After Breakfast! (mmmmmmmm delicious breakfast)

Alright, after having a little breakfast and reviewing the last post and it's blatant negativity, I thought I'd expound a bit on the lighter notes that received an unbecoming treatment, especially considering their significance, in my last post.

In that post, I mentioned several jobs that I have gotten since graduation, but neglected to divulge how I got them.

So, here goes.

The comic and "the job that pays the bills" (freelancing for GreenPhotoshop as a Production Manager/Art Director/Business Developer) were both sought out on Craigslist. Believe it or not. I spent a solid 3 months of my summer looking for work. I went to tons of interviews, and applied for jobs I didn't even know existed before leaving Pratt. Nothing came out of any of them. My search wasn't limited to Craigslist by all means, but it seemed to have the best success rate once I set up my email to take advantage of it.

Throughout the job hunt, my resume was constantly being updated at the rate of once a month and I had different resumes for different kinds of work. It seemed to me that, the more resumes I sent out, the more replies I got. My resume was constantly being revised and improved upon. As was perhaps the most important part of the whole process, the cover letter. By the end of the summer, people were replying back to me at the rate of around 1 in 6 instead of the 1 in 20-30 it started out as. Dogged determination wins the day in this case, as well as a better understanding of what jobs my skillset was geared toward securing.

The search also extended to my illustration career and my desire to develop that into a successful enterprise. And, ultimately, the main consumer of my time. To that end, I had much success from the beginning and have continued to have replies/requests for work as an illustrator as well as a painter. Once again, the significance of writing a good solid cover letter has, no doubt, been extremely helpful in determining who looks at my illustration portfolio and who does not.

Aside from that, working for ELLE had more to do with who I know than anything else. My buddy had done work for them before, they needed someone else, he said I could do it, I got the job. No resume. No cover letter. Just a friend vouching for my competence. Pretty sweet.

The only really difficult thing about all this work suddenly being thrown into my lap after the dry spell, has been juggling my time to get the work done. Sometimes doing two jobs at once in order to fit my schedule into the short time that is our average day. All the while, still looking for the next illustration job around the corner for when the current freelance work finishes.

I think that's about it really.

Pretty crazy if ya ask me.

Ciao