Café? or Kaffee?

I got the job at the coffee shop! I start the 23rd of this month, at least filling out paperwork. I'm not sure what my schedule will look like yet. I'm hoping to get mostly opening shifts so that my nights and most of my afternoons will still be free, but we'll see how it ends up working, exactly.

I think in the meantime, I'm going to start working on freelance. I'm not entirely sure what I would be getting myself into yet, and so I'm sort of just researching what's possible and what's out there. I never thought I'd be an independent creative (freelancing designer) until after I'd had at least 5 years of experience under my belt somewhere else.

Oh, btw, two new things you should check out.

One, I finally broke down and got a Twitter account, if for no other reason that it gives me more exposure.

Two, I have a LinkedIn account. I'm not really sure who all is on LinkedIn that I know, but I'd love to have more connections.

Doomed to be a Barista with a Failing Art Career

I still haven't heard back about the job at Koch, and considering it's Saturday, I'm beginning to wonder if indeed this is bad news. I'm really not qualified for the position, and I think they know that, but I'm hoping I'm spunky enough and nice enough to get the job.

Otherwise, I guess I'll just work as a barista. Really, I guess it wouldn't be so bad. I could just open my own freelancing graphic design firm. I'm not sure that I know enough about business, though. It seems like there are two kinds of freelancers. 

Freelancer 1:

Jumps into freelancing without learning about any business practice, accounting practice, or billing practice first. They buy a computer and software after quitting their first graphic design job in a bitter rage and jump straight into freelancing. They hand out business cards to every privately owned store in town and hope to have someone that needs some posters designed. They learn about getting things printed and bidding jobs as they need to. Clients are generally happy, unless they aren't. Most of these types can't afford to turn down even the crappiest projects.

Freelancer 2:

The kind of person that works for ten years, building an amazing portfolio, and then decides to jump ship. However, he has enough experience under his belt now that he not only knows enough about business, but he's seen how it's done. He is his own art director, creative director, and branding agent. He finds his own cllients. Oh wait, he doesn't have to, because he's worked for ten years.




I always sort of saw myself as the second option. It seemed like I'd work at a small firm or a huge agency for ten years, chipping away, doing the mundane tasks while I waited for prime opportunity to jump ship. However, that does not seem to be the case, and I'm not sure exactly how to proceed. I was the top of my graduating class in the art department pursuing a graphic design degree. 


Maybe I should find some clients before I start on this adventure.


Or maybe not.

Married Life and The Job Hunt

We've been married just under a month now, and things are going great! Ben had two days off for July 4th, so we spent the four day weekend together. Thursday night we went to a Future of Forestry concert here in Wichita. Sam drove down for it. It was a good time. Definitely worth seeing in concert if they are coming to a city near you.

We've been watching a lot of Zombie movies lately, including 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later, as well as the Resident Evil trilogy (soon to be quadrilogy? really? is that necessary?), and the Night of the Living Dead through Dawn of the Dead.

I put in my two weeks at the Icing finally. The paychecks I'm getting aren't worth putting up with the drama at the store. It seems like no matter what, the schedules are always changing, or one of the employees is causing lots of problems. For example, you don't hit other employees. You also don't walk into the store, full of customers, and start yelling at the other associate working about not getting paid. You also shouldn't walk over to the manager working and start yelling at her about it in front of a customer she's helping. Or snap at people on the phone... or just be rude in general. Hum, yeah.

I had a phone interview at Koch Ind. for a Production Manager position. I would basically keep all of the designers on task and make sure projects are getting completed on time. I'm not very hopeful, simply because I don't have enough experience to get the job. But the phone interview did go really well. So we'll see. Otherwise, I've been applying for tons of jobs. I had an offer at a coffee shop just after starting at the Icing, so I'm planning to call back about it if I don't get a second interview for the Production Manager position.

I basically have to have some sort of full-time job by the end of October, which is when my student loans kick in. Blech. I keep hoping and praying that something will open up somewhere!