These were the words I heard just yesterday at an Interview I had no business going to in the 1st place. You see, I’ve decided to work at the family business because it allows me to build my own brand and do what I really love –Digital Media or something in the Creative Industries. Keep reading to hear how the whole thing went down.
I saw a post on Social Media for a Digital Media Manager and I immediately clicked “apply“. In my head, I’d get this job and have that extra money while still working at my family’s business (part-time) and fund my dream. I know reading this you are probably thinking “this woman must be crazy” but it made perfect sense to me. It was just days after submitting the application that I received the call to come in for an interviewer — as a true believer I said my prayer where I asked God to let me know if it’s right for me and to give me a sign if it’s not. Be very careful what you pray for as the day leading up to the interview was a huge flop! On the day, I could not find the place and when I did it was located in a seedy location that had no security and just looked like I would probably have to pay one of the men on the outside to watch my car on a daily basis. Whenever I go to interviews it’s always “I can see my self working here” or “no way In hell I’m driving here” — this was obviously the latter.
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The interview starts and I was introduced to the young lady who sent the email and an older man who was the owner (but didn’t give his name, but I knew who he was because I researched the company) They asked regular, basic questions that had nothing to do with my skills or experience then he said something on my interview jumped out “Building an empire” for which he said “You can’t build your dreams HERE“. In my head, the interview ended here as I’m wondering why in 2019 are people still thinking like this?! But I continued to hear what would be said next. I get what he’s saying that when he hires creative people with other skills who he’s paying he wouldn’t want them to do the same thing for themselves or competitors to build their brand. There was something about freelancers “undercutting” stone and mortar businesses as they charge cheaper rates and people pay them and the older businesses are left in the cold. Dear Sir, the world is changing and as a New Media Company you should be on board or you will be out of business! Look at giants like Barnes & Noble and Toys R Us who had to shut down stores because of Online Shopping — If they had prepared themselves and build-up their websites to foster online shopping, they would still be in Business.
Jamaica is a tough country for us, law-abiding citizens and having one job is not enough to live a good life — you need a skill or a side hustle to live comfortably. No shade to anyone but I’m used to a very comfortable life because of the effort my father took to build his business so I would like to maintain that life by my own hard work. How are you going to tell an individual they will have to give up the skills they learned to better themselves so they can solely (only) use those skills to build your business? That’s like me telling a man who is skilled as a plumber that he can’t work for anyone else if I hire him to work for me? Jamaica, why are we still doing this to young people like myself who just want to use our skills to create jobs for ourselves? Sure there are people who hustle while working at their main job using the resources from that company and I frown on that BIG Time .. but! please Jamaica, support the youths! There are some of us who can work for you from 9-5 then at 6pm we hustle on the side so we can live a comfortable life, is there anything wrong with that?
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I’m sure the company will be reading this and this is me saying “No Thank You”, give your job to a robot whose sole purpose is to solely work for you. My gifts and skills will make room for me and I will continue to use them to live comfortably — keep your 9-5 robot mindset.
