Upon graduation
from college I expected to get a job right away. I had my degree in
Radio and Television and was going to work in TV. Thing is though,
there are a very finite number of jobs in Television.
I graduated in
December 2003. Right away I ferreted job boards and industry
websites. I searched for entry level openings. I had no connections.
I never interned. I just had to get my resume out there. I found
one opening reasonably close to my home. It was a station in Shreveport. I sent out my resume and waited.
I got a phone call from the production manager of the station and did
a brief phone interview. Shreveport is 200 miles from my parents
house, so commuting was not an option. I would have to
move if hired.
We talked about my
experience in college. The gentleman told me it was a part-time job
that was overnights and paid minimum wage. Minimum wage? That was
$5.15 an hour! And at like 20 hours a week that's $400 a month pretax! But I wanted to get my foot in the door. I told him that was
fine. I would have to get another part time job during the day to
make rent and eat. He told me that would not work out, I would need
to be very flexible. We were certainly at an impasse. We agreed it
would be a waste of time to come down and interview in person.
That phone
interview really made me dejected. I looked around a bit more and
found a non-TV marketing job. I sent out a resume and quickly got a
call for an interview. It was at a weird location, The Bonham Public
Library. OK, guess they didn't have a physical presence yet.
I put on some
khakis, my cheap black shoes and even tucked in a collard shirt and
drove off to the library. They interviewed candidates in a
conference room. My name was called and I swallowed big and sat
down. There were three young kids there. They were older than me,
but still young. Maybe in their late twenties. Two men and a woman.
They asked me about my experience, college and goals. I told them I
wanted to shoot and edit. They told me that the job didn't involved
that at all, but if they ever needed commercials I'd be their man
(before YouTube and Facebook and online videos). I told them I
understood and made no bones about it. I needed a job to carry me
over until I could get my career going. Speaking of job, what were
you guys?
Then they began
their pitch. The guy in the middle, I'm assuming the main man, asked
if I saw the Corvette in the parking lot. I didn't and I told him
so. “Well it's there, and this business got it for me.” Ugh.
Really? Mommy and Daddy bought him a nice car and he thinks I'm a
“car person” and it will impress me. They sold supplements. I
have no recollection anymore of what it was called or what they
contained. All I know is that they helped people live a healthy
lifestyle. They weren't vitamins, oh no! “You see, if you take
iron or calcium, what's the difference between taking a pill or
eating it in food and just swallowing rocks? It's a scam.”
I told him that I
wasn't a chemist or dietitian but, “I don't think it works like
that.” He paused a beat and went on, “I know right! It doesn't
work at all! These pills...” and I tuned him out. It was all
pseudo science and garbage. He told me that if I built my sales
volume large enough. I could recruit folks to work and sell for me.
I'm a decently
polite person and fought off eye rolls and endured. My gosh I needed
a legit job and here I was letting them waste my time. I made good
eye contact with them hoping to see that I wasn't really there.
At the conclusion
of their spiel they asked if I'd be interested in joining their team.
I wasn't and told them I'm not outgoing and couldn't be an effective
member of their sales force. They said it's okay, they could train
(of course it's okay, I'm sure I would have had to purchase my own
inventory!). If I changed my mind I was invited to attend their
welcoming party at a different location. They'd even have a keg. I
told them thanks and said, “I'd let them know.”
I did not see a
Corvette in the parking lot. What a lying piece of trash. Safe to
say I did not attend a kegger with scammy strangers. I did not
purchase inventory to sell to friends and family. I kept looking for
work until I came across an opening for an editor/photographer at
KXII. Time to get my foot in the door.
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If I had to pick a song to be the soundtrack to this post it would be...
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| Me in 2004 washing my car with my nephew Jakob. |
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