So I’m not working right now, and I honestly haven’t had a semblance of a stable job for about two weeks now. I’ve given it a lot of thought throughout the last few months, and it was my intention to abandon the idea that I won’t look for a full-time job until I’m 30, because let’s face it, two years is a lot of time for life to get complicated, and it would probably be in my best interests if I decided to not screw off in those two years and actually get myself prepared for the worst.
The problem however is, that I can’t seem to get anywhere at the moment. Now I’ve been lucky in the past, and it’s gotten me through some rough patches, but this time, I’m not so lucky. My agency that I freelance through can’t seem to get me in the door to any companies right now, and the biggest problem right now are the companies; they’re simply not hiring graphic designers. Which is leading to me developing this metaphorical chip on my shoulder.
You see, when it comes to American business, when the numbers get tight, and cuts are on the horizon, the first line of defense to be thrown out to the wolves seems to be anyone who does anything in marketing. And within this particular hierarchy, the first to go are designers, because designers can be outsourced, or the companies can pay more to have an outside agency do it, but outsourced work is seen as an expense, and not as overhead, even if the so-called overhead is about as low-maintenance as a 1991 Honda Civic.
I don’t particularly understand this mentality, because if I’m a business owner, and nobody’s spending money on my product/service, that means either my product/service is truly worthless, or people don’t know about my product/service. So let’s cut the marketing department, and further dissolve any identity that our company needs. I’ll be honest – there are a few companies that can get away without marketing; CVS, JCPenney, Wal-Mart… these are companies with identities so strong, so ingrained, and/or so obvious, that they don’t have to market; people just know that they’re always there, and what they have. But they market anyway, because hey, it couldn’t hurt to find the handful of people living under rocks on a weekly basis and get them to come to your company for business.
The bottom line is that currently, it sucks to be a graphic designer, and I’m growing more frustrated, agitated, and testy with each passing day. I’ve sent out many resumes to companies that I’d be ecstatic to work for, but I’m getting no responses back. I know they are not obligated to send any rejection notices, but I wish they would, so I can save myself the trouble and close the hope doors and save it for places I might still have a chance. I worked for a few days on-call at the company where I worked with the worthless dyke who sits around and does nothing but play Farmtown on Facebook all day, and honestly, I wasn’t happy. I verbally ripped into one of the project managers for giving vague, unclear, and poorly described instructions, and elicited a surprised reaction out of her – this is where I realized that this chip was showing. Freelancing has worn thin on me, and I just want to get to work somewhere where I can plant some roots for a change, instead of waiting for the next opportunity that, as I’m seeing now, doesn’t always come so quick.
