The Door
“He opens a school door, closes a prison.”
- Victor Hugo
Leaving a company with no clear direction, I was drowning in the middle of the sea. Fortunately I learned swimming when I was an elementary school kid, I have been swimming throughout the years and gained the skills to teach others to swim. After a job in the finance field and another job in the event organization field, being a swimming coach sounded like the only thing I could do with my life. I didn’t even have a substantial skill to make a living. Should I be a swimming coach? But I knew I was only interested in swimming, not coaching. I knew I would never go down that route.
But what should I do? I was moving my legs below the sea level to keep myself floating. Even though I wasn’t drowning, I just kept moving along the same spot. I needed to get to somewhere solid, or I was pretty sure I would die a few hours later. I needed to move forward.
A beacon of hope in the distance was in sight, I came across a job which sounds very interesting to me at JobsDB: Creative Copywriter. The job description was clear.
GuruOnline is a leading integrated digital marketing company in town, possessing expertise from initiating digital marketing proposals; building and optimizing branded campaigns; Facebook fans engagement; driving immediate results to measuring results and impact.
Skills and knowledge:
1. Creative and innovative
2. Experience in online channels
3. Well-organized, responsible and self-motivated
4. 40wpm of Chinese type skills
All of the above requirements were a perfect fit for any college grads, who I was one of them. With the 3 years working experience under the belt, I think I can at least fulfil the requirement number 3 too.
The next day, I sent my application via email, I got a call from the company to ask me to come for an in-person interview. I was excited; I made a quick prep about the company's history, plus the trending social media at the time, such as: Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Today’s the interview day. I knocked on the door. The receptionist opened the door for me, who also led me to the interview room. I was walking along the corridor with a partition standing between me and the employees.
Walking on the other side, I saw a team of few people was in a meeting mode. I imagined if I would be one of them later. All of a sudden, a girl was cracking up, as if the boy had just told her a terrible joke. But the other people just took the joke and laughing as normal, something that always happens.
They looked energetic and funny. Great.
Reaching the interview room, I was instructed to take a seat and do a typing test on the laptop which was ready beforehand. This was my first time typing words in online forums. I started to realize I had absolutely no knowledge in this job. When typing, I cast doubt on myself if I was capable of the job. Fortunately, common sense helped me pass the test.
In turn, the manager came in and asked me a number of questions that I had role-played by myself and answered in a mirror. She’s nice and it seemed I was always good at presentations. The manager then walked out of the door and asked the director to come and discuss the salary with me.
The director was a world-class negotiator who has a decade of experience in running successful businesses. It turned out I had a pay-cut in salary to set foot in the digital world. I chose to take the offer anyway because the digital world was expanding. I needed to open the door to set foot in the new continent.
Read the next chapter: Mistake #1 Appeal to Everyone
Or table of contents: The Game