The Scarey Job Interview...and the great tv stunt

Job hunting is a demoralizing occupation that eats away at one's soul like acid. After a while you begin to wonder if you can do anything or are worth anything. Employers make you feel like crap. And the interview styles vary from not-so-bad to the nightmare.

My latest was the - "let's scare the applicant shitless job interview". It was for a literary assistant.

The interview took place in a 50 foot skyscraper that shakes. It was on the 36 floor during a wind storm.
The building apparently shakes all the time. People actually take motion sickness pills to work there.
During a wind storm it sounded like it was coming apart at the seams. The interview room - had these nifty plexi-bubble-glass windows that appeared to be only half attached. I got there at 4:30 pm. They were interviewing over 50 people for the position and were barely able to fit me in at 4:30 on a Wed. I get there on time, but they are in a meeting. So I wait for thirty minutes, reading Dorothy Dunnett's Queen's Play, very good book by the way, true life-saver.
Finally called in. The book shelves are filled with NY Times Bestseller stuff - you know Janet Evanovich, Coontes, Jude Devereux, Janet Daily, Binchy, Deepchock Chopra, etc...

The interview starts with them asking me why I'm interested in the position. Tough one. I'm uhm desperate probably won't cut it. So I spout off a bunch of stuff about my love of books and knowledge of literary deals. (I know going in that it's about $24,000-$26,000 a year with medical, zip else.)
Next the two of them, office manager and former literary agent - proceed to tell me that it's a thankless job and explain in detail that you are basically what is politely termed a "personal assistant" - in truth this is all-around-slave. The personal assistant is to the big cheese in the agency (you'd know his name if I mentioned it, he's famous, one of the top guys in the agent biz), the plus side? You get to talk to film industry people and high level authors, etc. The down side? You're a drone. A slave. You field calls from his family. Buy gifts for his wife. Get his coffee. Type his correspondence. And hey, in return he trains you to become an agent yourself. But you have to really want to become an agent to put up with the shit. Last assistant did not work out, but they aren't priveleged to state why.

I call this technique - scare the applicant and see if they are still standing. I still stood. No niave wet-behind the ears kid, here. I know how nasty the entertainment industry is. I know exactly what a personal assistant is and what they do. So I stuck it out. Was let go after about thirty minutes, maybe more. Then rushed home to see Wed night tv which outside of Caberet was the true highlight of my week. I'll know by Friday whether they think I'd be a good candidate for the job. My gut says no. Let go way too quickly. I think they already found their canididate and were just going through the motions. (*Found out on Friday they had filled the position, my guess is they found someone before my interview - they didn't seem that into it.)

On bright side...good tv week. Loved Destiney, see review below. Also posted to the fanboards. So far Angel's Soul Board provided the most interesting responses. Odd. I expected ATPO to. Maybe ATPO is still reeling from the episode? Most of the folks on ASSB are spoiled up to 12. They got past the stuff in 8 ages ago. My live journal also got the most interesting comments. Also enjoyed Smallville.
Interesting twists...didn't expect that. And ER?
There's a stunt in ER that literally rocked. What came afterwards was seriously lame. But the first half-hour build-up and then the stunt? Whoo-Hoo! ( Read more... )

Ugh....

Tense tonight. Actually been tense most of the week.
So got a charlie horse (tightened muscel that won't go away and hurts - also know as leg cramp) in the calf.
Ugh.

Also made the mistake of reading fanboards after ATS 5.8. ( somewhat ranty bit on posters who have nothing better to do than rant, whine, and bash characters )

Watched Joan of Arcadia again tonight. This is rapidly becoming my comfort show. It gives me hope. I was discussing Joan with a friend recently and she wondered why we couldn't have a show about a corporate guy or gal who talks to representatives of God and deals with issues. Why did it always have to be a teenage girl - like Buffy who deals with supernatural or Joan. (I told the friend that actually we had a show that took place in a corporate environment and dealt with corporate problems through metaphor and these issues - it's called Angel, but she retorted, she tried one episode, couldn't get into it and stopped.) Well the reason it's a teenage girl is that more people can identify, then they can identify with corporate environment. Most of us have been in high school, most had bad teachers and annoying principals. Also the key demo is 18-34 year olds. Most people on the other hand have not worked in a corporation and have no clue how to identify with that world. (Heck that probably explains half of the posts on the fanboards about Angel, I get it, I've worked in corporations, but lots of people just haven't.)

The reason Joan gives me hope...is her conversations with God aren't clearly God and God doesn't give her answers so much as questions and assignments. God also doesn't make things easy. But each assignment indirectly leads to Joan inadvertently helping someone...and her reward is the fact she helped them. It doesn't solve her own problems, doesn't give her a reward. And she's complicated. It's very similar in a way to Buffy who slays a demon, can't tell anyone b/c they'll think she's nuts and it usually just complicates her life more.Yes, Joan's a tad more obvious than Buffy, a little sappier, and not as humorous, but it's something at least. Also has a fantastic cast. I call it BTVS for the mainstream/metaphor blind audience. ;-)