Unlikely wrote:

I will cross my fingers with you since I am awake and being forced to watch Sarah and Duck.

Hope Sarah and Duck is going well. Or, has gone well.

Interview seemed fine, and they’re now onto the visa stuff. Had to push them hard to take the visa issues seriously and they’re now on overdrive about it. Should be able to get materials together and know what to do by Monday. So, it’s looking...ok. Maybe. Still up in the air, as there is no formal offer yet - they’ll wait until we can get the visa materials together - but they’re gonna try and get me that sweet, sweet work visa.

Also, their office is dope and there are games everywhere. Plus, everyone is a massive nerd. Walked into the building and the first guy I met was dressed head to toe in Pikachu gear.

acemuzzy wrote:

Dude not good phrasing

Oh right. Actually unintentional. Soz, H.

Anyway, see how you feel. But in the long term, make sure this isn't even a question.

You didn't see my response did you

What?

I've got a job. 
I don't post much, if any personal stuff here, because I'm a bit old fashioned when it comes to private life and the web. 
But I voluntarily left a freelance position last year and decided it was time to look for a full time job in my line of work which is graphic design. 
I decided I couldn't face working in a agency so after freelancing in companies with their own in-house design depts I know that's what I wanted. I also wanted to do creative stuff but not be under creative pressure ALL the time so I thought I'll go for a Creative Artworker position because I have something like 20 years print design experience.
Could I get a job? Could I bollocks.

It's been the most frustrating, head scratching experience of my life.
In the first week after I left, I applied for three jobs and got three interviews, the first at the British Museum and the second at Sky and the third at a small place in South London.
The British Museum was an interesting position, interview went well but I didn't get it - fair enough.
Then the very next day I went to the Sky interview. I loved the place, loved the manager and the interview went really, really well, I got a second interview, there was talk of when I worked here I'd be doing this etc... Then... It fell through. The actually story is far too long even for this already large wall of text.

The third interview was good, I wasn't particularly interested in this job and the work was repetitive and relentless but the interviewer seemed keen and basically hinted that if I did a quick test, at another date, the job was mine. I turned that down for more than a few reasons.

Then after this initial couple of really positive weeks, nothing... I don't mean it went a bit slack, I mean absolutely nothing.
Weeks of not hearing anything from quite a few applications turned into months... And months.
Now I'm lucky, I don't have a mortgage and as a freelancer you have to have saving just in case this happens so I was, at first, ok. But the months kept disappearing and nothing. Not a single interview.

I've been applying for jobs that I'm completely and utterly 100% qualified for. Jobs I'd been doing for 6 years. I'd been tailoring my covering letters to emphasise this, I applied for a job at Square Enix UK creating game sleeves, something I had done for over 10 years for Sony Pictures but for movies so the parallels were astounding (there's probably only about 10 people in London right now that are just as qualified as me to do this job and I trained 4 of them) - nothing. 90% of the time not even a rejection letter.

WTF is going on?
I'm starting to look for reasons, is it my age? I'm 46 maybe that's why, they want someone younger, hungrier.
Am I now starting to see ageism creeping into my life?
You very rarely see older designers, unless they are in senior positions, so is this now my time to hang up the mouse?
Is it my CV?
Are they seeing the senior position I held for a long time and it's affecting my chances negatively?
Maybe I should change that part of my CV so it just says 'designer' and not Creative Director...

And the months keep dropping off the calendar.

Then a little light at the end of the tunnel. I get a call from an employment agency, they've got a client that have been sent my CV and love it, they'd like to see me but can I just do this little test first?
Yeh sure, send it over.
I get it, open it up, there's no context and the file is an 8 page brochure. But the file is set up incorrectly to print as 8 pages. Ok I can easily correct this but when I do there's no cover and the spreads are now screwed up and look shite. But it will now print correctly at least.
So I type some notes in the side of the file, explain what I've done and my reasons why and I say if I were in-house I would immediately query this file as it's obviously only half the job.
And nothing.
Silence.

They obviously think I've done something wrong and now can't be arsed interviewing me. They also now think they are completely correct to give out this test because this guys CV says he's been doing this for 20 years and he can't even set a simple 8 page doc, we dodged a bullet there.

Wtf. The test was bullshit.

Doubt starts to creep in, an article on imposter syndrome is posted in the forum... I'm a shit designer/artworker, maybe I should just apply for a retail job at B&Q, I hear they employ old people.

Then about three weeks ago I see a job that I've been doing for 6 years. A job I'm really qualified for and good at. A job I've applied for elsewhere and not got a sniff at. A job for a large company that a friend of mine applied to last year and had a horrible interview experience with.
I dithered on whether or not to apply a) because I'm not sure I could handle yet another out of hand rejection for a job I'm incredibly qualified for and b) this interview process my friend went through was truly awful. I don't need both knocks to my confidence right now.

I applied. Fuck it, I won't get an interview anyway.

After a couple of weeks I got an interview scheduled for another couple of weeks away.
That was something at least.
The interview was the Monday just gone.
I prepare myself with a little bit of company history and product history, I write notes and answers based on the '12 most asked interview questions', I walk in, sit down and had the best, most relaxed most informal interview I've ever had.
No awkward questions, no grilling, no trying to catch me out, just a getting to know me chat and it was a breath of fresh air. The two art directors were the nicest people I've met for a long time, no egos, no polo neck, jumpers it was great.
Im in the gym on Tuesday morning (seriously, I started going to the gym at the best time, its the only thing that stopped me doing something very stupid during some tough times) thinking I should email HR a courtesy email because I got great vibes off this place and I don't want them to think I wasn't keen. But when I get home there's an email from HR asking me to arrange an interview/meeting with the company MD.
YESSSSSS.
Shit - the MD!
I arrange it as quickly as possible, I want this limbo period over with asap.
So this weds I went and met the MD. I was a little nervous but the receptionist I'd been chatting to on Monday was giving me hints, tips and advice before I went in.
It turns out the MD was the nicest most enthusiastic guy you could want for an MD. We chatted for about an hour about books we'd both just happened to read last year and both loved and without further ado he offered me the job. Didn't even look at my portfolio, he trusted his art directors, met me and that was good enough for him.

So I'm now, finally, after nearly 10 months (yes, 10) about to start a new job with Penguin - Transworld. Decent money, decent perks, interesting, varied work and from what I can tell a lovely place with great people.
I'm over the moon.
I received an email off the art director yesterday saying he's found out I accepted the jobs and he's made up and... Yay.
And every interaction with these people from the HR through the receptionist all the way up to the MD has been good vibes all the way.

I'm so effing relieved.

Sorry that turned into a huge post. But I've been bottling it up and dealing with it for nearly a year.
So that was my cathartic release.

*edit
Typo stuff.

Nice one Panty, really pleased for you.

Well done, mate!

The journey to where you are sounded proper tough, so well done for not giving up all hope.

Thanks guys. 
It's affected every aspect of my life but now I'm just so relieved, my mood, everything, its like somebody has flicked a switch and everything is now different.

Ha, COMING SOON TO HBO. 
Panty's Story.

Nice one panty, I strangely now know three people at Penguin

Well in Panty.

Great news panty. If it doesn't work out though you should try your hand at writing.

Well done Panty. Always enjoy a post like that.

Great job panty!

Also hello to my fellow night shift workers!
I’m 8 hours into a 10 hour shift, looking at a 2am finish if all goes smoothly!

Had applied for an academic research position in Frankfurt at the beginning of the year. Typically for these positions I wasn't due to find out the result until July. Now I've been told there's been a delay - because they couldn't get independent reviews in time - and now they'll tell me in November.

It's not even a surprise. I'm actually getting used to spending weeks putting together these applications and then waiting 6 months+ for a rejection. It all relies on getting expert opinions from other academics in your field on your past research and project proposal, but all those academics have tons of other stuff to do, from teaching and marking to references and conferences to their own research and publishing.

They have so much to do it's no wonder these things get put to the bottom of the pile. And I'm trying to become one of them? It seems like I'm trying to get into a really exclusive club even when I know full well it'd make me miserable. The money's not even good for the amount of work involved.

I just want to write at this stage. If I could make it pay enough to live on, I'd happily take that.

The one good thing is that I know I won't be starting any of these jobs for a good while now, so a move to Ankara is on the cards, at least for 6 months or so. It'll be good to get out of sleepy Cyprus.