The first move
Ten years ago I started my working path, a lucky one indeed.
It didn’t happen in a “regular” way and, even today, I don’t know if the company I started working with was searching for someone.
If my life with Cocoon Projects were a movie, this piece would be the prequel.
Summer 2007
I finished highschool and I had no money for the usual journey with my fellow students in some beachy-dreamy place, so I spent the summer dog-sitting two nice Charles spaniels with my sister and starting to look for my first job.
I was hungry for practice and I knew that real life would be very different from the sandbox phase we had been in until that moment. I had enough theory, simulations of work life and projects done at school and even others by self-teaching myself out of school. It was time to get dirty and learn by doing, get involved in real projects in the real world.
Real world: “Yeah, I see…Get in line with the others”
By the end of that year, I had answered to lots of job posts with no success, I didn’t receive answers and when it happened, they were something like “Thanks, we have already chosen another person”. I guess the point was that I had no experience at all, just some personal projects and my goodwill.
One day, I was casually talking with a dad’s friend about it and he suggested to go and show myself at their doors, for him it was the most simply and effective way to get noticed. It was the suggestion from an adult man with family, not so young anymore, somebody who knows the struggle to get noticed among lots of people that do similar stuff. For the record, he worked in the computers tech field, we called him everytime we needed help with our computers at home.
You know what? It was a great idea. I hadn’t thought about this solution and it seemed a brilliant one to me, and if it worked for him, even more so it will work for me. It was worth trying.
The knock-knock list
From that moment, instead of continuing answering to job posts, I started looking for interesting companies based on my requirements!
Basically, I searched for every agency and company that matched not only the work fields and skills I was looking for but also the city area where I wished to work — because it was close to my friends 😊 — and one of the most important factors that I checked on those companies’ websites was the “team” page, because the human factor is very important to me.
I read, observed and tried to feel the vibe that the websites expressed over the first visual impact. How they communicated their company, teams and how they work, it always had the last word in order to add them to my knock-knock list. You know, it makes a huge difference when people are treated as persons and not as “things” with just some skills.
I chose 5 spots, prepared my CV, my presentation letters: me and my awkwardness were ready! 😅
Sneakers, Purple Trench and Tour map: Go.
During a February evening, I went out to my peculiar tour with my sister as an allie. Not all the places opened me the door, some didn’t answer, some just told me to put my CV in their mailbox and just one of those places opened, literally, their door. They welcomed me, received my CV, we had a small talk and they told me that the person able to manage these kind of things wasn’t there but they would have given my CV to him telling about my visit.
That company was EJWD, a crossmedia communication company.
I can’t even tell you how nervous I was doing these kind of visits but, you know…I had to do it. Later that day or maybe the day after, I was checking my email and I saw something new: I received my first reply from “Shiver”.
“Interview for web design”
Hello,
I’ve received your CV, and I propose a meeting here with us.
Would it be possible on Thursday or Friday at 3pm or at 5.30pm?Thank you for your interest, and for your spirit of initiative.
:)
OMG. An answer. A positive Answer. An interview. My first interview!
These were the little joys of that evening. I was really happy, even just for the answer. I replied, booked a date and on the interview day I brought myself and my portfolio. I was excited, it was my first job interview ever and despite my poor experience these people saw something in me. Today, I guess it was just my potential or my spirit…but who knows, I can’t tell.
On March 3rd 2008, I started my path and I found myself in situations that for me were very challenging, they helped me grow on personal and professional level: exactly what I was searching for.
Today that company doesn’t exist anymore.
We’ve changed, we’ve evolved in something different, new and beautiful.
I met amazing people during that trip and some of them are still with me, with some we started Cocoon Projects years ago.
I feel so lucky, I’ve met and walked my professional path with visionary, passioned, pragmatic and very professionals humans.
Why have I told you this story?
First of all, because in life, love and even work I think that making the first move is worth it all, despite not-written rules. It is worth the try, somehow you attract the right people and it is the start of an intense love/work story.
And second…Because it’s one of the little stories that sometimes came up during dinners and lunches, but I get clumsy and tell always a very short version because of… too many eyes on me. 🙈
Make the first move: make it happen and then let it happen.
