How To Get A Job You're Not Qualified For

So my meeting went rather well - spurred many more ideas for future ventures that we can hopefully get rolling on very soon. I still need someone who has the gift of gab to promote me in direct trade for creative skills - I'm thinking an hour-for-hour trade would rock! So, if you're interested, drop me a line.

I've been doing some job hunting over the past couple of days - mostly white collar creative think tank stuff that seems to centre around marketing and design. It seems that all of the jobs I want require at least a Bachelor's degree and I don't feel like any more school. So what can I do? I don't believe that going back to school is the only way to get around this. My idea is to show them what I can do. I intend to list out all of my skills (developed and developing), formal education and areas of dedicated self study, as well as the experience gained from side projects and previous businesses.

Then, I can show them. Now, herein lies yet another challenge. My photography portfolio is good, but I have a very limited design portfolio and many of my files from past branding/web design clients are no longer available. I have a few that have been worked on recently, but nothing like what I would need. My thought is to create a video proposal offering my services on a small project (ie. a logo, or simple brand package) completely free of charge. The gift would come on one condition; that the company would evaluate my skills and potential as an employee and provide me with constructive criticism. If I got hired out of the deal - fantastic! But, at worst, I would get something to put in my portfolio and a nice name attached to it. Maybe even a couple of contacts to rub shoulders with in the future.

Perhaps I should start with a branding package for myself? Now that would be an idea! I could launch a marketing campaign targeting the people I want to work for. Oh what fun to work for a cutting edge magazine! Hmm...I believe I have some work to do.

What The Hell I Think I'm Doing

Hi all! Welcome to my brand new, squeaky-clean blog. It's not likely to look at all familiar the next time you should peruse it's pages (well page, for the moment) but never fear - it will still be here, and hopefully better with each incarnation. So here I sit with countless ideas swimming in my head. Business ideas, strange solutions, artistic endeavors, ideas about the meaning of life...you know the usual stuff that creative types like myself think about every day. This creates a massive problem for me. I can't bear the thought of a boring, repetitive, predictable, 9-to-5 job (fate worse than death).

I am currently struggling to make my way in the world as a photographer - I mean, it works in theory right? Creative, lots of ideas...just a few too many things that I need to be consistent at. Booking studios, phone calls, bookkeeping, invoicing, placing print orders, shipping and receiving crap - ugh! Without structure, the business is failing miserably. Oh yeah - I can't sell worth a damn either. I can't afford to hire someone to do this stuff for me, so I thought about it for a while and decided that I had plenty of skills that other people didn't and the type of person I was looking for was probably just one of those people. So, I put out a Facebook feeler in the form of a status update that read:

Looking for someone who is awesome at sales/recruiting and is willing to swap their talents for my own. I am proficient in the areas of photography, design, websites, marketing, and general creative thinking.

 The same day, I got two responses from interested people. I'm meeting with one of them on Monday (I'll let you know how it goes). Anyway, so there's an idea that could be a solution to one of my own problems. The only reason it may actually work is because I made the action simple enough to implement immediately. If it's a bigger project (more fun to plan) I can forget all about implementing it. It'll never happen. The fun and excitement is over in a day or two and I'm already thinking about the great big thing.

I figure it's a bit of a waste to just let these ideas sit and rot in the dustiest corners of my cerebral filing system (or metaphorical pile of crumpled papers that have missed the trash can). So, I hope that somebody out in the big wide world of cyberspace can put them to good use. There are, after all, some benefits I could get out of this:

• I will feel a sense of purpose - like my ideas really are good for something
• I will hopefully be able to help someone
• If someone makes money off one of my ideas, they might feel like giving back in the form of a donation!
• I will get head-hunted by some Fortune 500 company and make six-figures doing what I love (girl can dream, can't she?)

So there we have it - the idea as it stands at the moment, though I'm sure that even the concept will evolve as we go along. If you need some help brainstorming, let me know!