Signs a Corporate Job Is NOT For You

I'm not quite sure when I realized a typical corporate job wasn't for me but I think it must have been sometime after I got my partnership in my own film company & started working with people who respected me + wanted to listen to me.

A few other signs were there before that, though. I was reading this article very recently & it reminded me of stories I've heard about attorney job interviews.

If you go to lawyer blogs or spend time with law students, you'll hear all sorts of stories. I've read things that say married women shouldn't wear their wedding rings in job interviews and heard about downright insulting questions like "You were on XYZ Journal. Why weren't you on Law Review?"

One fundamental problem I'm seeing in these career advice articles is telling people that they should yield to companies to a fault. I'm surprised I've not read an article that told people to lie prostrate on the ground in front of the executive suite & say "Yes, Your Excellency! May I have another?" after being kicked in private areas. That might be a bit of a stretch, but not by much.

When I read an article saying to defend & lie about felonious companies you worked for in the past, that author lost all credibility with me. Do that as a lawyer & you'll be accused of participating in the fraud, even if you worked in the mail room.

I believe performing your civic duty & being a decent human being trumps "never say anything negative about a past employer." If you're seeking work in my entertainment business & your past employer was a scam artist, you'd better tell me. You have a duty to protect others from the same experience & not telling an interviewer might lead the company to work with the scammers later on.

This article essentially tells people to yield to illegal questions & be "polite" in the face of them. Sorry, some things are so fundamentally offensive to ask about & are often delivered in a very snotty tone. You won't get politeness from me in that context; you'll be lucky if I don't smack you. Implying that I'm going off to breed is just insulting to me & asking me about my marital status makes me think you're considering me for a sexual harassment victim instead of an employee. Not every woman has baby rabies, all right?

Oh, and people who hire law firm associates are not ignorant in the least. THEY are assholes & you have to handle those types differently.

I once shut down someone at my career services office who tried pulling the old "you aren't at this rank" attitude with me. I pointed out that I was the first person in my entire family, including extended, to even go to law school & that in light of the fact that I didn't come from money or have the ability to afford all the study guides like everyone else, the fact I wasn't flunking out or made anything lower than a C- was pretty damn good in my view. After I said that, this person backed off & agreed w/me!

Asking something about a journal to me would have invited a combative answer in light of my background, no matter how politely you asked. Personally, there were no journals in law school for my interests so I didn't really care.

I'd have no desire to work someplace where I was asked an illegal or combative question so I'd not care about any impression I gave since they already poisoned the water for me. That whole good impression thing goes both ways.

I really think that my refusal to put up with that kind of shit is a major sign that I'd better own my own business & call my own shots. I've noticed that I'm far more direct & pointed in asking for things than most people probably are. Call me arrogant or pushy if you want but I just have no tolerance for BS & feel that even though I'm nowhere near 40 + look even younger, life's too short for it. I've put up with enough in my own life & telling me to "suck it up" (as you'll find many established attorneys telling newbies) just doesn't cut it. I'd rather be poor & keep my soul than a rich little drone who sold out or became someone's punching bag.

Plus, telling me to take BS means you've just insured that I'll one day snap & kill older folk who pissed me off. Do you really want that hanging over your head?

So, 2 signs you shouldn't work in a typical corporate job: You work someplace where people appreciate you & you don't put up with illegal conduct.

This Craig's List ad also has some relation to this whole theme:

Why does everyone want you do everything free (Manhattan)
Date: 2011-01-17, 9:35PM EST
Reply to: gigs-bzpfd-2166075081@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]

Actors, Muscians, Photographers, Comedians.......If we all stop working production would not go on.


1. If the comedians stop doing bringer shows there would be no comedians to see at the comedyclubs. You should not have to pay or have your friends pay for you to perform. Let a whole month go by with no comedians clubs will start losing money. You don't need them you can perform at other venues, hotels, parties, colleges, local bars.

2. Actors....you don't know to have roles available to build up your reel, if you can truly act you can make a demo monologue with your video camera at home. Most of these filmakers out there after you complete the film you gonna have to stalk them to get a copy of it. If filmakers are going to make films then they need to understand the real world of filmaking that you have to raise money for production. At least pay the actors $50 a day and have some decent food on the set.

3. We all love the craft and love what we do but TFCD and Demo Reels don't pay the B.I.L.L.S

4. We have to stop whoring ourselves out for free and start holding out and boycotting these people that want to get everything for free.

5. Actors/models we have to start expecting to pay for things as well. You want a new headshot, demo reel, portfolios. Expect to pay for it.

* Location: Manhattan
* it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
* Compensation: no pay

PostingID: 2166075081

I agree w/the general sentiment. However, I think you can only be exploited for as long as you let someone do it to you. I, for instance, will not "PAY to play" in any context. I'm not even doing freebies so you won't convince me that pay to play is worth my time.

Second, get a written contract. If someone refuses to give you one, don't deal with that individual or entity. That's a sure sign that someone isn't a professional & if you hope to be one, you aren't getting anywhere by dealing with people who can't even give you a simple written document concerning your role, rights, etc.

Third, there are ways to do things that don't require posting a Craig's List ad. I know there's a company that will film a short movie starring you & you can use that for demo reel material. Just pay them & you're done. The entitlement attitude of some people truly reeks; professionals don't care about the troubles of strangers. Boo hoo, you don't have a lawyer. If you don't have money, then don't ask me to help you for free when I don't know you & we don't even have mutual friends. Have a friend help you; don't expect strangers to care or give you freebies.

Then again, maybe these people have NO friends because they acted entitled to get freebies & didn't reciprocate. Somebody should post a list somewhere so people don't waste their time dealing with these entitlement issues.

I Hope You're Sticking Around...

Just trying to adjust to having a full time day job again. Of course, the real test comes in when I get paid. I'm not about to have a repeat performance of the scam artistry of last November. I won't be working unpaid for 3 months this time.

Realized that I have some links I really should go & comment on:

* Legalities aside, I & every sane person in this country have been wanting this to happen for years. It's time to start following the example of other countries & treating citizenship with the importance that it deserves instead of letting illegals cash in on everything.


* A few comments on this:

First off, honesty is a total misnomer in a job interview. It IS, seriously. You walk in there wearing clothes you don't normally wear, rehearsing your answers ahead of time & telling an employer precisely what they want to hear. Personal style & creativity is generally frowned upon as is not being a robot. A smart interviewer knows that there is a degree of dishonesty in any job interview. I would even go so far as to say that a job interview is the ultimate act of dishonesty, especially when competition for a job is fierce & lots of people are desperate.

Second, I'm glad that some of my methods are things that one should do such as dealing w/overqualification right away. Thankfully, my current position didn't come w/that problem. I'm still learning but at least it's in the title of attorney.

Also glad to see that this person despises the practice of not doing a follow-up after giving someone an interview. I hate that & it's a true pet peeve of mine.

Third, employers should also not rely on candidates filling a position. They may have other interviews & get better offers or people who are more proactive than Potential Employer #1.

A few more comments: checking references off list could lead to potential lawsuits. What if someone said "do not contact X person?" There could be defamation issues so we might want to tread carefully there.

We're also not addressing the catch-22 of "no experience w/out a job; no job w/out experience." You can't volunteer everywhere & for every single field. It's actually a terrible idea to volunteer at a library in order to work as a librarian; my husband found out that it will harm you if you pursue that area.

Also not smart to do it as a lawyer unless you're in law school; if you've graduated, you should already have gotten internships or done something in the legal industry to learn how to practice law. Otherwise, you end up stuck as a permanent volunteer/unpaid worker & never get the respect from anyone to move forward. You end up devaluing your own skills & no one takes you seriously if you're doing it years after getting admitted. I've seen many lawyers not take up & comers seriously but simply exploit them for free labor.

For the record, legal aid & other similar groups have requirements for volunteers; I know Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts requires 7 years of legal experience before you can work w/them. Now my situation has not been on a volunteer basis but is a result of how the entertainment industry works.

Oh, and personality not fitting the corporate culture: what if someone's personality is repugnant to everyone? What if you're in an occupation where you're supposed to be less than happy flowers & sunshine to people, where in fact such behavior would cause those you had to get things from to brush you aside? Somewhere, I'm sure there are people whose personalities & general inner being are offensive to everyone in the room; what then?

Finally, be honest but don't talk about a bad boss? Hmmm.... can we say "be a liar?" I don't think that when your former position was a scam enterprise that you help yourself by defending the scam, especially when you have ethical duties to the general public under a professional license. I also think you have a right to talk about the lack of advancement opportunities if people who don't even interact w/you on a frequent basis are the ones making the decisions while ignoring anyone who does spend time w/you (including your immediate boss) & says you deserve to move upward.

Honestly, I think I did much better in interviews when I wasn't worried about making someone like me & simply approached it like a business transaction.

Two big problems w/this one:

First, if I were still dating I prefer not wasting my time w/an animal hater or a two bit scumbag who's just like an ex. I had no qualms talking about pets or exes & used such conversation to determine whether I needed to bother getting to know this person any further. One doesn't need to be the crazy cat lady or mega-obsessed on something but I certainly think it's pertinent to share stories on these topics to implicitly tell someone just what will happen if THEY try doing to me what X in the story did.

Second, you can use that stuff for bonding. My husband & I bonded over bad ex stories. It became a question of whose exes are worse. We declared it a tie.

Oh, and readers? If you try to seek me out aside from this blog, know that I am a very suspicious & paranoid person. Life & general reality has made me this way.

If you have a complaint about that, then take it up w/all the people who have wronged me in some way. Ask nicely & I'll give you a list.