It’s been a while …

… since my last entry. And as the befeared (?) Wisk0cil demands new posts I shalth obey and do as he pleases, as not to upset him any further. We don’t want my head to be poked into a bloody mass of meat and blood by the very Wisk0cil’s almighty finger. Well, at least I don’t want to.

So I am taking the opportunity of the copying-data-from-the-server downtime at the office and am throwing this little update out to the world. Now you’re all excited I bet, uh? Well, actually there’s stuff to talk about, so lean back, grab a cup of coffee and prepare for lots of wisdom and valuable information.

First of all the biggest news: Mese got a new job (cheer now). After some not-so-great interviews (wrong job descriptions, strange requirements, corporate human-resources managers who don’t want to accept a small advertising agency as experience) I finally had an appointment at Superfund. They were looking for support for their marketing department. Some afterthoughts about my last job, my professional preferences and interests really opened my eyes for the fact that “advertising” isn’t what I want to do.

It’s quick, cheap, dirty, payments aren’t very exciting and advertising agencies pretty much are the evil in the corporate world – the bigger the evilisher. Strange athmospheres, pressure, loads of (unpayed) extra hours and as a graphics designer you’ll most likely be a “number in the system”, a slave to the department, a little monkey-unit clipping-path making others-great-ideas-executing, replaceable thingy. And no, there’s absolutely no exaggaration there and there are, of course, no exceptions whatsoever.

Uhm, I digress. Back to business (whatta sharp little word to use here, damn am I amazing). So talking Superfund I’ll start with the initial interview, which turned out being only the start of what I call the SAM – “Superfund Applicant Marathon”. The interview was different from the start: Andreas Stemmer, now my boss, lead the interview and opened with: “The interview will be held with me and Rene Danzinger who will join in via video conference from Monaco”. Well that was something new to me.

With the fascination there also came problems about the video conference thing. There was a recognizable delay, I’d say about 5-10 seconds, and while those weren’t crucial they lead to some collisions and it turned out that five seconds can be enough to bring a little confusion into the question-answer cycle of job interviews.

There were some more things about this interview. First of all here I was treated with the due respect of a potential employee – very very opposed to what the big advertising agencies used to do (they seem to prefer an “Audience with the king” way of interviewing – the king not being the applicant). Second no one wanted to see my workbook. Usually that’s how interviews work: You send an application, they invite you and you go through the workbook, talking about the projects.

At Superfund things were extremely personal. A short question about some of the projects I had in the application here and there, but the most important thing was everything personal – not only about me, also about Superfund. More kind of like a first blind date. Uhm, well, probably just like a blind date. I doubt there’s such a thing like a second blind date if I think about it. However, the interview was good – Andreas was sympathic, Rene a little more the sceptic guy, but after all it just felt right.

The thing took about half an hour and I really got to know a lot of things about how the company works and how the athmosphere is and stuff. Andreas had some spare time and showed me around the building, which I think is pretty unusual for a first-time interview, but was a great insight and a good omen. Heading for some drinks after dinner at the blind date, kind of like that. Probably. Probably not. Step two of the Marathon was a test-day, so I came in on a monday and did some small things, an invitation, ads and such.

Then there was step three, another interview, now with Helmut Spitzer, the head of the austrian office. All in all it took about 3 weeks until I got a final answer, but Andreas kept telling me it’s looking good, the back-then-potential colleagues gave good feedback about me and my works seemed to be just fine, so I was convinced that I’ll get the job. It felt really great anyways to receive the final call that I made it, and now here I am. And it’s great. I like what I do, I like the company and pretty much everyone working here “fits in”.

It’s a constructive, fast and professional environment I am part of and I’m sure I can learn a lot and do some great projects here. I’m looking forward to a great time at Superfund and I’m surprised how casual the athmosphere in a high-profile financial company can be. I already feel how I warm up with the people and the situation. After 1,5 years of working all on my own and being alone in the office most of the time I really digressed to a non-communicating bunch of meat and bones.

Now around here people are sarcastic, ironic and funny and joking and fooling around and the first few days I really had problems jumping in on the action, like someone making a joke and I took it all serious and stuff like that, but I already feel the power coming back and am sure I’ll eventually get back to my old form, spreading the seeds of sarcasm and black humour all around me. Prepare yourselfs.

Work to do, lunch to eat, good bye!