Interview Beard

Right before Logan was born I decided to grow a baby beard. I was going to grow a beard for the last month of The Wife's pregnancy. Of course three days later he was born. I have decided to bring back the beard and this time it's for a job interview. The last time I shaved was Sunday January 10th and as you can see from the picture the growth is starting to pick up. I just need something to do during this time. I just hope that this experiment ends as fast as the last beard attempt.

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.

What to Do?

For the first time since being let go I have a serious problem, do I go back into news. I kid you not in the same day I found two openings and I have no idea what to do. I'm not going into deal about either one, nor will I say what market or stations. One sounds cooler than the other, but do I want to go back to the belly of the beast.

One would involve an hour of travel and is only weekends. The other is mostly weekdays with random weekends. They have one thing in common... part time. I would lose my unemployment, but at least I could have a real job and not this Do some work for free and maybe something will happen gigs.

If I get the weekend gig, then I will have a harder time starting up a small production company. The weekend is when all the weddings and recitals happen. What little ground I have made into this business will be lost.

Why can't anything be easy with me. I always feel like have to make a decision of these natures. Do I want to go back into the industry that felt a nasty taste in my mouth or do I want to try and get this thing off the ground. I'd also lose my new favorite day, Sunday. No longer will I be able to go to church and then play ultimate Frisbee.

I just wish there was a giant billboard telling me which path is the best to take. No matter what happens from this point forward I will always be second guessing myself. If I go back into news, then I will wonder if my life would have been less complicated as I am standing on a beach being pounded by a hurricane. On the flip side, I will always wonder if I made the right choice by not going back to what I know.

Why can't real life be more like the board game.

Complaining... again

I had a friend email me a guy who was looking for a production assistant and of course it's work so I sent in my resume, references, blah blah blah and yet again I had my hopes up. Not a lot though, once you had hope dashed to sunder a few dozen times you start guarding yourself.

I check my mail and I got a message. "Oh please be good." I stated as I opened the message. It was more of the same, except this time I at least got a response. The work was for only ten an hour and according to him below my skill level.

That got me thinking, how many of these jobs have I been "over qualified" for? With the way things are going, I don't care if I'm over qualified, I want to work and try to make a decent living. I just don't get it, don't they understand that I am applying for that job? I know it's below what I have done, but I don't care. I'm just getting tired of the rejection. Just once I'd like to get a freaking interview for a job that will actually get me work.

It's been three months and no end is in sight and I just don't know what to do. I'm afraid that I will have to open a TVjobs.com account and try and get back into news. That means we have to move, I don't want that, but with baby Logan on the way, I have very little options right now.

What Time Is It?

The clock on the computer currently reads 6:31AM and for most that know me, this is way to early for me to be up. The truth is, I've been up since 4:30AM. The scary part is, I'm not tired and I did get 5 hours sleep. With the "job change" my internal clock has been on the fritz, I've been going to bed early and waking up before 8:00. I don't know if I like this or not, I wish I could find some kind of middle ground that does not involve going to bed by 11 or getting up before 8.

Nine Years in The Making

Almost 4 years ago to the day I pulled all my press passes off my living room wall and started organizing them in a picture frame. I love looking at it, it was a reminder to me of what I had done in those first 5 years. Today I sat down and put together a new press pass picture frame. I left the center unfinished, at first I tried to get them so there wasn't any empty space, then I thought of something, I'll leave gaps in the middle, to remind me I did not leave the news world on my terms. I would have at least wanted to have been in the business for 10 years, a decade, but I came up short by a year, 9 years of a career. I did a lot and I just want to list some of the things I was able to do. If it was not for my position as a photographer, I'd probably never get to do most of these things (In complete random order).

• 2003-2005 Ohio football championship games



• 2004-2006 Boys and Girls state championships- I love football more, but every year these games were played on my birthday. What a way to spend that day, working a 13 hour day in the Schottenstein Center with a bunch of other media people.



• 2003 MAC Basketball Tournament- I was in West Virginia and the number two guy became ill and I had to do this tournament by myself. I learned how to manage my time.



• Jessica Lynch Homecoming Parade- Saw my video on the Daily Show



• 2002 MAC Football Championship- Toledo beat Marshall in Toledo.



• Marshall at Troy- The first time I ever had to deal with 90 degree weather in October.



• 7 Presidential visits- I only have four badges, I gave a few away. A great privilege, to see the President, but a pain in the ass to deal with. The Secret Service just had to have all media at these events 4 hours early.



• Went to an event with Governor Bush.



• Bowling Green at Ohio State- Took Shorty along and BG lost by 7. I took a lot of great pictures at this game.



• 2005 Fiesta Bowl- My favorite Ohio News Network moments, too bad I had a sinus infection or this would have been the greatest moment. Funny side story, the bomb squad dog thought my camera was explosives; security loved that.



• 3 Obama events- I even got to ride around with the traveling media, that's where I learned a lot of those guys at pretentious bastards. No offense, but to tell me to sit in the back of the bus was uncalled for. Still, I was 50 feet from our President-elect.



• 2005 & 2006 Ohio Wrestling championships- This will sound strange but The Wife loved covering the wrestling championships with me. She would log everything and we spent the whole day together. It would kill my back, but quality time on the clock with The Wife is always great.



• 2003-2005 Cleveland Indians and Cincinnati Reds- It felt like every time I went to either park something strange or ridiculous would happen. Example 1: At the Indians I was dizzy and needed sugar and my battery in my wireless went out. I scurried over to the wireless and my sports director asked what I was doing. I said; "I'm out of juice." Some sports writer thought I said something about Jews. I almost got banned from Jacobs Field because I slipped back into my southern Ohio accent. Example 2, Chud and I were hungry and did not want to pay for the food the Red had for the media (I think it was chicken or maybe fish... couldn't tell) We ask the media info guy who was maybe a few months shy of 100; "You go up the stairs... rumnamnana then you humramanana. We turn and and say thank you and any time someone needed directions we would state; "Go up the stairs rumamahadana."



• 2004-2006 Indianapolis 500- I loved going to the 500, well going the weeks before the actual race. It's impressive how large that track is and how fast these cars move. Favorite moment, asking Helio Castroneves for an interview, he gives us the sign for 1 minute, turns, and goes into the bathroom. He comes back out and give a great interview. I always wondered if he washed his hands. Favorite phrase: There's a window over Terra Haute. I said it once and almost got DJL to spit out his salad.



• 2003 Motor City Bowl- GO BG!



• 2006 & 2007 NCAA Basketball tournament- I covered UNC as they choked in the elite 8 and then the Final Four. The first year I had to cover the first two rounds by myself and mind you I had never shot a game or interview about UNC that year, big learning curve about the team for me. Favorite moment; yelling at Dan Dakich.



• 2003 Memorial Golf Tournament- Most memorable thing was on the final day, I sat at 1 till the leaders past, ran to hole 2. Mind you I was carrying a 40 pound two piece camera, a 20 pound tripod, 20 pound back pack with water and tapes. I get the leaders and sit and bake in the sun on number 8. Then run up hill to number 9. I had an intern and she started caring the back pack and I was out of water. I run over to 11 and finally head back to 18. By the walk up hill on 18, the intern too the tripod as well. The sports director Moose thought I was going to die. I found out later he had the interns watch me and had them keep giving me Gatorade and water. I finished off 5 20 ounce Gatorade and 6 bottle of 24 ounces.



• Virginia Tech Shootings- The only time I started to break down on a story.



• 2005 MLB Home Run Derby- I saw Big Papi crank balls out of the park and into the river. The balls were literally flying in front of my face and I was in the upper upper left field.



• 2006 Cleveland Cavalier playoffs- LeBron looked like he was older than me (he's 7 years younger) and I almost had flames burn my eyebrows off.

I also covered events like the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a sniper running around West Virginia and then another on in Columbus. A hurricane off the Carolina coast and much much more. I had 9 eventful years and even though I did not go out on the terms I wanted, I still have all the great memories and they can never take those from me.

Turning the Corner

Today was the best so far, I had an interview with a production house and it looks like I might get some freelance work. With the way the news industry is going, I think this is the best option. WUSA just announced they are going to the VJ/back back/embed/one man band system. In all honesty I thought it would be 2010 before major changes like this would become common, then again the economy sped up the process.

I had to think, do I want to continue on in news and circle the country a la Grapes of Wrath finding news work, or did I have to get out now and hope and pray that I find a company or decent amount of freelance work to make everything work. I'm thinking it's a combination of the two and I hope this works out. I would love the normalcy of the schedule and the ability to take my time on projects.

Not So Negative Post

I know the last post was... well, a little bitter, but now I have some decent news. I've saved us some money for a few months. Thanks to the craptacular economy a lot of companies have plans for people like me. I just got an economic hardship deferment from my student loan. My car loan people said I was ahead on my payments and I don't have to pay till February and everything else will be put on the back end.

Then there is the biggie.. the mortgage, right now nothing is happening, but Kevin Martini said he is going to look into things and see if I can push some payments around. If I can get two months put onto the back end of this mortgage that will save us a huge amount of money that we can then use to pay COBRA and maybe get a few other bills down.

If you have been laid off or are to be, call your loan people early on, they want there money not your house or car. They will try and help, if you call when you are in serious trouble... ti might be tougher. Be proactive not reactive.

Insurance Hell

Because The Wife is 5 weeks pregnant we REALLY NEED insurance. Since I was laid off I am eligible for COBRA, but it's like $800 a month. Well, my income right now is under $300 a month right now. The Wife makes decent money, but if we do the COBRA then we can't pay the mortgage. I tried to go on line and find insurance that way and MAN is that a mess.

There is a thing called maternity insurance and I thought awesome, we can get cheaper better insurance. Then I read the fine print, it's only if you think you might become pregnant and if you are preggos... then your out of luck.

I kept searching and found people that will insure pregnant women... oh wait... no they won't. I just got off the phone with a guy who tired to convince me to NOT get his insurance. I explained to him that I don't want to pay the $800 dollars a month, I'd rather pay his $400. He didn't care, he kept talking about how much cheaper it will be with my current COBRA plan.

I tried to get the guy to say that they only want my money, but obviously that did not happen. I'm going to try and see if I can get Cobra just for The Wife and I go without. It's not a great plan, but it would save $500. I don't think it will work, but at least I can give it the ol' college try

Hope

Oh my gosh (that's for you mom), I got a lead! Thanks to Pete Nice I have a meeting about possibly maybe doing some freelance work in the future. I know it's not much, but it's better than what I'm doing right now. I don't think I can get paid for playing Madden '05 and cleaning the house.

My First Reason to Hate Facebook

Yesterday was a bad day, but facebook made it a little tougher. Yes I had a lot of people telling me they would pray and help out, but to see the status got to me a little. Before I go into this, if you are one of these people I am not mad at you, I'm mad at WNCN NBC17 for taking my job away. I kept seeing status updates that involved statements like "it's a sad day," or "rough day." I felt angry, they were the ones who kept their jobs. Come talk to me about a bad day with a pregnant wife and a mortgage with no local options for the field I was in. I'll stop there for now, this is going to be a long holiday.

Jobless

I've had a bad feeling for a while about this job, but I took it as I was overly paranoid. I even had co workers tell me that. I mean even last night I had a bad feeling and it was mentioned that they would get laid off before me. Well, I walk into WNCN NBC17 also of mync.com and the news director walks me to GM's office and I have been laid off.

Of course I am running through the gambit of emotions, especially anger because I was lied to to get me into the building earlier. I called the news director Nannette out about this and she was upset that I called her deceitful for telling me I was needed for a special project. If you are going to fire me don't lie to me, be upfront about it. Telling me you had a special project was wrong. There is a history of this behavior so I shouldn't be too shocked. How can companies do this on the eve of holidays? I understand Media General is leaking money like a sieve (thank you print division) and things had to be done. Yet, did management take a cut, did they fire a few of the unneeded management? No they cut who they thought were expendable, I am that person.

So now I am thinking what the hell do I do. I mean I was about to post about The Wife being pregnant. She's now five weeks along and we have no insurance. We freaking bought a house in July. I am a man in a field that no long is needed. I have fallen the way of the dodo and do not know what to do. Do I up and move again? Do I try and stick it out in Raleigh and hope something works out? I don't know, I've gotten past my first step which was getting out of the fetal position on my kitchen floor. Next step... either grab a bottle of bourbon or go to the church office and work on a new resume tape.