The Devil Wears Chunky Jewelry and Spiky Hair in These Foolish Things

Okay. So I wrote yesterday’s entry after I wanted to come on early-ish on Monday to get an optimistic start of my week. But then I couldn’t get on the site and THEN the emails started rolling in.

One of the very first things I did yesterday was check in with the HR recruiters I hadn’t heard from in a while. I’ve written about the main players in my job search, but I haven’t written much about the leads that aren’t getting too much traction. These are the leads that don’t seem to go anywhere or the companies who are quick with a rejection (there have been quite a few of those).

Still, I can’t believe I haven’t written about hearing from one of the QUEENS of the fashion industry! She’s a well-known industry insider who had a career change to outside recruiter for the fashion and home decor industries maybe 5 years ago. I remember hearing about her when I worked for the giant dysfunctional fashion company 15-20 years ago. I worked for the craziest people IN THE WORLD.

This particular woman never worked for the company I was working for, but she is a legend (and has worked for many of the biggest American fashion retailers), and my boss and boss’s boss at the time used to talk about her a LOT. She has a totally memorable name and quite the interesting reputation, though I don’t remember trash talking, I just remember lots of chatter and I remember that name.

ANYWAY, about two weeks ago, she contacted me out of the BLUE via LinkedIn. She said she’d reviewed my profile and was impressed and wanted to see if I was interested in talking about an amazing opportunity. Um. YES! I replied immediately and we set up a time for a video chat.

I definitely zhuzhed for this one, as I knew it was going to be a special and important chat - this woman is connected! And as soon as she came on the video chat it was as if I’d been transported back to my old fashion market days. There was this woman, completely dripping in chunky costume jewelry, wild spiky hair, thick lashes, huge dark and juicy injected lips and long clicky fingernails saying hello in sort of an I-don’t-really-give-a-fuck tone. As she was trying fairly unsuccessfully to pull up my resume and fumbling around on her computer completely nonchalantly, she asked me to introduce myself.

I told her that I had to confess that I was sort of fan-girling because I’d heard about her during such an important part of my career and that my [awful] boss and HER [horribly alcoholic] boss would bring her name up all the time! She looked at me dead in the eye at that point and said, “I’m sure they said terrible things about me.”

And I didn’t quite know how to answer that because I didn’t think that they were enemies?

Regardless, I stumbled through that first part, but eventually got my flow and we had a great talk and she told me about the position (Head of Product for an incredibly fast-growing home furnishings retailer) and said she was actually doing pre-research and that her initial call with the hiring manager was going to be later on that afternoon. She wanted me to send her my portfolio and some other details and she’d present me to the company.

I knew the job was a bit out of my league for various reasons, PLUS it would require a cross-country move, but I’ve always said for the right opportunity…

ANYWAY, fast forward to yesterday. It had been about a week and I hadn’t gotten any kind of feedback from The Fashion Vamp, so I emailed her to check in and I received a curt email back from her simply stating that she’d keep an eye out for something that better suits me.

That’s it. Essentially half a sentence.

So I wrote back thanking her for the reply and asking if she had any further details - did the company give any feedback on my qualifications and did she have any recommendations on how I could better prepare and shine for future opportunities??

And she wrote back the cunty-est email I’ve ever read. She said that not only did I not have the right kind of experience (though we discussed in our video chat that it’s not necessary to have the exact qualifications), but that I should consider staying in my current industry.

In other words, don’t quit your day job. Even though I don’t have a day job!

The tone was beyond condescending. And it really hurt my feelings. And now I can see why so many people talked about her behind her back. I thought those whispers were praises. Most likely, they were not.

When I tell you that I lost all the wind from my sails yesterday, I have to say that it was the lowest day I’ve had during Funemployment.

Not only that, I never heard back from any of my current leads yesterday even though I was promised follow up from the two companies I’d been talking with.

I also knew that one of the issues was likely my portfolio. It’s not something I’ve spent tons of time on because I haven’t really needed one within the type of job that I do and yet…I think having a really nice, professional looking website with some great looking images of my success stories and projects would go a long way. I do currently have a kind of makeshift website, but I have depended much more on my resume and talking through my projects and successes. I really need a good, clean visual.

So last night I did a ton of research on formats and where I should host a site and what I need to put in it and yada yada. I even reached out to The Bulldog, who creates websites among other things and asked for advice and started pulling some ideas together.

Today I woke up more determined than ever and I have a dent in the start of the portfolio website (it’s likely going to take me the rest of the week to get a publishable product, but at least I have a start).

And not only that, but I heard back from BOTH companies!!

Again, I’m not going to jinx, but I’m going to say that after that awful, bitchy cunt-face reply, I am even more determined than ever to get something GOOD out of my next move!!

Fuck you very much,
GS

Last updated August 02, 2022