Day 387

I got a call from a headhuter today asking if I'd be interested in a contract video production assignment for a major corporation in Dallas. When I get these types of calls, I initially get real excited. A contract job is often a lot longer than an individual project and could potentially be a great help in leveling out my fluxuating monthly cash flow. I agreed to meet with the recruiter tomorrow and talk further. "Oh, before you come in, could you go to our website and fill out a few forms," says the recruiter. No problem. So, I go to the website and discover that maybe there is a problem. Provide references from your last three employers says the website form. I started my company in 1990, so I haven't had an employer in a very long time. I don't think the last three ad agencies I worked for even exist anymore. I suspect some of my former supervisors are dead by now. I try to skip this section and move on, but I keep getting one of those "this field required" error message that wouldn't let me proceed unless I provided the three employer references.

Suddenly, the contract job isn't looking so good. It sounds like this company is looking for a new employee instead of a place to outsource their video production. I like my little company and it would take a really fat salary to pry me away from it. In today's tight job market, I don't think this employer with the contract job is going to try very hard to lure me over to their side. There are probably hundreds of out of work ad agency folks who would love to have this job. On the other hand, I've gotten jobs before by simply not caring whether I got an offer or not. Sometimes when you're facing a sea of desparate people, someone who simply doesn't care can stand out as the most confident candidate. We'll see what happens tomorrow. I'm not very interested in getting a W-2 form again and driving to work in the mornings. I would like to do some production work for these folks though. Maybe the iPad will work it's magic again.

I'm slowly but surely getting everything transfered over to the new computer. Apple certainly doesn't make this process easy, even for a person like me who has owned Apple computers since the floppy disc dark ages. The problem is that even though I have a recent version of OS 10.5.8 on my old computer, virtually none of my current software will run on the new computer. All the software on the new computer must be Intel compatible. Damn! I can't just transfer my applications over the network to the new computer. I've got to buy all new Intel versions instead. Maybe later this Spring this big upgrade effort will seem worthwhile. Right now it's all starting to feel like I've inadvertently opened Pandora's box.

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