The Prepared Mind Discussion about designing human interaction.

In writing the entry calling for the GD industry to stop eating its young, I was reminded of one of my earliest experiences in the industry.

The interview from Hell!

Young, ambitious, head-strong and not just a little cocky, I set out after graduating from University of the Arts in Philadelphia to big bad Gotham City to take the New York City design world by storm.

My first interview was with a designer whom I had read about in Print magazine. Although she wasn’t hiring at the time, she agreed to meet with me, look at my book and give me advice as to how to proceed with finding a job in New York. The plan was to meet with her in the morning, get her sage advice, then have lunch in the city and continue on to an interview with another small design firm that had hired a couple of UArts grads from the class two years ahead of mine.

Of course what I had secretly hoped would happen is that she would meet with me and love my portfolio so much that she would fall all over herself in an attempt to woo me over to her firm. That is, of course, if she could win out in the bidding war that would undoubtably take place, pitting her against a half-dozen award-winning design firms in the city! What actually DID happen is not the stuff of dreams or fantasy.

The interveiw started off well enough. She seemed to like my work and think I had talent. But as time went on, the only questions she asked about my individual pieces were whether or not they were school projects. In her terse manner she would blurt out “This a school assignment or real-world?” Then again and again and again.

“School assignment or real-world?”
“School assignment or real-world?”
“School assignment or real-world?”

After a while I could see where she was going. After she was finished looking at my book, she informed me that while she felt I was very talented and did some good work in school but that I was essentially unemployable! “I can’t see any design studio around town giving you a job!” When I begged why not, she explained to me “Well your whole book is filled with nothing but school work. There are no real-world examples. You have zero experience!”

“B-b-but….. I just graduated” I pleaded. Then I asked the age old question that literally millions of junior designers must have asked over the years “How am I supposed to get experience if no one will give me a job?”

Sage advice

If I thought my morning had been pretty bad up to this point, her reply would make me feel even worse.

“If I were you, I’d do projects freelance for free! Maybe some design firm around town will give you a job earning $10 an hour to operate their stat camera just to get your foot in the door?”

I was devistated! After 4 years of college and spending thousands in tuition and going into hock with students loans up to my eyebrows, I was now at the point where I was only qualified to take a job operating a stat camera for $10 per hour? I don’t think I could have been more depressed after my interview. I was completely humiliated.

Yet I was one of the lucky ones! The design firm I interviewed with in the afternoon made me an offer and — after my experience earlier in the day — I accepted on the spot! But for too many recent grads, they are met with nothing but slammed doors, rude interviewers and twisted logic.

Best served cold

My story does get better. In one of the more curious turns of events in my career, I did hear from the woman who gave me the interview from Hell! 3 years later, my mother called me in my NYC apartment and informed me that there was a woman who had called and was trying to get in touch with me. “Something about a job” she explained. Apparently my interviewer from Hell had kept my resume and was now interested in hiring me!

I had just left the firm I started with and was working for a larger, more well-known company and had no intention of making a change yet my curiosity got the best of me. I HAD to know what this was about!

That felt good!

In typical fashion, she got right to the point. “We got a really big client and I need to hire 3 new people. I like your work and I want to hire you. Why don’t you come work for me?”

This was going to be good! “Well, I’m pretty happy where I am but I’ll certainly listen to what you’re offering”

Then started the strangest woo-ing I’ve ever endured “Well how much money do you need? I don’t wanna know how much money you WANT, just tell me how much money you NEED!”

When I told her how much money I was being paid at my present employer — which was not a ton of money by any means but I guess it was a respectable sum — she paused for a second or two. Dead space on the other end of the phone.

“You worth that?” She finally fired back. “I guess my employer thinks so!”

Clearly unable or unwilling to attempt to match my current salary, we ended the dialogue. Needless to say, if her interviewing skills are lacking, they are certainly better than her recruiting skills!

.chris{}