Rogue Librarian

As I read the reports on F**ked Companies, it seems like web coordinator in a non-profit is the job to have. I wish I could say that I had the foresight to know this would be the case. I did not.

About two months before the dot-com tank began, I started to feel the temptation of an office environment where smelly twenty-somethings spent as much time riding around the office on razors as they did working in it. I was ready to work long hours with less mature people in order to earn some extra cash. God knows I needed it.

Unable to resist the temptation, I set up an interview at one of NYC?s sexiest design firms. This is a company that made a name for its self by creating a product that could be described as a fluid index or thesaurus that serves as the taxonomical structure for some very cool projects. Given the importance of metadata in such a product, I thought that my background as a librarian would make sense to these people. Nope!

Note well that the fellow who interviewed me was a fairly big deal in the company. I gave him a bit of my professional background and waited for his response. After about two beats he said, ?Wow, libraries. That?s, like, really organized information.? Uh, yeah . . .

I wish I could say that they gave me an offer and that I, as a person driven more by professional integrity than a desire for money, politely refused. In fact, I did not get an offer, let alone a second interview.

I work hard 7 days a week and earn what you might expect in the non-profit world. The work is fascinating, and now that the dot-com silliness no longer distracts us, my colleagues and I can concentrate on some serious and important work. I am happy.

Had this sexy company given me an offer, I might have taken it, and I might now be out of work. I know it is just luck, but I still feel smug.