Not quite. I’ve turned off my job alerts for about a year now. The only time I’m on jobsites is when I’m posting job ads myself for junior web designers, web devs, and interns. Recruiting is so not easy — but just another business skill I’ve had to learn along the way.
Paper screening, phone interviews, writing the perfect job ad, communicating with job sites… I don’t think they teach this even to Psychology majors. Good thing I have CiteHR and HR Philippines to run to.
Back in March I wrote about a sales training program. Maybe *fingers crossed* I’ll get a chance to hone those communication and selling skills at only the most awesome ad network in Asia.
Why apply for a “real job” now?
There’s not much room for me to grow being full-time in Pigmata Media, which is primarily web development and user experience. My 1.5 years with Pigmata have been a lot of trial and error, and will still continue to be. It’s like a 24/7 real-life MBA that you could never be prepared for. All those startup mistakes? We did that. We started with as little capital as we could, took out a lease on a small office (in Makati CBD no less!), no concrete plan — but with dedication and guaranteed client consulting work!
I could probably stay in Pigmata for years, however long it takes to exit. But would I still be happy? Writing and refining our web development proposals took months, servicing those contracts are a whole other story, attracting good talent and giving them a comfortable workspace takes thousands of pesos and lots of time searching and interviewing, pitching and asking for business investments, recovering from bad hires, oh , and nothing can prepare you for the enormous checks for business taxes.
I know I said you should be your own boss. I still believe in that. I still partly own Pigmata. And I still want to tell the world that we have great technologists in the Philippines. I’ve given it a real shot, and practically all my personal resources. I’ve stood up against friends and family and advocated the entrepreneurship life and delayed gratification – I live and breathe it (you should see where I live versus my parents’ home). I’m realizing though, that it doesn’t have to be either-or… and there are a few ’self-employed’ and ‘employee’ jobs that are actually pretty good. I’ve had enough of you (for now), Steve and Robert Kiyosaki.
Not everyone’s born to be a Donald Trump or Washington Sycip, but we can sure as hell try. But when you’ve given almost 2 years of your life to a consulting startup where you’ve become an above-average Jill of all trades… that’s not my life story.
I need to be around people (new, old, young, nice, smart, not-so-pretty, tenacious, silly, all welcome) I can learn from and be in a group I can help make better — and live healthy and make money along the way, of course. If I do go back to the employee life, one thing I’d probably miss is “being able to decide exactly what to do each day with your time is a massive privilege,” which is as much boon as bane. I used to be excellent in everything I did, I think I need to guide myself back to my golden days.
