From a job seeking perspective, I feel like I can really get a feel for the culture of a small company even from the outside looking in, because usually the person you interact with in the application process is most likely to be your boss or close coworker. Talking to these people usually makes me even more excited to work for them, and I’m usually slightly crushed if it doesn’t pan out.

As for working for a start up company, I have some experience in that respect, as I’ve mentioned. I have worked for a small comms firm as well as a large government Ministry. Despite the higher salary and fancier job title at the Ministry, the experience doesn’t compare.

Not that the Ministry job was not rewarding. I will admit that the original job description depressed me slightly. My main duties were to create and manage employee personal files, fill in forms, write formulaic leave letters, that sort of thing. I was also very apprehensive of the rigid hierarchical structure I’d heard about at ministries – the Permanent Secretary and the Minister seen as demi-gods by the staff, subordinates’ fear of their supervisors. I didn’t want to deal with that.

However, I learned very quickly that hierarchical structures, while rigid, are actually not that intimidating. The key to surviving and thriving there was to do a good job of everything – even punching holes in paper or copying documents – and to never be afraid to speak your mind. My bosses appreciated contributions I made to their discussions, especially when I pointed out their mistakes or suggested improvements. This actually made my work life much more enriching – rather than being a glorified file clerk, I was able to help pull off a “Bring a Youth to Work” seminar for teens by the end of my six month period there.

But still, as much as I enjoyed the Ministry (and to be honest, the Ministry’s salary), nothing beat the variety and hectic pace of that start up firm.

I worked for clients ranging from high ranking Government officials and CEOs to a cancer survivor who was throwing a celebratory party. There were only four of us – two other interns like myself, and my boss, who was Director, Lead Consultant and gopher all at once. Often we’d have several projects going at once, and I had to be at meetings all over the place, or manning the phones. I had to go pick paint for the new office, then pack up the old one and haul boxes on moving day. Of course there was the mail checking, grocery runs, cleaning the office bathroom, throwing out the trash. As for actual projects, things went wrong spectacularly – I hung up on a Minister, I accidentally ripped up an invoice I had spent weeks trying to wrestle from a client, I got violent food poisoning and ended up in the hospital on the day of a massive conference and still managed to keep on top of customer service, and I LOVED IT.

And now, I’m learning some cool skills where I can be creative as well as adrenaline rushed. I would kill for an internship in a start up company that needs me to do all of the above AND work with flash and photoshop.

That’s what I’m looking for universe. What ya got for me?

Today I was very heartened by a job posting: I had almost all the necessary skills. I had at least worked with the Adobe Suite (CS4, and they’d asked for CS3!), I will (by the end of my programme, at least) have fluency in Final Cut Pro, I have already worked with iMovie and iPhoto and Garage Band on a couple projects, so far it was looking good. I was a little short on the experience side but I thought, meh, I could wing it with 6 months in my field right?

It was perfect. I thought, as soon as I’m done my programme, I will have most of these skills. Wow. Then I scrolled down.

I needed to be fluent with XML, CSS, HTML and other website protocols (probably a malapropism). I had never touched these things in my life! That’s computer programmer shit, I am NOT a computer programmer!

But then I thought, it doesn’t daunt me any more. I could learn this stuff just so I could create what I wanted to create artistically. Sweet.

This leaves me in another pickle though. How the hell do I get skills in these things? Who do I befriend? Oi. Is this another set of classes meant to delay my entry into adult life? How do I do this thing?

What I need, I tell myself, is a jolt of confidence. I just need to suck it up and keep looking. But I am heartened that, finally, at the end of this diploma getting thing I will not have a completely useless degree. This time, I will have a completely useless degree and a diploma that means something.

And then I’ll be able to go out and do that whole “making money thing.” With some sweet graphic artist skills.

Then this niftly little message comes up and says: you can only upload video if you upgrade to videopress.

That actually makes sense… this being WordPress and all, I suppose you could count yourself lucky that you can upload jpeg files at all.

So now I’m stuck with this blog that from the first post does not serve its purpose. I by no means think I am interesting or witty enough to carry a blog, so probably soon I’ll actually do some interesting visual stuff that does not require tons of file space.

I’d say stay tuned, but you’re probably better off going about your day.