Jun. 8th, 2004 10:59 am
Wow...just wow...
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savvyliterateOkay, in a way, I'm still reeling from what happened this weekend. Because of the uncertain nature of all of this, I am placing it under a Friends lock. Several of you have already heard this. In a sense, I am still reeling from it and I don't want anyone accidentally coming across some of the job details.
::drags in breath:: I met a guy.
Yes, a real, honest-to-God, flesh and blood guy who is cute, has a decent job and likes me AND the cats. I spent 14 hours with him on Saturday. I had fun with him. The sparks didn't fly like a romance novel, but I didn't expect that either. He was fun to hang out with. We went out to lunch, walked through downtown Bristol and through the antique stores and had dinner out too.
There's a BUT in here somewhere.
His name is Jeff and he's one of the top designers for the Knoxville News-Sentinel. He actually contacted me at first because he was interested in my work. Part of the reason we spent Saturday together was for him to warm me up to the idea of the News-Sentinel possibly recruiting me one day. He was going to look through my designs and give me some tips, etc. That was pretty cool. In fact, it was great. I've never had anyone talk shop with me like that before.
Anyhow, about 10 hours into it, he looks at me and says we have a problem. Uh oh, I thought. But, it turned out the problem is that he liked spending time with me and would like to see me again on a personal basis. However, he wants the paper to pursue me on a professional basis as well.
So, we're rational adults. It's not like we immediately want to hop in the sack with each other. So, we talk it out.
Jeff is up for a promotion at the paper. He hopes to find out today what they're planning to do with him. The paper wants to promote him because several larger papers are trying to recruit him. Knoxville wants to retain him. There's one of three choices available to him right now: Lead Designer, Assistant Design Director or Assistant Editor in charge of Production of a new youth publication. He's not sure which choice will be offered to him yet.
Where did I play into the picture?
If he becomes the assistant design director, he has to look for a replacement for his current job. If he lands in charge of the youth publication, he has to hire a new staff that includes anywhere from four to eight designers. That's where I came in. He was looking at my stuff initially as a candidate for one of these spots.
Why should I consider this?
Knoxville is the type of paper that Steve's been grooming me for. Everything's just happening a year earlier than planned. However, I did tell Jeff that if they wanted to pursue me in any sort of fashion that they go through Steve first.
Knoxville is 140,000 and Bristol is 40,000. By moving to Knoxville (because they are a union paper), I will get a 10K increase in my salary. Because of the scale of pay raises, a year and a half after I start working there, I will be making $41K a year - $16K more than I'm making now. Jeff was able to go ahead and tell me this because he sits on the union board at the paper and keeps track of salary scales, etc.
Yeah, my jaw dropped as well.
With student loans, credit cards, car payment, etc., how could I not seriously look at this?
If this happened, it wouldn't happen next week. The soonest would be in August. The latest would be in February. I'm actually leaning more toward February with this one, because it would give me time to actually look for an apartment and it will be much closer to the two years that Steve originally wanted me at the Herald Courier.
So, where does that leave me and Jeff?
If they are going to seriously consider me for a role there, I do not want to date him. I don't want to put that big of a career move in jeopardy. Yes, journalism people do date journalism people. But, I want to be hired for how good my work is - not because I'm dating someone there.
I told him that let's wait and see about the dating. I'm happy with being friends right now. When we find out what they plan to do with him, we'll go from there. If he moves into a spot where they won't be looking to fill any positions, then I'll date him. If they do, then I won't for awhile.
It's a sticky situation, but right now, I'm still very much on the friends side, so it's not going to break my heart if we don't date. I think the biggest thing this has done is that it has me aiming higher than I ever did before. To me, knowing my worth as a designer actually was the bigger shock of the day moreso than having a guy interested in me. I know I'm a good designer. That, combined with my writing skills, got me to Bristol. As Jeff pointed out, I'm a "one-stop journalism shop." It's time for me to decide if I'm going to break off from straight reporting and pursue design full-time, and it's strongly looking like the design is winning.
So, any of you have any opinions on this?
::drags in breath:: I met a guy.
Yes, a real, honest-to-God, flesh and blood guy who is cute, has a decent job and likes me AND the cats. I spent 14 hours with him on Saturday. I had fun with him. The sparks didn't fly like a romance novel, but I didn't expect that either. He was fun to hang out with. We went out to lunch, walked through downtown Bristol and through the antique stores and had dinner out too.
There's a BUT in here somewhere.
His name is Jeff and he's one of the top designers for the Knoxville News-Sentinel. He actually contacted me at first because he was interested in my work. Part of the reason we spent Saturday together was for him to warm me up to the idea of the News-Sentinel possibly recruiting me one day. He was going to look through my designs and give me some tips, etc. That was pretty cool. In fact, it was great. I've never had anyone talk shop with me like that before.
Anyhow, about 10 hours into it, he looks at me and says we have a problem. Uh oh, I thought. But, it turned out the problem is that he liked spending time with me and would like to see me again on a personal basis. However, he wants the paper to pursue me on a professional basis as well.
So, we're rational adults. It's not like we immediately want to hop in the sack with each other. So, we talk it out.
Jeff is up for a promotion at the paper. He hopes to find out today what they're planning to do with him. The paper wants to promote him because several larger papers are trying to recruit him. Knoxville wants to retain him. There's one of three choices available to him right now: Lead Designer, Assistant Design Director or Assistant Editor in charge of Production of a new youth publication. He's not sure which choice will be offered to him yet.
Where did I play into the picture?
If he becomes the assistant design director, he has to look for a replacement for his current job. If he lands in charge of the youth publication, he has to hire a new staff that includes anywhere from four to eight designers. That's where I came in. He was looking at my stuff initially as a candidate for one of these spots.
Why should I consider this?
Knoxville is the type of paper that Steve's been grooming me for. Everything's just happening a year earlier than planned. However, I did tell Jeff that if they wanted to pursue me in any sort of fashion that they go through Steve first.
Knoxville is 140,000 and Bristol is 40,000. By moving to Knoxville (because they are a union paper), I will get a 10K increase in my salary. Because of the scale of pay raises, a year and a half after I start working there, I will be making $41K a year - $16K more than I'm making now. Jeff was able to go ahead and tell me this because he sits on the union board at the paper and keeps track of salary scales, etc.
Yeah, my jaw dropped as well.
With student loans, credit cards, car payment, etc., how could I not seriously look at this?
If this happened, it wouldn't happen next week. The soonest would be in August. The latest would be in February. I'm actually leaning more toward February with this one, because it would give me time to actually look for an apartment and it will be much closer to the two years that Steve originally wanted me at the Herald Courier.
So, where does that leave me and Jeff?
If they are going to seriously consider me for a role there, I do not want to date him. I don't want to put that big of a career move in jeopardy. Yes, journalism people do date journalism people. But, I want to be hired for how good my work is - not because I'm dating someone there.
I told him that let's wait and see about the dating. I'm happy with being friends right now. When we find out what they plan to do with him, we'll go from there. If he moves into a spot where they won't be looking to fill any positions, then I'll date him. If they do, then I won't for awhile.
It's a sticky situation, but right now, I'm still very much on the friends side, so it's not going to break my heart if we don't date. I think the biggest thing this has done is that it has me aiming higher than I ever did before. To me, knowing my worth as a designer actually was the bigger shock of the day moreso than having a guy interested in me. I know I'm a good designer. That, combined with my writing skills, got me to Bristol. As Jeff pointed out, I'm a "one-stop journalism shop." It's time for me to decide if I'm going to break off from straight reporting and pursue design full-time, and it's strongly looking like the design is winning.
So, any of you have any opinions on this?
