Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Job Search

For those not in the know, I've been out of work since December and to be honest I never thought that as we turn the calendar over to October that I would still be without a full time job. At worst I thought maybe I'd be in some kind of freelance rotation for companies, but that has not happened either.

I've applied to so many jobs that I ran out of DVDs and I've sent out over 60 emails with links to my demo reels on youtube. Out of that 60 I've had less than 90 hits per link and I know I'm about 1/3 of those because I click on it to add the link to emails. Part of me wonders if my cover letter is unimpressive or is it with this economy that I am "too experienced" and get over looked. In February I cold called a bunch of production companies and every single one would look at my resume and give that look of "holy crap, this guy has done a lot" and give me the ol' we are cutting back. So what and I to do in this situation?

I've got two new opportunities out there and one is with a local sports team and the other is at a large company that is know to be great to their employees. Also for the first time I have someone one the inside helping me out. To be honest, I just want a call back and maybe an interview. That way if I don't get the job at least I might have the chance to find out what I am doing wrong. My fear is that I will get the answer of I'm not doing anything wrong. That means I am done with video work, and have to find a new career.

I've seen the trend of hiring young to save money, but I wonder when that trend will level out. At some point in time quality has to be an issue. With this whole Internet low tech and the easier access to video everyone can do some kind of work. It seems that to most that just enough and that they can get by with that. Everything looks the same and has the feel of being homemade. When will the polished look come back? Will it ever? Maybe my thoughts of grandeur are false and I need to come to the realization that video is a dead art form and I need to find a new career.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Sleep

People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one. ~Leo J. Burke

I've not posted over the last couple of month because of a couple of reasons; I've been in a "down" mood because of the lack of a job and has caused problems all over the board and most of the time I would want to write it was very negative and dark that I would probably get phone calls from family and friends wanting me to put down the knife (I was just making a peanut butter sandwich... seriously). Then the other reason, my mind has been turned into a kind of puree or slurry which does not allow any form of thought to flow easily. What is this thing that has my brain in constant zombie mode? Lack of sleep.

For months before Logan was born I was told that I needed to get all the sleep in that I could. To those people, I hate you, you gave me the wrong advice. I needed to do the opposite and ween myself off of sleep. I'm the kind of person that needs 8 hours straight or I just don't function properly, and since the arrival of Logan, I do not get that 8 hours any more.

Also this kid can sense when I am about to enter REM sleep, 20 minutes after I hit my pillow he starts screaming. We have a system setup for feedings, I do anything prior to 2am and some how I now have the post 5:30am as well. Once the crying starts I get up, start the bottle warmer, change a diaper and then it's bottle time. If I am lucky he will be out in 30 minutes. Then there are the nights that he's up for an hour, then 5 minutes after I lay him down he's back up. One night I tried to stay up until he was hungry and that turned disastrous. I was up till almost 1am and he started crying at 1:50am. I get him a sleep and the next thing I know The Wife is waking me up and it's after 5 and I have to feed him, I finally end up falling asleep on the couch while he is asleep in the swing.

Maybe it's a good thing that I am currently unemployed, I'd be a wreck at any kind of job and I still can't figure out how I get some of my "freelance" stuff done. Logan is getting closer to sleeping longer hours but I think we are a few months away from getting him to sleep from 10-6.

The Wife and Logan are leaving for a week to see family in Ohio and maybe I can get some sleep and get myself back to a some what normal life. Maybe I will get a call back or even an interview. Yeah right, I start with the sleep and hope that another position somewhere opens up.