So yesterday was the first day back pounding the pavement looking for work. In a moment of fortuitous coincidence, escrow on the new house closed right when the advertising industry entered its traditional end-of-year holiday dead zone. So rather than spending my days panicking about work, I could focus my time being productive with all the painting and prepping and moving.
But that's all behind us now. New year, new attitude. Back to the grindstone. Trawling the job boards yesterday something popped up on Craigslist. It was the rarest of things - a graphic design job here in Bakersfield. I immediately responded and sent a link to my website and was pleasantly surprised to get a call later that afternoon from the poster.
It's the most basic of jobs, some tedious catalog work. It's entry level work you'd pawn off at an intern at an agency. But these days, in this economy, beggars can't be choosers. He liked my work and and I liked his money and we agreed to talk again today to discuss fees.
"Things must be really rough for you designers" he said.
I tried to put the best spin on it I could and then asked he why he mentioned that. Turns out he'd advertised a similar project in the past and had gotten almost no interest. But this time, within hours, he was inundated with responses, from as far north as San Francisco and as far south as Orange County. In fact he was almost about to go with someone from Santa Barbara, but he was really hoping for someone local.
And then I responded.
It ends up it wasn't my work he liked so much as it was the fact I was across town.
So I'm just about to call him and now I'm suddenly concerned. With so much desperate competition out there it's going to be a race to the bottom on price. I doubt I could get what I used to charge just last year. And no matter what I charge, I'm sure someone will beat it. But at some point you have to draw a line in the sand, and with that said I've decided I will not work for minimum wage...
...less than...
... I will not work for less than minimum wage...
...maybe.
