single photo you've taken :-) your eyes are a rare thing nowadays as they seem to be able to see the real beauty of the world...

Isn't that nice? She's so awesome.

■August 1, 2006 - Job stuff

[Mood:Bah] Whoa, it's been a month. I've been so occupied with work. When I get home during the week, I feel like I only have a couple hours of spare time. However, I have still managed to squeeze in some site updates! Dun dun dun. Nothing will stop me from working on my FantasyAnime. Since movie clips on "in" now (with YouTube and all), I've been doing my part by adding lots o' them to my site. anyway, it's important that even though I feel I have less spare time on my hands, the job isn't stressful! That's BIG plus. Sure, it has its minor downs, but compared to my previous stressful jobs, it's peanuts. It's still a dream come true, as I had predicted when I first got this job.

Two weeks ago, someone in my department got fired! I was shocked. It was totally unexpected. It was one of the three-monthers, named Kendel. One minute we were talking, laughing; and the next minute he was gone. I felt so bad for him. He was fired for his handful of absences. Even though his reasons were legit since he had a sick daughter, apparently he didn't inform people in advance every time he took off. The second reason was because he submitted a blatantly copied logo. A week later I also heard he copied other things. Even so, I can understand the reasons why he did that. He explained to me one day how sometimes his mind is numb and it's hard to come up with something original. I feel that way sometimes too (but I don't blatantly copy). His firing was especially disappointing for me because during that day's lunch break we chatted and bonded about classic gaming emulation. Kendel was like, part of our work family there. His absence took some time to get used to. I just hope Kendel makes use of his spare time to take advantage of all those video tutorials I gave him to study up on web code and learn new things to increase the success rate of finding another job. Well now my job is looking for someone else. I recommended the opening to my brother's friend. It'll be cool if he's chosen.

My job keeps on inflating my ego. Every now and then I'm praised for my extensive knowledge on computers, software, and web code. I'm the only one there strong with HTML and CSS, so I've been given a few special projects that only I can work on. Today my supervisor praised me for my ability with creating logos. Well, sort of. She said several of my logos would be perfect for t-shirts and skateboards and such (but they don't fit with lawyer sites), and hopes I stay with SWI Digital because with my talent it seems evident I'll eventually go elsewhere. The other day I e-mailed my new photography to the vice president to show her. She replied some time later with a long e-mail, saying she was browsing my site the past two hours and was really impressed. Saying stuff like she'll expect me to be mentioned in the newspaper or a magazine or something in the future, about something amazing I did. That she's glad I'm with the company and hopes I'm being stimulated. It made me feel great. Having my stuff online keeps on benefiting me time and time again. :D In reply to these notions, one of the main thoughts on my mind are "Great! So pay me more! ^_^ "

So, what will I do in the future? Stay with the job? Go elsewhere? Honestly, I don't know. Life tends to be funny with job-related decisions. I might just meet someone who'll change my life completely, directing me to another job. Or I might stumble upon some opportunity somewhere, etc. etc.. Right now I'm satisfied with the job. To a small degree my yearning to be creative isn't 100% satisfied with the stuff I'm doing. I don't know if this yearning will grow stronger in the future. Whatever I decide, I need to stay at this place at least 2-4 years since that's what many many many many many many jobs require as minimum work experience.

I owe everyone so much money that all my paychecks have been directly going toward bills and family. My college student loan's monthly fee is ROBBERY. I won't say exactly, but it's several hundred. My car crapped on me twice. Repairs were - chaching - over $1,000. I had to buy a new car - chaching - $16,000. I got a good deal on a Hyundai Santa Fe at Carmax.

New photography! I added a new collection from my adventures in downtown Las Olas.

New 3D works! I added a cell phone and a simple cave with simple creatures.

■June 11, 2006 - Traffic Woes

[Mood:Annoyed] The drive to and from work SUCKS. Without traffic it takes 45 minutes. With traffic it takes an hour. Oh, but it's the summer when school is out. When school begins, I'll have to leave half an hour earlier for over an hour of driving. Probably. I might just leave earlier to avoid it. I'd rather arrive early to work and browse the net a while to pass the time until clock-in than sit in traffic. I'm going to illustrate to you my shifting moods as I go through south FL traffic every morning. Refer to the image floating toward the right for the following (click it).

1. In terms of traffic, my morning drive begins on 595 east. Ah, 595. It is the terror of Fort Lauderdale. The mere mention of it strikes fear into the hearts of those who are forced to drive it every morning. The beginning is hardly congested. I drive happy with glee. I'm also flooring it. Everyone does to make up at least some of the time lost during the heavy traffic to come.

2. This is when I start to hit some traffic.

3. The traffic slowly gets worse.

4. I'm not even halfway to work and already I hit heavy traffic. At this point I fall into a state of utter despair. I dramatically look at the rising sun, thinking how driving on a road without traffic seems but a dream from days of old. Here I also tend to get stuck in back of those people who like to break every second. That or I get stuck in back of those people who accelerate and break quickly, making me do the same. I fear this is going to make me experience high levels of blood pressure at my young age and induce an early midlife crisis.

5. This is when I hit I-95's traffic that worsens to 5-10 second stops. At this point I forget my masculinity and break down into tears, much like Chris O'Donnell after starring as Robin in Batman 4. Here I also tend to fall victim to many people immediately rushing into my lane without using their turning signal, scaring me half to death.

6. At this point my mind goes numb from the 30-40 minutes of constant breaking and accelerating. I no longer get upset with those people immediately passing into my lane without their turning signal. Instead I laugh insanely or make a happy sigh. I begin to sing the theme song to Happy Days while remembering scenes from Natural Born Killers.

7. At this point the winged alcoholic talking penguin, Larry, comes to visit me, equipped with his usual glass of draft beer. His wings are purple. He wears a green tutu and a tiara. He tells me about his failing sex life and how his urine comes out in different colors. He never gets to drink his draft beer because he keeps on stumbling around my car and clumsily spilling it on himself. He often insists to sing Tom Jones songs in duet.

■June 10, 2006 - Work Adventures

[Mood:Ecstatic] So it's been two weeks since I got the job. It's even better than I had anticipated. The first couple days they had me make some Flash banners. After, they had me build templates in Photoshop and construct them as web pages. The work is very easy. The job is laid back; they don't put anyone under any kind of pressure. I get along well with my four other co-workers. One has been there for four years, two around three months, and one is a new hire. The two that have been there for three months produce great designs. I would say our abilities are even. I'm the one most knowledgeable about computers, software, and web coding.

The job is going great so far. It is perfect. It makes me so glad I have my college degree. The work is easy. Main responsibilities of the job include:
• Design templates in Photoshop.
• Slice up the templates and construct them into web pages.
• When a template is purchased, insert the client's information into it.

The occasional Flash animation is a special task given to me since I'm the one strong with Flash. And since I'm also strong with CSS, they had me teach a CSS class this past Friday. :D It went well, but I heard crickets afterwards, and it looked as if everyone had their jaw dropped. XD CSS is easy, but learning it at first is a lot to take in. It takes practice to learn it efficiently. The best way to learn CSS, as well as every other web-related thing, is to make your own site.

I work with four other people. There's the veteran who has been there for four years (age: in late 30's I think), two people who have been there around three months (early 30's), and a new guy hired a week after me (21). So they're all fairly young. I get along well with them. The three month-ers are very good at design. I would say our design abilities are even. Those bad samples I saw, which made me think I'll be uber l33t and crush everyone with my abilities, were actually the older ones not made by them.

So yeah, the job is awesome. I love it. I don't feel so exhausted after work, as I did with my previous jobs. It's not stressful at all. They play cool music during the work hours. My areas of expertise make me feel needed there; I'm often asked questions. I get to do pretty much everything I love doing with web design. The senior co-worker even says we'll likely be doing video/production in the future. We all get along well. No one's a vengeful bitch. Most importantly, the job isn't stressful. A stressful work environment induces people to get on everyone else's case, causing dark sides to surface. That caused a bit of chaos when I worked for Best Buy Home Delivery.

Oh yeah, to answer the question I've been dying to know, they obtained my resume through my university. The guy who hired me called the university and asked for resumes.

■;;May 27, 2006 - HIRED!!

[Mood:Ecstatic] SWI Digital hired me! Hooray! So it turned out I was able to find another employer who values talent over experience. I didn't even have to do an internship to get this. Ah, I'm not excited as I would like to be. I'm kind of still in shock. An after-college job seemed like something I would never get. He said after the 90-day evaluation I would be making $14/h or $15/h. Let's see... assuming I'll be working 40 hours a week and 52 weeks a year, $14/h is $29,120/y and $15/h is $31,200/y. So roughly, I'll be making around $30,000. That's "okay." According to Salary.com, web designers supposedly make $52,000-$73,000. The only other person I know who does web design in south FL says he makes $45,000. He has a couple years of experience behind his belt, though. He also said figures at places like Salary.com are rather inflated. Anyway, I'm hoping their salary-related promises hold true in time. He said "Raises here are generous. They're not a few cents."

In preparation for this job I've been studying their samples in the portfolio sections and further studying Flash Actionscript. My abilities surely surpass their current web design work--especially the existing Flash animations. Ever seen The Cheat's Flash work at Homestarrunner.com? The majority of their Flash animations are exactly like it, with text and objects flying around almost as if at random. This makes me glad that, just like at my university, I'll be able to blow everyone away with my work, which'll mean more $$$ for me. I just won't be able to do it immediately. I'm not used to making sites in the professional style. I need my expectations set so I know exactly how creative I can be. William said it himself "We know college can't teach everything. The 90-day period is necessary so that the cracks of missing information can be filled." In other words, the 90-day period can be viewed as a paid internship. It won't be much different from my previous jobs. I made $12/h at TAG and started at $11/h at Best Buy Home Delivery.

Speaking of TAG (it's a call center; phone-based customer service), I found this article someone wrote about them, "...there was also a large group of people who worked a regular 8-4 M-F shift (bankers hours as it used to be known). In October of 2005, the decision was made to phase that shift out and move all of the people on it to the 12 hour shifts." --OW! That sentence gave me a headache. I was with TAG a few years earlier than that. The rest of the things mentioned in that article is nothing new. TAG has always had an insane turnover rate.

I discontinued the production internship on Thursday. I prepared a small speech before I called them to make sure I said everything I wanted to say. I basically just thanked them in detail. I spoke to both Sabra (boss lady) and Brad (the guy I mainly worked with). I left a great impression. :) My job came at a good time. I was kind of getting tired continuing this internship. My post-production curiosity was pretty much satisfied the first week (I'm a fast learner). Continuing to go there for no pay wasn't exactly an energizing reality. I hardly did any actual work there, but still.

In other news, I've really been in the game save collecting mood lately. I've collected saves from Shining Force 1+2, Chrono Trigger, and Tales of Phantasia so far. While doing so I've been capturing new screen shots. I just finished Tales of Phantasia tonight. I've been rushing to finish it this week just in case my new job takes up too much of my time. I've actually never beaten the game until now. Heh yeah, you might've thought I've beaten all the games I've covered. I've beaten most of them. In addition to the game saves craze, I've also been capturing more movies with my screen recorder, Camtasia Studio. I must say, whoever invented screen recorders is a genius. Being able to record anything on the screen offers infinite possibilities! I've captured a bunch of opening sequences from Sega CD's RPGs, which will be posted up soon. I even captured all the sequences in Night Trap and put them together like a movie. I mean, from Night Trap 32X. But it's very large in size so I'm still deciding whether or not I should put it up.
 

■May 22, 2006 - Fourth job interview!

[Mood:Festive] Yes! YES!! a sd;flkajsdf;alskjd1!!1! I hit the jackpot! Somehow, my resume magically appeared into the hands of SWI Digital. They called me on Thursday late afternoon for an interview. I was in the middle of driving home from my production internship. It was too late into the afternoon because they were closed when I called. Due to my desperation for work, the next day I called them as early as possible. I was tempted to call at 8 AM, but I thought 8:30 AM would be better to give them a chance to get settled. The guy wasn't in then; I left a message. He, or William, called back at 9:30 AM. He asked me if I had more samples of work to show him. Ha, do I have samples! I showed him my portfolio site (that's a 'to show off' version with resume link purposely broken). He was impressed, he especially liked the 3D work. He said he'll discuss things with some lady and call back. He called back about an hour later and told me to come in for an interview on Monday at 2:30 PM.

Today tis Monday and the interview has come to pass. I kinda sorta didn't manage my time efficiently. A 2:30 PM appointment is so convenient that I thought I had plenty of time to do anything. I should've skipped lunch with my mom. Things got tight and I ended up having to rush over there. I kinda sorta sped down the expressways going 80 mph. >.> I barely made it at 2:28 PM. I'm the type of person who's always on time so this type of poor time management is rare of me. But I did make it on time so that's all that matters. I had fun finding parking. In the previous call, William said "There's a small visitor parking. You can park there." Well, first I took the first turn in front of the building, which led me to what appeared to be the entrance to a parking garage. It was closed; I suppose I need a special card to enter. I tried going around the building, looking for anything that appears to be a small visitor parking. As soon as I turned the corner--BAM, dead end. Had to u-turn. This driveway next to the building was one of those nice ones made up of colored bricks, which made me wonder on multiple instances "Uh oh, am I driving on a walk way instead of a street?! Why are those people nearby giving me weird looks?? >.<" So I u-turned back onto the street (a normal street). I drove past the front of the building and noticed some cars parked to the side. This could've been the small parking he was talking about, but it didn't look like an official parking at all. I was hesitant to park there. Around the side was another office building with a normal, easily accessible parking lot. I parked there instead. I only had to walk through some bushes and lawn to reach my office building. Thank goodness it didn't rain earlier, or my lawn hike could've stained my business outfit. I entered the building on time. SWI Digital was on the 10th floor. At floor 4 someone entered the elevator. Oops, I walked out thinking it was the 10th floor. The guy who walked in noticed I looked confused.
Guy in elevator: "Is this your floor?"
Me: (notices it's the wrong floor) "Ah, no." (enters) "Thanks for pointing that out, I was thinking of something else."
Guy in elevator: "It's okay, this happens at least once a day."

Fortunately, that was the only mishap my interview anxiety caused. By the way, I was equipped with my portfolio site burned onto a CD-R (to give), a print-out of my resume in a manila folder (to give), a clip board with paper, and a pen. Thank goodness I kept all my direction/address papers with me! I would've been screwed without the office suite number. So I entered the office and had to fill a job application. The kind that ask for contact info, if you've ever been arrested, if you've ever been in the army, education info, and contact info/address/duties/salary/dates of the past four jobs. I had to fill out similar papers for the Brandsmart job. It's a good sign that SWI Digital is a big company. Well, I didn't expect this and didn't have such detailed info about my previous employment in my memory banks (do'h!). I filled out what I could. There was a cool black girl there waiting with me. She was also there for an interview, for 3 PM, but she said she didn't remember the job title.

William enters the scene and the interview began. It took place in a meeting room. The interview flowed nicely. William was nice, welcoming, enthusiastic, passionate toward the company, and kept a positive atmosphere the whole time with a smile and the occasional joke. I felt comfortable. My anxiety only made me stumble on a few words and ramble too long when I attempted to describe how I think differently. William only asked me a few questions. To avoid having him be the only one talking, I was replying to his conversation as much as I could. I think I did a good job doing so. He never asked me the famous "Tell me a little about yourself" question. He was jotting down some notes on my resume and I was dying to know what they were. He asked me two questions that I didn't expect:
"On a scale of one to ten, how well do you know Dreamweaver?"
"On a scale of one to ten, how well do you know Flash?"
I replied to both with an explanation first, then the score.
"Dreamweaver? I'm definitely familiar with all the features that work with HTML and CSS. I don't know any dynamic languages like PHP and SQL, so I'm not familiar with the features that work with them. I would say, 7."
"Flash? I know all of the features that pertain to the GUI. Yeah, I'm definitely past the GUI and strong with the basics. I'm a little weak with Actionscript. As a programming language it's not easy to learn. I would also give it a 7."

I wish I would've said "Excluding Actionscript, I'm a definite 10 with Flash. But including Actionscript, I'd say a 7." As I said in a previous entry, one should avoid saying anything negative during a job interview. In this case I felt I had to. I wanted him to know why I deserve a high number of 7 and why I don't deserve a 10, to set an equal foundation for the score. During the middle of the interview, the person above William, Dana, came in. She said she wanted to meet me. :D She also said she loves my Flash work. I told her I have a copy of my portfolio site. She replied "Oh, anything new?" - yes there is! ;D I added a sexy new Flash animation. It's a bunch of geometric animated designs doing its thing with a dance song in the background. Eventually, I'm going to add it to Illustrated Ramblings in a new Flash section I'm working on. Since it's running at 15 fps (for better quality animation) I had to convert it to a large movie clip for my portfolio site because it's running at 12 fps. In Flash if you import a Flash movie into another one that's set to a different frame rate, it'll play at the different frame rate. So in my case, importing a 15 fps movie into a 12 fps movie makes it play much slower. Anyway, he explained that if I'm hired I'll be paid $12/h for 90 days until an evaluation that'll decide if I'll be promoted to an official employee with an official salary, or given the boot. I agreed, of course. Hell, if he asked me to kneel down as he unzipped his pants, I'd agree to that too. I need work! And this is a great, booming company that pays good money. If they hire me, I'd be in the same status as my brothers, who both have great-paying IT jobs at successful companies. At one point in the interview, he mentioned a second time he enjoyed my Silent Hill parody trailer (first time was during the previous phone call). Ah. ^^; That means he explored quite a big chunk of my site. Thankfully, it's obvious he's okay with perverted humor. Or else he probably would've never called me, thinking I'm some sort of sicko. XD Like Sabra (the boss lady) from my production internship, William was also honest and saw right through me. He told me flat-out that I am lacking in experience, but followed by saying he does like my work. That's the only negative thing he said throughout the interview. I wasn't bothered since everything else he said was positive.

I think the interview went well. Nothing bad happened. Afterwards he gave me a tour of the place. It's a fairly big company. They probably have half of the floor. I was very satisfied with this office. There were many employees and the atmosphere is very professional, and professionally casual. Web design is one of many things they do. Their customer service and sales department was the largest. Fortunately, though, the design department was a room with four desks and two employees present. I wouldn't like to have to work with like 10 other web designers. After the tour the interview was officially concluded. He'll call me in 1-2 days if I was considered. The following is a list of every good fact about this interview experience that is in my favor:

• William and Dana both told me they're happy with my work. William gave me compliments on multiple occasions. He even directly told me "We like you" as he concluded the interview. My portfolio website definitely helped in this aspect. No, not just "helped", more like, I wouldn't have been considered for interview if I didn't have it.
• Dana, the person above William, took the time to come and meet me during the interview, saying "I wanted to meet you."
• William gave me a tour of the place after the actual interview. My mom and brother both agree that's a good sign that they want me.

And the bad:

• I didn't completely fill out the application form. I forgot to ask if he would like me to bring in or e-mail the missing information in my previous employment references.
• The secretary said I didn't have to fill out the previous employment references part if they were on my resume. I guess I didn't hear her the first time around. Given that evidence, I guess it's okay that I didn't fully fill them out. Then again, it asked for info like a full address, numbers, names, and salary, stuff that's not on my resume.
• He did point out my lack of experience.

In conclusion, I must say this is the best and most promising company I've come across out of the five months looking for that shining after-college job. It's everything I could ask for, and more. It would be so perfect if they hired me. It would be like the cherry on the cake, a justification for the job-related hardships I've had to endure these past five months. In other words, a happy ending. Companies like this make me so glad the other companies I've applied for didn't hire me, because there was always some sort of drawback or complaint. Like, the job from my first interview was too ghetto and casual. The job with Cimetta Design was in a freakin garage. The Brandsmart job would have me making boring newspaper ads. And if my current production internship hired me, I already know I won't be happy doing post production for a living. But not this SWI Digital job, for I have no complaints. I really really reeeeeally hope I get it. I am, of course, taking measures not to get too excited over this, for the possibility that he never calls back.

I'm still very curious how they obtained my resume. There are several possibilities. I want to say Monster or CareerBuilder, but they didn't know about my portfolio site, where one who finds me on Monster or CareerBuilder needs to go to get my resume. Maybe one of the two job placement places I was somewhat in contact with referred me. Maybe my university referred me. Also, they had an older version of my resume from two weeks ago (I added my production internship to my references). That means they've been holding onto my older resume for a while. Or maybe that someone who referred me was still holding onto my older resume. One things for sure, I definitely intend to ask if I'm called.

■May 14, 2006 - Internship!

[Mood:Relieved] That's it! That's the answer I've been looking for--internship! It is the answer to the question "How the heck am I supposed to get a job if everyone wants experience?" Given the evidence, it's not easily possible for someone with limited relevant experience (like me >.< ) to get a good job that pays well. However, there's a back door into those good companies, and it's called internship. Here's what I've learned about internships so far.

Benefits:
• For those who lack experience, in many case it's the only way a good company will give you the light of day.
• Gives you the invaluable opportunity to show a potential employer that you really do know your stuff.
• In addition to the above, they'll likely hire you if you've impressed them. If this internship was with a good company, employment with them means you've achieved what many other people in your position haven't: get a good job with good pay early in your career.
• I'll try my best to explain this one. I'd say college just teaches how to do things. They can only give hints about how things work in the real world. Internship shows exactly how it's supposed to be done. For example, knowing how to use Photoshop and using Photoshop professionally are two completely different things, in more ways than you may think.

Drawbacks:
• Internships almost always do not pay. Yes, that really sucks. So far I've only seen government internships offer a salary.
• Some places offer internship as a means to get free labor. Be careful! They might even not teach you anything. They might just have you work on whatever you can with the experience you already have. They'll never hire you if you impress them. When the internship is done (or if you quit) they'll just get another intern.

So anyway, recent events have induced all this talk of internship. Before, I thought internship was a waste of time; "I already know how to design! I don't need it!" But recently I thought "Dammit, I'm tired of being judged solely on my experience and having the door slammed on my face so often because of it. At this point it's really pissing me off. Based on my progress through college, it's evident that my abilities surpass normal designers, yet I'm still looking for work. I'm supposed to be at an advantage here! Someone like me deserves to get a good job that pays well. How can I show potential employers what I'm really capable of? Resumes and interviews aren't enough. There must be some other way. There has to be. Some sort of way to make potential employers look past my resume. A way to get my existence and abilities known in a good company." Then the answer suddenly hit me--internship! It does exactly that.

I researched the internet for all local ad agencies. To my surprise, there aren't that many. All the big companies seem to be either a 45-60 min's drive north or a 45-60 min's drive south; my area is sandwiched between them. Some of these companies I found had crappy work posted on their site. I don't want to waste my time with places that make websites that look like time capsules from 1995. I only called the ones I approved of. I called them in order of the closest location. Obviously, I don't want to be driving far if I'm going to be working for free. The first ad agency I called said they don't offer internships yet. The second ad agency said their web design is in affiliation with a company in another state (dammit!), and that currently they only offer marketing internships. The third was a production company, and I got my first "yes!" :D They offer internships (without pay, of course). This place is Paradise Video & Film. Although their website isn't a good reflection of it, they're a successful, well renowned company. I met with the head lady, Sabra, the next day and started the next. Everyone there is kind, very knowledgeable and professional. So yeah, I am officially an intern. If you're thinking "Production? I thought you were into graphic/web design..." well, I love many things. :) In the genre of production, I'm into post-production, which is basically just animation and video editing. Anyway, this is a casual internship. I can come as much as I want, pretty much. So far I've only had to do a little bit of work. I've mainly been watching them work, asking questions and taking notes. As a production company, they put together videos for people. This week they've been working on a video for a big-time ATV company to show to their employees some companies that love their products. I've learned a great deal! Now I know how documentary-style TV shows are put together. This is how it works, not necessarily in this exact order:

1. The camera man and producer work together to capture the person (or people) who is in focus doing stuff. Like if it was a famous mechanic, they would capture him working on his car and doing daily activities. This is called "B footage", and they capture a whole lot of it! They might capture hours of footage when the actual program will only be 5-20 minutes.
2. They interview the person in focus in front of the camera. Same as above, this interview will be much longer than the length of the program.
3. The editor converts all the footage to digital format (raw movie clips). Fun fact: Professionals still use tapes. The quality of a professional camera tape (looks like a huge VHS tape) is far better than even HD DVD or Blu-ray (one of the two will be the next generation DVD).
4. The editor and producer work together to grab all the relevant and most highlighted parts of the interview and B footage.
5. Depending on the type of this documentary, a voice talent might be hired to do a narration.
6. The editor busts his ass to make all the cut sequences blend together smoothly. He adds music, adjusts audio, adds captions, adds animations, and adds transitions. During the whole program, only the interviewer and/or narrator will be talking. The editor continues to work with the producer to decide on which sequences should play during various parts of the talking. They try to play sequences that directly relate to the talking. Like if a guy is talking about his family, they would show shots of his family.

That's the gist of it. Again, I'm learning a great deal from these people! This is much better than sitting at home doing nothing. I do love it, but I'm not sure if I'd want to do this every day. Editing is a very repetitious procedure. It hardly demands any creativity. A web design internship would've been better, but, unfortunately, there isn't any other worthwhile company nearby. This production company was pretty much the last option on my list. Naturally, I've still been looking for work during this internship. I have a student loan in the eight-digits that I need to pay off. If I still can't find work and this place eventually pops me with the "Hey, want to get hired with us?" question, I'd go for it. If they don't want to hire me (it doesn't look like they need someone), I'm sure they have connections that'll help me out.

In conclusion, I highly recommend that you get an internship to jump start your career! (although in my case I'm just using it to help me find work ^^; )

■April 20, 2006 - Employer "images"?

[Mood:Still annoyed] Yes, 95% of my 2006 journal have been about my job hunt and various related  philosophy I've been gathering. I have nothing better to do and that's all that's been on my mind these past several months. >_<

The other day I talked to my brother about how useless my college degree is. He reminded me that it took him 8 months to find his shining after-college job. He said it doesn't matter how many degrees I have, how much work experience I have, how many programs I know, my personality, etc. That every potential employer has a certain image of the kind person they want to hire, a theory about "employer images." That could explain some of my mishaps. Although I think this theory mainly applies to interviews when you actually meet the employer face to face, because a resume by itself isn't capable of showing much of an image. One's appearance immediately shows the potential employer their general age, sex, general personality, and some habits. I think at that moment the potential employer already decides "I like this person" or "I don't like this person" - because they already know one's experience/skills from reading their resume beforehand. The interview is the chance to improve the odds of whatever first impression was made.

It's tempting to believe "equal opportunity" is BS. In a previous job I applied to, I only saw females there. When I called to inquire if I was considered for the job, it was revealed that a female was hired. In the Brandsmart interview, the lady perked up when I said I was Latin. In the Cimetta interview with that awful deranged man, he was obviously being prejudice with my age (which I now know those were illegal interview questions).

This week is officially "Leave Alex in the Dark Week." Since Brandsmart never called, I sent them an e-mail inquiring about their decision to hire me or not. They never gave me their number (I should've asked when I had the chance). I called some Brandsmart stores to ask for the number to the warehouse, and they said it's a number they're not allowed to give out. Great. It's been a week so I guess their answer is no. My university hooked me up with a graphic/web job for Explosive Image. I sent them my portfolio site and PDF resume. It's been a week and no reply. I've applied to a total of 5 online job ads this week. As you guessed, I got no reply. I e-mailed a fellow student I've somewhat kept in touch with if they wanted to carpool with me to the graduation ceremony tomorrow. Ah, and no reply.

In lighter news, I put up some of my photography. :D Yes, I can do photography as well. Art photography is curiously challenging. It revolves around patience and analyzing your surroundings. I posted some of these in my online portfolio. I hope they'll help increase my odds of an interview call. And it might even hinder an interview call for employers who'd rather have someone who focuses on one thing instead of several.

■April 4, 2006 - Experience > college degree

[Mood:Annoyed] It's getting close to the 4-month mark of my job search. I don't know about other fields, but with graphic/web design, and other jobs that call for artistic talent, a college degree is as worthless as a piece a paper when it's not coupled with work experience. The only good it's done for me is allowed me to apply to some job ads that required it. I'd say only 20-30% of all job ads list it as a requirement. Not even a bachelors, most are satisfied with an associates. Everyone wants at least 2-4 years of work experience. Sheesh. If I didn't have a college degree and had 2 years of solid work experience, I would've gotten a good job back in January. Even internships want experience! Yes they do - the two I applied to did. I also learned that those two calls I got last week were not because of my portfolio site (that's a "to show off" version, with the links to my resume purposely broken). Both jobs were because they saw my resume. It was just mere coincidence that I received two calls the same week I completed my portfolio site (I hardly get calls at all). So what about my Fantasyanime.com? Does it amaze potential web design employers? Not at all. The notion is like this:

Me: "In my spare time I maintain FantasyAnime.com. I've been working on it since '98, and it attracts around 5,000 unique visitors every day..."
Potential employer: (not impressed) "That's nice. What work experience do you have? Are there any websites you designed from previous jobs that are online?"

Right now all I can look forward to is the Brandsmart graphic design job. They said they would call me in a week or two if I was considered for the position. I would prefer a graphic/web design job, but at this point I'll take either. I'm still applying to several new job ads every week. I wish they were other graphic designers like the awesome one from SirSpeedy's. He says "Experience? Ha! I know some graphic designers who've been doing it their whole life and they just produce tacky, overly simple designs. What matters is talent. A lot of designers lie about their experience anyway, so I don't think it's good to weigh on it so much when hiring."

■March 30, 2006 - Third job interview!

[Mood:Ecstatic] First, I hath been enlightened about the ways of interviewing. The other day when I went to do a few errands at my university, I decided to stop by career services and speak to my favorite advisor. I told him about my previous interviews. He gave me very useful interview advice. So much that I was in a bewildered state when I left. I've been doing things incorrectly. I learned the following:

• Avoid one-word answers at all costs.
• Entry-level people must never give employers a desired salary. Rather, reply to the salary question with a "I trust your company will compensate me fairly for my work"
• Negative and/or potentially negative questions must be given a positive answer. For example:
Q: "Is all this work from school?"
A: "Yes, and I have years of hands-on experience behind it. For the majority of our projects we worked in groups. My teachers did graphic design for corporations..."
• Avoid using "but", "however", "although" or other negative wording unless it's necessary.
• Smile.

My advisor gave me a special career magazine for entry-level people going into business or design, and some interview help papers. I learned even more from them:

• Graphic/web designers must have a portfolio site - it's required. If you don't have one, you're hurting your odds.
• Ask THE question! The MAGICAL question!! And that question is this: "What are the key skills you feel are required for success in this position?" It is an opening question. It will reveal to you the hidden desires of the potential employer, the very things they're looking for in you. Next you need to tell them that you have all those skills, and in as much detail as you can possibly conjure.
• It's perfectly okay to bring a clip board or notebook to take notes or read a few questions from it.
• 99% of the time, the infamous "tell me about yourself" question will be asked. Take advantage of it; prepare a summary that'll last you a couple minutes and memorize it. Everything you say needs to reflect your skills, abilities, and talents.

And here are things I already do:

• At the beginning of the interview, present a copy of your resume in a manila folder for the employer to keep.
• Bring a pen!

So yah, I am enlightened! I slaved away for three days to make my portfolio site (that's a "to show off" version, with the links to my resume purposely broken). In my Career Builder and Monster profiles, I replaced my desired salary with 0. I also added 10 years of experience to them. Yeah, why not? Technically I have 10 years of experience with design. I've been using Photoshop and working on my site for that long. It's not work experience, but it's good experience, I think. Ever since I did that, my profile has been showing that my resume is appearing in a lot more employer searches. That goes to show most employers enter years in their search criteria.

Anyway, so I had my third interview. It was with Brandsmart, a major chain in south Florida that sells appliances and electronics. I replied to their graphic designer job ad on Sunday, and they called on Tuesday for an interview on Wednesday morning. I'd say the interview went well. I acted out everything I recently learned about proper interviewing. The lady was nice. I felt comfortable. I was positive the whole time. They'll call me in 2-3 weeks if I'm considered for the job.

On Tuesday I got another call, this time from a job placement agency, Affinity Consulting Group. They were calling about a job that was a blast from the past! First, take note of my March 8th entry, the 2nd paragraph, where I complain about how some job ads ask for a Bill Gates/Leonardo da Vinci. That information came from a real job ad. It's for a "Flash developer" position. At the beginning of this month, Affinity sent me and a bunch of other people an e-mail about this Flash developer position. I had to decline it since I'm not a freakin programming genius. Apparently that employer is still looking for someone, because Affinity called me about it with their Tuesday call. From the way he worded it, this Flash developer position wasn't necessarily looking for a programming genius, that they mainly wanted someone really creative. (raises hand) I'm very creative! Yes I am I am. I agreed to go for it. The guy asked me to e-mail him a MS Word version of my resume. And so I did. Then he asked me to send him a version of my MS Word resume with descriptions describing what I did in my previous freelance jobs. And so I did. Then he replied saying "After reviewing your information, we feel you're not solid for the position..." WTF! He left me with the impression that he already approved of my resume and that he'll forward the MS Word version over to the potential employer. This was like a slap in the face. However, coincidentally, my mom was home on Tuesday and listened in on the call. I told her about this, and she told me he did hint that Affinity would review it. Well, I was still spiteful about it and wanted to do something. I discussed it with my auntie. She gave me an earful about how unprofessional that was to just say "you're not solid." In a nutshell, she told me to ask the guy to clarify. And so I did. The guy replied saying "No problem. Tomorrow I'll send you the details. Thank you for following up and asking for feedback - it means a lot." So my auntie's advice turned things for the better. :) I told my mom what I wanted to do and what ended up happening. She said it's best to always leave a positive note. That it will keep my network solid, because I'll never know who will bring me that shining job.

One thing's for sure, I'm glad I always ask others for advice before I make a serious decision. If you've read my previous entries, you would know I've brought my family into all of my job-related decisions. I'm especially glad I had that talk with my career services advisor. Doing this made me learn a great deal of useful things quickly. All of a sudden I've gone from not-so-good interviewee to great interviewee. Now, the reason why my first interview went so well, making me seem like a l33t interviewee, was because from the very beginning they wanted me.

■March 17, 2006 - Second job interview!

[Mood:Flustered] So there's this design company nearby, Cimetta Design. I mean really nearby, like 3 minutes away from me. It's a home business that makes all the tacky local magazines we get in the mail. These magazines are a good example of "photoshop abuse."

photoshop abuse (fō'tōshõp e-byōōz')
  1. Slang.
      Overuse of Adobe Photoshop's filters, further making a poor quality design even
      worse. It is often seen in junk mail. For example, applying multiple effects to a
      single text layer, like so:
       

Each time I found one of their magazines in the mail, I would say to myself "Well, if I can't find a job after a long time, then I'll apply to this place and surely get hired since my abilities far surpass them. (while looking for a better job, of course)" Well, it's been a long time, and I applied to them at Monster.com. This is their second job ad at Monster.com. I distinctly remember their first job ad. They posted a low salary and specified that at least technical school experience was sufficient (that's peanuts). [For those of you tuning in just now, it's been three months since I graduated college, searching for that shining after-college job with no luck.] From looking at Cimetta's portfolio, I learned they also do web design, logos, illustrations, and even 3D. And some of it is pretty good. I approved. It was earlier this week that I applied to their online job ad. I called them today to ask if I had been considered for interview. Soon after the boss called back and asked me if I can come on over - now. Goodness, that was quick! Here I am at the computer practically in my underwear, and I'm spontaneously called to an interview. I had to shave and get ready in a blink. As explained in the 2/22 entry, home business are expected to be crappy. But I'm willing to take 'em for experience as I look for a better job. So yeah, I got ready and went to the house. I knocked on the front door. The wife told me I had to go to the garage since that's where the business is (the husband/boss didn't tell me that). So I went to the garage and entered. The whole business was literally in the garage. Tables surrounded the walls with six computers on them. There were five people around my age stationed at the computers. This atmosphere was very casual. Two employees were even trashy goths. The boss wasn't present; I had to sit at the middle table and wait. The employees were cracking strange jokes to me, especially the obese one nearest to me. Naturally, I was nervous, and that wasn't helping. As expected of a home business, this was a very unprofessional environment. I would soon learn that their interviewing was also unprofessional. Eventually, the boss walked in. He did so with a straight, serious expression. This was odd, because he seemed like a humorous person over the phone. WE DID NOT LEAVE THIS ROOM FOR THE INTERVIEW. My god, this man interviewed me in the same room where all his five employees were present. Combined with the boss' serious attitude, I felt very uncomfortable. Here's a run-down, watered-down version of the interview to give you a general idea how it went:

Me: (notices the boss isn't sure how to start) "...I have my portfolio" (proceeds to show it; the boss doesn't give any comments) (finishes showing it)
Boss: "AIU teaches graphic design? Where are they? How long is it? What do they teach?"
Me: "Yes. Weston. It's 2 years, accelerated. They teach graphic/web design, illustration, photography, and multimedia. That's what makes up my degree."
Boss: "But do they teach web design?"
Me: "Yes. And I have HTML and CSS memorized."
Boss: "Do they teach portfolio?"
Me: "Yes. Since portfolio is so important, it spanned two classes." (at this point I'm getting the impression that he's disappointed and feels AIU isn't teaching properly)
Boss: "Is all your portfolio work projects from AIU?"
Me: "Yes."
Boss: "Have you been an intern anywhere? Have you ever worked in a studio?"
Me: "No."
Boss: "I thought schools set people up with that. Well, I must say that your portfolio really lacks in variety. How much are you expecting to be paid per hour?"
Me: (short pause) "Around $25."
Boss: (takes a glance at the resume) "For someone starting out, you're asking for a lot."
Me: "Or I can take your best offer." (short pause) "I have 10 years of experience with Photoshop and several years of experience with Illustrator, Flash..."
Boss: "I still have other people to interview"

And it ended there. That's the gist of it. He asked more questions about AIU than that. It was as if he was thinking about coming there himself. This interview made me feel awful. He didn't give me any positive comments. The whole time he had a serious, unwelcoming attitude. I don't recall him ever smiling. My college degree didn't seem to mean much to him. With the intern questions, he indirectly suggested "Why are you applying for a full-time job if you've never been an intern?" He didn't leave me encouraged to work there at all. I felt like saying "Look, get off that high horse. Your business is in a garage and your staff is made up of five people my age, whom I'm sure still live with their parents for obvious reasons. You're in no position to have such high standards." To top it off, he concluded the interview with a soft hand shake. Something definitely crawled up his ass and died. Maybe my college degree somehow offended him. Maybe he was angry that he's too busy with work to study (jealously). Maybe, in some strange way, this is what he thinks is the best way to interview people.

My mom was the first person I spoke to afterwards. She said she's never heard of an interview taking place with the current employees present (she's a high school business ed teacher), and can imagine how much anxiety that can cause. Indeed. It was unprofessional. Bah well, this is what I get for applying to a home business. My father got all excited when I told him about the interview. Reason being, he was happy I got such an educational experience. I just hope I don't get anymore interviews like this. Getting slapped around like that isn't fun.

■March 8, 2006 - PORN?! And other job ramblings

[Mood:Pissy] Ugh. So the other day I reply to five job ads and one actually sent me a reply for an interview. This would be my first official job interview request from a net job ad. I was so excited with the e-mail that I wanted to look through the job ad before I read it (I have every job ad I reply to bookmarked). Apparently the first time I read it I skimmed through it too quickly, because this time around I spotted "adult entertainment" all over it. I opened up the e-mail and "adult entertainment" was all over it as well. Yep, it was a pornography company. Of all places. >_< I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry. It's too risky to work for a porn company. Employers want to know where and exactly what you did in your previous experience. Some are okay with porn experience while others are not. It's a gamble I can't afford to take.

There's something that really pisses me off about certain job ads, when they ask for a designer/programmer. Okay, wtf? Those are two completely different sides of the brain! One particular job ad I came across had this in an extreme. It was a lengthy; they went into detail about the kind of extremely talented designer they wanted, "who also knows XML, XHTML, advanced Flash Actionscript, ASP, PHP, Macromedia server, Macromedia Flex... able to produce complex web applications..." yadda yadda - the whole shebang! First of all, that employer is more likely to win the lottery three times in a row than find someone who meets those prerequisites. I understand employers do this on purpose to get the best person - but geez! These people aimed far too high.

I spoke over the phone for the first time with an acquaintance from college; Jen. Jen had been struggling to find work, but for the most part was doing pretty good with a certain temp agency in Miami. Jen's really nice and wanted to help me out by referring me to this temp agency. She recommended me for a certain graphic design job that pays $20/h, and the temp agency wanted me to come on over. I talked it over with my family and looked it up at MapQuest map. It turns out this place is a little over an hour's drive away from me. I called the temp lady and I told her I wouldn't be coming. A while later she called back saying "I'm not sure Jen explained to you that we're a temp agency. The job is in a different location.", but it's still far. I don't want to spend the coming months bouncing around South Miami doing temp jobs, making 45-75 minute drives. I just want one full-time job that I can keep.

So Jen and I exchanged our experiences so far. Here's what we agreed on:

• Employers have "previous experience" favoritism.
Ex: Person-A used to design for an electronics company and is very talented. Person-B used to design for a sporting goods company and is soso talented. If Person-A and Person-B apply to a job for a sporting goods company, Person-B will be the one likely to be hired. But why not Person-A since he's more talented? Ah well, Person-B is the one with sporting goods experience.

• In relation to the above statement, employers want catered portfolios. They want a taste of what you can do for them. If you're applying for a sports equipment company, showing them a portfolio with sports equipment design samples will improve the probability of hiring, even if those samples were ones you made yourself just for this interview.

• Employers have "family & friends" favoritism.
Ex: Person-A is a talented designer. He applies for a job. This potential employer likes Person-A, but wants to interview more people before they consider Person-A. Person-B comes along and applies for the job; Person-B is a soso talented designer. It just so happens that Person-B is the son of someone the potential employer knows. The potential employer decides to hire Person-B because of that.

• There are employers out there who care more about talent than job experience; although rare, they do exist.

• Maybe it's because south FL is one of the most crowded areas in the US, maybe it's because of south FL's heavy Latin influence... I'm not sure exactly why, but south FL's employers are very cheap. Half of the job ads I've come across are temporary. Jen says most of the jobs she's come across are temporary. Think about it, it's much cheaper to hire someone who already has Photoshop and stuff at home. The employer doesn't have to hassle with paying for their insurance, benefits, supplies, or anything else. And I thought $30,000 was pretty low, many job ads I've come across are offering $25,000-$28,000. Meanwhile, some lady in a small town up north is making $60,000 doing company Christmas cards and the usual bundle of graphic design tasks (for real!). What the hell?! Salary.com says I'm supposed to be making $45,000-$60,000 with my first job! >_<

Ugh, thinking about this makes me depressed. Am I really destined to make pennies with graphic/web design? Everyone (before I went job searching) kept on saying how well it pays. Dammit, college makes you leave so hopeful. The teachers hype you up making you think the skies the limit. Colleges advertise on TV "And when you graduate, our career services will have you working with a great job that you love in no time! OMG" Yeah right, career services is a joke. "I'll have you working in 2 weeks" my ass.

■February 22, 2006 - First job interview!

[Mood:Ecstatic] I got my first job interview! Er, not my very first interview. Just the first since I graduated college. So yeah, this was actually two interviews. This is for a web design job for some marketing company that mainly deals with yacht brokers. This was actually due to my brother's friend referring me (note: I have yet to receive word from any of the job ads I've replied to). The first interview took place on Friday 2/17. It was a casual interview at Starbucks. The boss was actually a young guy. His tanned skin and exotic goatee made him look like a surfer. To top it off, he had a European accent. You never hear that in Florida! His appearance was a pleasant surprise, because I was expecting some scary old fart. The interview went along nicely. Charl (that's his name) was