Tag: jobs

ramblings

What I do

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I have been working in the Interactive space since I graduated from college, which is longer ago than I’d like to admit, and my job title has always been either producer or project manager, which means that most people in my life do not understand how I actually earn an income. Usually, when trying to explain my role to friends and family, I use a general contractor or a movie producer as examples.
For the general contractor example, I say, “If you are redoing a kitchen, you don’t care about the types of pipes being used, or the type of wires that are going into the wall. All you care about is what exactly is being done, how long is it going to take and how much is going to cost.” That resonates, especially with homeowners.
For the movie producer example, I say, “Think of the Oscars. Who gets the award for best picture, the most prestigious award of the evening? The producers. What did they do? Direct? No, that went to best director. Make the sets? No, that went to Best Set Design. So what did they do? Everything else, from securing and managing the budget and timeline to making the director and actor get along, when they really dislike each other.” That really resonates, because how doesn’t like movies?
Still, that doesn’t necessarily nail it and now, I can also refer these fine folks to the image below:
What does a producer actually do?
Via Kay

ramblings

4:13 of Happiness While In Retail Hell

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When I worked in retail clothing during high school in Roosevelt Field, the brightest star in the LI mall constellation, I had to listen to the store’s musical soundtrack four times during a shift. The tapes were exactly two hours long, were controlled and sent by Corporate and changed on a monthly basis.
Music became an obsession of mine while I was there. I actually did not mind getting in an hour or two before the store opened so I could blast Black Sabbath while folding clothes. When the store opened though, we went with the Corp tape and man did it suck.
One summer, each and every minute of one month, I cannot remember if it was July or August, was spent listening to utter shite, the dreck of drecks and I was completely and utterly miserable almost all day long. Only one song was good and it was my saving grace: “Walk of Life” by Dire Straits.
When I think of the song I immediately think of the video, unlike almost any other song. First off, it is one of the first videos I can remember (like Thriller) but even more importantly, I just loved it. I mean loved it. I think the infatuation was completely because of its sports bloopers. The song and video was a stepping stone – I went from simply liking sports to enjoying, caring about, following, etc both sports and music. Years later, when music started to overtake sports in my life in terms of what made my motor run, here was this magical song, pregnant with memory, bringing me four minutes and 13 seconds of happiness every two hours.
When I heard the tune at that time I remembered my childhood and drifted away from everything else for that short time. Now, when I hear that song, I have a compound of memories. I remember my high school years, the days when I worked only in the summer, the transition from being dependent to independent on top of those suburban childhood thoughts.
So, happy Friday – enjoy it with good tunes as you do the walk, the walk of life…

humor

From the "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" Dept

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Maybe you, like me, have been getting a lot of “you would be perfect for this job” spam emails lately. These emails try to dupe you into thinking that you are filling out a real job application in order for the spammer to collect reams of personal information about you.
Usually, these fake applications for companies like PowerJobs are well worded and give off the air of having come from someone junior in HR. I received one today whose liberal use of poor grammar really made me smile. Here is just some of the text:

For first you say: Is it spam? Why are you write me? NO. It’s not spam. Our company does serious selection among candidates. And only one person will receive this post. We have sent out many letters so as to have many candidates for more detailed selection among candidates. The more candidates the more good employee we can find.
Your question: Where have you taken my e-mail? We have take your e-mail from the TransUnion. This company practises a credit history analysis of the USA citizens. Also we meet with approval this organization for contact to you.

I’m debating as to whether I apply with fake information just to keep the dialog going…