Of Being A Creative Artist In A Corporate World

So, tell me about yourself

Well, all the things I could truthfully tell anyone about myself would probably make me look like an undesirable candidate.

Tell me about yourself

Don’t let my white beard fool you, I have none of the wisdom that my wizened visage portrays

I may seem calm but in my head I have broken you down and distilled you into a string of words for the next villainous character about whom I may or may not write, whom very bad things will be done to with very sharp objects.

Tell me about yourself

The answer to that should be how, you are hardworking, organised, passionate, consistent and other self-promoting adjectives that spotlight why you a great professional.

I know the answer but I am a modest person, I am so modest that in the next edition of the dictionary there should be a picture of me, right next to the word modest.

What this means for me is that, although I know the words that would make a great pitch, I cannot sell myself. I find rattling off my accomplishments both real and aspired somewhat like blowing my own horn.

I much prefer having my work speak for itself and since it can’t really speak maybe an endorsement or testimony of others who have witnessed it. For example I could say I am great writer (or at least in my head I think am) and should be considered a national treasure; while I shake my head in bewilderment as to why my book hasn’t made it to the bestseller list yet (because its not yet published dummy… oh yeah That)

One of the reasons I blog is to have a home for my words while I figure out the whole becoming a published author gig. The other reason is to build a portfolio of sorts; a neat little space to answer that tell me about yourself question.

Tell me about yourself.

Well everything worth knowing (as deemed by me) about me can be found within the words on this site. I have been told that I have an article for everything….

everything you could possibly need to know about me is written down somewhere 😉

— ~B 🇿🇼 (@Beatonm5) August 15, 2019

You want a sample of my fictional writing; My Stories

You want to read my reviews on books, movies, plays, applications even events, I got you My Reviews

You want to find out what I have worked on, who I have worked with and who I met… sure thing. My Guests

For a virtual cup of coffee with me and a quick catch up on life the universe and everything check out My Coffeeshares

In the course of my blogging I have picked up several skills, skills one does not learn from behind a desk in a classroom. Skills courtesy of YouTube tutorials, Google and other places on the internet. I know things.

Opportunities are no longer packaged in conventional ways and I came across interesting reading on how the next generation will be doing things we cant even imagine and working on jobs we cant begin to comprehend as being something people do.

Recruitment process in some sectors feels as if it’s still steps behind.  You will find a placement for a position still insisting someone to send a CV when what they need to really see is your portfolio. Instead of focusing on what you can do or have done, they want to see qualifications and degrees which may seem fancy and all but not quite where they will find the next innovative idea that will take us to the future, when we can’t even keep up with the present.

How do you survive in a world which is yet to recognize your worth?

• Don’t take No for an answer

Everytime you are told you can’t do something, don’t just accept it as that’s just the way things are.

Once I applied for a position at an organisation I felt was doing the things I wanted to do and I strongly felt I would have been a perfect fit there. But my application was summarily dismissed with an automated response thanking me “for my interest.”

Since I knew I had expressed more than an interest, and had in fact laid out a strategy that would have been mutually beneficial I deduced that my application had not received due consideration. I reached out to the organization on the pretext of finding out what I needed to improve on while subtly bringing to their attention their oversight in not considering me.

I was not surprised when later I got a callback that I had made the shortlist……

I still didn’t get the opening but I managed to become a freelance “Expert Consultant” and now they enlist my services as and when required.

• Know your worth

Simply because your skills and experience are not formally recognised does not mean that you did not spend time and effort in nurturing them.

Let’s take a moment to roll our collective eyes at the people who want to pay for creative enterprises and skills with Exposure or The esteem of seeing your name in print.

I understand that sometimes you need your name out there but its no reason to exploit a creative’s work simply because they love doing what they do, no to this modern day slavery.

One of the few times I got shortlisted for a position I had applied for without any song and dance, and even one of the fewer times I got invited to an interview which in my head had gone along swimmingly but was still surprised to learn that they had picked another candidate.

I took a leaf from my own playbook and would not take a simple no as an answer. I wanted to find exactly what I had lacked. I learnt that although I had been ranked highly by the interview panel; of all the candidates who had been interviewed I had requested for the highest remuneration.  

What? Well, they had asked me how much I expected to be paid, so I told them.

Whats with that question. How much do you expect to get paid? Well, how about you tell me how much you were thinking of paying me, then I see if its acceptable.

Why do you want to work for us? Because I need the money, hello?

Whats your weakness? I turn all of my life experiences into blog posts

Eventually they contacted me to say that the candidate they had picked was unable to deliver. (You get what you pay for I thought to myself) Unfortunately at the time I had commitments elsewhere and had to respectfully decline, their loss… but still we ended up with an arrangement, I could not be fulltime with them, but they could contract my services when needed.

• Constantly improve

With each rejection I have got, I make it point to learn why it was so and upgrade my skillset accordingly. The internet is a wonderful place, you can learn practically anything about anything; there’s online courses some free, some paid, some are worth it and some not worth the money you spend printing the PDF certificate you are awarded.

I finally graduated from the International College Of Professional Internet Scheme Scams an affilate of the University of Imaginary Technology with a masters degree in Medicinology, Computerology, Writology, Counterfeitology and a Creative Masters In Illusions.
celebrate with me pic.twitter.com/O7oclXqpNy

— ~B 🇿🇼 (@Beatonm5) March 26, 2019

Tell me about yourself.

I am a magician who cant do magic, so I write.

Oh but is it not magic?

When I am not doing magic I like to help build blogging communities you could call me an Uncle Of Bloggers.

~B

PS maybe I have some wisdom and each day I become Me.