Back Doing Interviews

Since being let go by the old boss, I have been entertaining online interviews from prospective clients. One is a Yankee and the other is English. While I find offline interviews nerve-wracking, it is not the case when it is conducted via instant messengers.

In fact, I'm quite amused by them.

The English guy was expecting someone to do articles, link-building and other technical stuff at more than half the price I used to earn. Good lawrd, my part-time job pays more than what he was offering. I wonder if there's any writer who will actually agree to that kind of set-up. As for the Yankee, well the interview went great, on my end anyway. I knew that the price and my HK situation will be a problem. He was fine with the latter but I can tell he was taken aback by my asking fee. If I had been desperate enough, like maybe during the early years of my career, I would've gone with his fee but at this point, I refuse to take a step back. Especially since I'm way better at what I do now than I did three years ago. I know what you are thinking but on the contrary, I did not ask more than what I used to earn. I just opted with the old fee and put it under non-negotiable.

We also discussed about quota and that is always a sensitive issue for me, even more than the fees. As much as I hate to make a bad impression during an initial interview, I told him point blank that there is no way I'm going to be talked into doing ten articles in a single day. By principle, I refuse to do that at any price. Like I said, I've been in this business long enough to know what I can and what I can't do. I can do ten but that means I will have to resort to eating crackers and pee in a cup and that is not cool. Not cool at all. So might as well nip it at the bud. I think he got the message.

As entertaining as these interviews were, I do not like the fact that, in general, clients are looking for writers who are willing to work overtime at bargain prices. It's kinda frustrating. I know most of them are just doing it just to see if you will take the bait but  they need to stop thinking they could hire a whole freakin' team for the price of one. I just don't roll that way. This reminds of the time raket guy made the mistake of asking me do a webmaster's job. Tsk.

I wonder if I will ever find someone as great as my previous boss? Tsk. Why does he have to quit his business? It would've done great had he not pressured himself too much.