My lousiest interview experience in a very long 'periololically' time
'from worse to worser' in this catalyst story of HERE TO COMPLAIN
As a professional writer for the past decade, I pride myself on killing it in interviews. Before this hellish 2023 I just knew if I got that “let’s chat” email, the job was mine. But this semi-recent interview is by far the absolute worst job-related experience I’ve had in years.
It all started so grand. Too grand. I should have known. The moment I spotted the posting I thought, “Wow, this role describes all my best assets to a tee.”
I applied posthaste and heard back from the editor after less than 5 business days. Good sign, I thought. But then there was the interview from which all went down, down, down. The very second I tapped into that wretched zoom call.
Not only were the vibes off from jump but within minutes the interviewers, an editor and somebody from marketing, let me know the job I applied to was actually now a different job. Many of the thing that drew me in initially had much less to do with the role.
But I still needed work. And this other role wasn’t so much of a divergence from the original thing to discount. I pushed forward.
But then there was the salary.
Of course estimated salaries are not meant to be accurate, but for my interviewers to say thirty thousand less?! Not only that, but they had to correct their actual salary range twice in real time!
Like, hun, why are you confused? This is literally your job to know these things. Towards the end of this incredibly awkward interview they told me they were interested in a second. Cool, I suppose. Though I felt strange the entire time, I pressed on. I told myself I needed to press on.
The editor had me prepare a few pitches before we met, which I was happy to do. To my delight, they loved every single one, but landed my story on Hoochie Daddies, a new gay competition show on Tubi as my test assignment.
Anybody that knows me knows I’ve been raving about this show for a minute now. I was hype. And the test paid? Great.
The editor affirmed my pitch and set a 750-word limit in a follow-up email. I got to work and sent them my draft a day before it’s due date. (I like to give a little extra time for editors to send their feedback as I always expect a back and forth.)
So this editor gets back to me with notes the next day. I am perplexed. They say I have not included any sources in the work. I’m like, it’s reputable sources all up and through this article. But no, they meant reporter/journalist-style sources.
…Because apparently this role was now a Reporter role?? Though the position’s posting online still says “Writer” and includes nothing about reporting??
Huh. I email the editor to confirm that this is in fact a Reporter job to which they say, “Yes, that is correct. As stated in the interview…”
Bitch, what?? So that’s three changes in the role, if you’re keeping track.
Every professional writer knows that reputable sources mean something different for journalistic work vs. essays and Op-Eds. Had I known I was writing in this style I would have moved entirely differently. Honestly, I wouldn’t have even applied to the job had it said Reporter. I feel the interviewers might have known this. It felt dishonest, just like the salary discrepancy.
But alas, I kept it moving with these notes in mind. I completed a different draft with quotes and more detail bringing me to about 1000 words.
I reach out to confirm which was most important, word count or delving into the other angles requested in the editor’s feedback. The editor could not give me a clear answer. “Around 750, as mentioned,” they say. Around? The fuck does that mean?
I’m confused. I send in what I have anyway. I get a response back stating the work doesn’t make clear how this subject matter is culturally relevant. My mind is boggled.
“Make this less review, and more analysis/cultural critique,” they said. Strange, as I’d included several cultural critiques and made a very strong argument as to why such a show like Hoochie Daddies is relevant in the grand scheme of TV.
But then it hits me. Based on their several dubious notes it’s clear to me this editor doesn’t find Hoochie Daddies, on its own, inspires non-Black readers enough.
“Still missing the context—why is this a significant show? What is the history of stud culture and why is this a big deal? Be specific.” They say.
It’s almost as if the show on its own, even with my arguments for its significance that speak to the history of reality TV and the 2007 writer’s strike, don’t speak to why on earth non-Black queer readers should care about this ghetto-ass reality series without a separate “bigger story” on the detailed history on studs and queer AFAB Blackness?!
Interesting.
To imply that my article lacked depth when this site consistently shares shallow ass takes like, “Why we love Barbie so much!” (no shade), was rich.
But also, this reductive framing of “a review” ignores the wide-sweeping cultural impacts film and television criticisms have had over the years. Do y’all even know Roger Ebert??
I’ve been a culture reporter before. I left that world long ago with intentions of moving with a more pro-Black perspective, as I feel most publications fail to do. But now I seemed to be right back there and all those feelings of attempts of exploitation flooded back.
I workshopped my response to this editor with my people (fam and friends), hoping to be both honest and clear. I landed on a more diplomatic response, ending my email with:
I truly feel I've made a strong enough argument for the importance of this show as-is without moving into anti-Black territory. I'm happy to speak with you on a phone call to better express this sentiment.
We never shared a call. I never completed the article. And now that time has passed, I wonder if my words were enough. If I should have cc’d her co-worker to help hold this editor accountable, or if I should have read her down or called her in, in hopes of helping her see the light for the other writers’ works she edits on a regular basis. I get that often times racial bias is unintentional. But, damn.
So in the name of here to complain, I’d like to share the part of my message I didn’t send this editor, but wish I had:
… While I don’t agree that this current article is simply ‘a review,’ or that reviews cannot be deeply culturally relevant and profound, to mention that there is already one Hoochie Daddies review (that went up last week, by the way) and imply that is enough while there are hundreds of Barbie, The Bear, Barry reviews, etc., and so on popping up constantly speaks to the issue of erasure and lack of care shows like this face.
The act of sharing its existence and hitting on those important points I expressed already within my article does the work to revere those this show represents, which was my goal in my initial pitch that you approved.
Let alone the fact that this supposed 750-word article should be a minimum 2000 words based on your notes, of which you have already stated you would not pay for, it seems your requested additions to the article would shift this into a 'why X representation matters' sort of piece, which I am not in the business of doing. Those toe the line of respectability and writing from a white supremacist perspective that implies one must be convinced of a group’s worth with a justly stated argument before ever valuing their art or gifts.
Overall it seems the sort of article you’re requesting is a separate report on stud culture that should include several interviews and a minimum of 3000 words. Honestly, that sort of article is one I’d greatly enjoy penning, but it is not the article I pitched to you, nor the one you approved here. As it stands, I’m not seeing how this particular framing of my pitch works without an undertone of anti-Blackness.
It’s clear our editorial perspectives do not align, and I will not be moving further in this editing process.
Best,
Jasper
Should I have sent the email? Y’all feel like I was doing too much already? Please let me know in the comments. These things are not always black and white and perhaps you have a more nuanced perspective?
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