Day Job Interview: Robert

I apparently missed this great Day Job Interview among the deluge of spam. This is the seventh installment in the Day Job Interview Series.

Robert, Cataloging Librarian

1. Where do you work, and what do you do?

I work in front of a computer at a desk (lacking cubicle walls) in an office in a library in a large, land-grant, public university. I am a cataloger, which means I create records that go into the catalog which facilitate subject, name, keyword searching and ultimately access of library resources in both physical and digital formats.

2. How long have you worked there?

Counting my tour of duty as a graduate student, eight years.

3. Does your job require regular hours? If so, what are they?

The usual 9-5ish business hours.

4. Do you like what you do? Do you respect it?

I love the theoretical core of my job – helping those that seek information find it as easily as possible. It gives me a great feeling that people are finding and experiencing new ideas because of my work. I am playing but a small role in the learning/researching process, but yes, I do respect that.

5. What’s the best part of your job?

The odd hours when I can actually perform my job duties. It is relatively low stress/low pressure compared to most private industry jobs. I enjoy helping select new purchases of library materials, which the official selector kindly permits. It has great health insurance and a great retirement plan.

6. What’s the worst part of your job?

I didn’t see a minimum word restriction, so here goes.

To any bookworm who thinks that working in a library and/or on a university campus would be their dream job – it is not. It is just like any other office job – rife with political shenanigans, organizational doublespeak and double standards, the latest management fads, sycophants, snobs, incompetents, sadists, masochists, freaks, and all the usual suspects that make all offices tick. On academic campuses, most librarians are (or are becoming) full-fledged faculty, with all the baggage that goes along with it. We are pressured to produce something that resembles scholarship – which is exactly why many academic librarians did NOT go on to be professors. Oh, yes of course – the solution to all problems vexing humanity can be solved by committees – lots and lots of committees. If you are still having problems then you simply need to form more committees. And who populates these committees? Why – you of course! The result – spending more of your time doing extraneous bullshit than you spend actually doing your job, which ultimately is a great disservice to library users. And what do these committees focus on? Navel gazing nonsense that has nothing to do with providing better service to our customers.

[takes a deep breath, then a deep drink]

Librarians have a collective inferiority complex based upon the stereotypical librarian as a scowling, ill-tempered old maid who lives to admonish people to “SHHHH!” When the internet and databases became mainstream, “Information” suddenly got capitalized and became sexy. Information professionals cropped up everywhere! Their work was very similar to traditional library work, but they were paid much better than those stuffy librarians – which caused the library world to throw a collective hissy fit. Library schools across this country rushed to excise the vile L-word from their name and become school of Information Science. The traditional emphasis on serving the information needs of people was jettisoned outright; technology become the only means instead of one of many means to an end. Deans and professors (most of whom have never worked a single day in a real world library) proudly proclaimed that many of their graduates did not go on to be librarians, implying that those who did were lackluster wieners. People already working as librarians scrambled to showcase their work with digital objects, usually neglecting traditional library materials and services. Librarians have assumed the role of Travis Bickle pleading pathetically with the pimp in Taxi Driver, “We’re hip!” Brother, we don’t look hip, but looking hip is not the point. If we Librarians spent more time honing the services we provide than obsessing over how others perceive us, we’d all be much better off.

7. Do you consider your job a career, or is it something you do to make money to subsidize other pursuits (or to bide your time until you can get your career job)? If not, what do you want to be when you grow up?

It is a career, for better or worse, but I work to live, not vice versa.

8. Caffeine: preferred source/amount per day?

Coffee (occasionally tea) – two cups in the morning. One more in the afternoon as needed.

9. Describe the type of people you work with. Are they similar to you (age, interests, etc.) or very different from you?

Most of my “professional” (Librarians with a capital L who hold Master’s degrees in Library and/or Information Science) colleagues are highly intelligent, overly educated, and multi-lingual. We are mostly politically liberal, but there are some closeted conservatives as well. Most librarians arrived at getting their Masters of Library Science after majoring in something unemployable (English, History, etc.); thus we are a profession of compromise. We tend to be a socially awkward, poorly dressed, and severely underpaid lot. There is a divide between the “professional, and the “non-professional” “technicians” or “support staff” – the non-Master’s-degree folk. These poor guys are paid so badly that it is challenging to recruit and retain talented people. They are also the people who perform most of the real work that goes on in libraries, since Librarians spend most of their time in committee meetings, or doing the pre-work for committee meetings, or recovering from committee meetings.

10. Do you have people at work with whom you hang out socially, or do you keep work/personal life separate?

I try to pick my coworkers that I socialize with very carefully, and I try to keep the two worlds separate for the most part. But I do have a few coworkers that have become genuine friends. You have to have your happy hour regulars, don’t you?

11. What do you do to goof off?

Play email chess and Scrabble with my friends.

12. Open-ended question. Describe a funny moment at your job, something that illustrates what it’s like to work there (or is simply amusing).

I have a low tolerance for bullshit, and I am known as the one who tells it like it is and asks the hard questions. However, I feel that I manage to do this in a civil, non-abrasive way. I was talking to my boss’s, boss’s boss a few weeks ago, and she said to me, “You can be diplomatic.” I thanked her, but then she said, “No [dramatic pause], I said you can be diplomatic.” Perhaps I’m not as smooth as I think.

Rob is a meat-eating heterosexual male humanoid who is happily married to a wonderful woman. He comes from a Southern working class background, and is profoundly grateful for that.

Day Job Interview: Greg

This is the sixth (and final!) installment in the Day Job Interview Series.

Greg, Inventory Management at a CD Shop

1. Where do you work, and what do you do?

Second hand CD shop, inventory management.

2. How long have you worked there?

Coming up on four years in October.

3. Does your job require regular hours? If so, what are they?

Eleven to eight, which allows to me to avoid the rush hours.

4. Do you like what you do? Do you respect it?

Yes, I like what I do. It's rather easy-going and free of stress, it allows me to remain connected to the world of recorded music, and I'm friends with most all of my co-workers. The drawbacks: lack of chairs, lack of sense in management, lack of social skills in customers. Also, not everybody likes it as much as I do and because of this my empathy is sought after on a regular basis.

I would have respected it when I was ten years younger, and I feel some amount of respect from people who are that age now. If I'm still doing this in another ten years the word "respect" will probably have evaporated from my vocabulary.

5. What’s the best part of your job?

The jokes.

6. What’s the worst part of your job?

Sometimes it seems like I'm living the same day over and over again. The same people come up to me with the same greetings, looking for the same music, wearing the same clothes, smelling the same way. There are exceptions, of course, and for them I am grateful. I find the exceptions delightful.

7. Do you consider your job a career, or is it something you do to make money to subsidize other pursuits (or to bide your time until you can get your career job)? If not, what do you want to be when you grow up?

It's definitely the latter. And what, who rather, I want to be when I grow up: Duke Ellington.

8. Caffeine: preferred source/amount per day?

Usually one large, or two small (since the City Bakery will give free refills). Sometimes in the afternoon one of those little cans of a double shot of espresso from Starbucks, but then the buzz is nearly cancelled out by the knowledge that i've given money to The Big Coffee Corporation.

9. Describe the type of people you work with. Are they similar to you (age, interests, etc.) or very different from you?

Most are a little older, some perhaps twice as old (people who once had good music industry jobs involving an office, retirement plans, health care, generous vacation time, networking possibilities, free tickets, free records, etc., but who have since been laid off and replaced by interns or not replaced at all... the big music corporations are shrinking and will maybe one day be only bad memories. I digress.) We all obviously share a deep interest and love of music and perhaps a fetish for collecting little plastic or vinyl discs. The people who are strictly into classical music seem to be very different from me, especially as they get older. To extrapolate on this point would take many more words than you would be willing to read right now.

10. What do you do to goof off?

Deface cover art. A recent example: I put two small yellow fangs poking out of Jesus's sympathetic smile on the cover of "The Passion of the Christ" soundtrack and prominently displayed it on the shelf. It was so subtle that someone picked it up and showed it to their friend, asking "should i buy this for my mom?" The reply was something like "no, that music wasn't very good." It was not so subtle, though, to prevent the manager from picking it up later and saying, "ALRIGHT, WHO DID THIS?"

11. What's your favorite work implement/office supply?

We keep a stock of new, empty jewel cases for the times when something gets cracked or is discolored due to years of cigarette smoke buildup. I really enjoy changing the case of something that looks old and undesirable and then seeing it reborn as a brand new object, seemingly fresh out of the shrinkwrap. I have an unlimited supply of the power that Ponce De Leon sought all his life in vain.

12. Do you travel for your job? If so, do you get to go anywhere interesting?

Sometimes we'll (one or two of us) travel to someone's dwelling to buy a collection that's too large for the owner to bring into the store by him or herself. This is usually a very depressing and or dirty operation. Dust, mold, indiscernible stains, hairs, crumbs, blood, snot, and sometimes dead spiders or other things will usually be discovered at some point when going through a collection like this.

It's usually during these times when i think that i'd better go home and dust off the tops of my cds and records, or maybe just sell them all so that no one will be getting their hands dusty on my stuff and judging me after i'm dead.

Greg spends most of his time thinking about or listening to music, and so likes to have jobs that don't require much thinking during off-work hours. He has a traditional midwestern work ethic, something that most easterners respect and admire when not taking advantage of it.

Day Job Interview: Alician

This is the fifth installment in the Day Job Interview Series.

If you're interested in being interviewed, please email me at teapot [at] dailygusto [dot] com.

Alician, Product Design Coordinator

1. Where do you work, and what do you do?

I am the Product Design Coordinator for a major furniture manufacturer. I basically look at fabrics and measure various parts of sofas.

2. How long have you worked there?

Almost four months. I was the buyer for our sister retail operation for five years. I left for two years to work for a furniture importer and came back to the manufacturing side in April 2004.

3. Does your job require regular hours? If so, what are they?

When I'm in the office, it's generally 8:30-6-ish. When I'm at the factory, it's usually 8-6-ish (but the first 20 minutes are spent eating yummy biscuits from the southern cafeteria…and I wonder why I'm gaining weight on this job!?!).

4. Do you like what you do? Do you respect it?

I like what I do for the most part. If I really think about it I feel horrible because all I do is help make pretty furniture when a lot of my friends are actually doing good things and helping people. But then I have to remember that I have had a love affair with fabrics for as long as I can remember, and this is probably the best thing for me. I like to think I'm helping people by making their environment pleasing.

5. What’s the best part of your job?

Trending (what most people call looking at magazines, watching TV and shopping, we call trending).

6. What’s the worst part of your job?

Corporate politics and complaining people.

7. Do you consider your job a career, or is it something you do to make money to subsidize other pursuits (or to bide your time until you can get your career job)? If not, what do you want to be when you grow up?

When I was in Junior High School, I decided I wanted to be a buyer. I got a degree in Fashion Merchandising and have been doing it in one form or another ever since. It can be quite stressful and time-consuming. When I was unemployed for 3 months earlier this year, I tried to figure out if it is really what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, and I came to the conclusion that furniture/fabrics/design is what makes me happy. Some days I feel like it's not what I want to do forever, but most days I feel pretty certain it is.

8. Caffeine: preferred source/amount per day?

I have exactly 2 cups of coffee with cream and sugar every morning. No more, no less.

9. Describe the type of people you work with. Are they similar to you (age, interests, etc.) or very different from you?

Overall, I think the people I work with are pretty different from me. Even the people who I work the most with are very diverse. There is my very creative, intelligent boss who is a couple of years older than me (who suffers from a serious case of OCD), her boss who eats very healthy as a rule but will stop at Dairy Queen for a plain vanilla ice cream cone at 8:45 am if he passes one (VP of Merchandising… also suffers from OCD), a 70+ year old millionaire who lives in a castle in Chicago, has a second home in Vale and a driver, an extremely sweet girl who *is* Charlotte from Sex and the City, and our admin who is very sweet but very wealthy and gets more mani/pedi’s than anyone I know. Oh, and the 70+ year old Chairman of the Board who just likes to hang out in our Merchandising room and chat because it's more fun than anywhere else in the office.

Most of the people my age are former sorority girls that I would have hated in college, but we get along just fine now and have some fun every now and then. The majority of my office is older, wealthy men (mostly VPs of something-or-another) who have been with the company for 20+ years, and their administrative assistants who are usually 40+ year-old women. I think there actually may be more admins than VPs.

The other group of people I work with (at least every other week) are the people who work in the factory in Elliston, VA (just outside of Roanoke). They're very different than the wealthy VP’s in the McLean office… maybe not the most educated folks but some of the sweetest people I've ever worked with (and whew, do they know a thing or two about upholstering a sofa!). Maybe they just like me because I can throw on the Roanoke accent that I've lost over the years….

10. Do you have people at work with whom you hang out socially, or do you keep work/personal life separate?

I occasionally socialize with the people my age, but they are usually too busy going to the gym to go to happy hour.

11. Do you travel for your job? If so, do you get to go anywhere interesting?

As I mentioned earlier, I'm at our factory in Elliston, VA at least every other week tweaking new products. I also go to High Point, NC at least four times a year for the fabric and furniture markets. When I worked in the retail division, I went to much more exciting places, like India, China, the Philippines, Singapore, Paris, London, but now I get High Point and Elliston. Hum…

12. What do you remember about your job interview?

My job interview was bizarre because I already knew (and had worked with previously) three out of the four people I interviewed with. Even the one person that I didn't know had heard all about me, so they really didn't know what to ask me because they already knew me. The Chairman, CEO actually said, "Well, I already know I like you, so do you have anything to ask me?" That was right after he took a cell phone call where he talked with his friend at length about golf.

Alician lives in Silver Spring, Maryland with her husband and cat Simone. She loves gardening, cooking, and tattoos. All that, and she has great style.

Day Job Interview: Karen W.

This is the fourth installment in the Day Job Interview Series.

If you're interested in being interviewed, please email me at teapot [at] dailygusto [dot] com.

Karen W., Customer Care Account Executive

1. Where do you work, and what do you do?

I work for a jewelry designer, as a Customer Care Account Executive. Customer Care is another fancy name for the Repairs department, so on a day-to-day basis I talk to salespeople who sell our company's jewelry and try to help them expedite their customer's repairs.

2. How long have you worked there?

I started there in September as a temp, but have worked as a full-time, salaried employee since November.

3. Does your job require regular hours? If so, what are they?

Yes, although they change depending on if we're in season or on summer hours, but for the most part it's from 8:30 or 9 am to about 6:30 or 7 pm.

4. Do you like what you do? Do you respect it?

There are certainly aspects of it that I like well enough � I do enjoy customer service generally, trying to be a problem solver and developing relationships with clients. I've found lately that I like the intensity and the pace; I'm kind of addicted to it actually. But it's not what I want to do long term. I do it currently to pay my bills. There are moments too when I want to tell these salespeople when they get particularly rabid for their customer's bracelet back that it's only jewelry, folks, not curing cancer or anything.

5. What�s the best part of your job?

When I feel like I've solved someone's problem or crossed off a long list of returned voice mails, that general feeling of satisfied accomplishment.

6. What�s the worst part of your job?

When I'm subjected to abuse on the telephone from stressed out salespeople. I had one woman tell me in this excessively sarcastic voice, she wanted to move to New York and take my job because it seemed like I didn't have to do much of anything all day long! Those are the times when you put the person on hold and then mutter, "beeyotch" at the receiver, just to get a little break from it.

7. Do you consider your job a career, or is it something you do to make money to subsidize other pursuits (or to bide your time until you can get your career job)? If not, what do you want to be when you grow up?

No, it's a job I fell into while looking for paid writing work after finishing graduate school and have stayed with because it has great benefits, a salary and paid vacations. However, eventually I want to transition into writing about film full time for newspapers, magazines and online. I'd love to be a film critic like J Hoberman about 10 or 15 years down the road, someone who writes regularly about film for a popular outlet but also works on film books and teaches film studies as an adjunct at the college level.

8. Caffeine: preferred source/amount per day?

Lord, yes. Too much to be certain, but at least two shots of home brewed espresso in the morning and then Diet Coke the rest of the day. In the summer, I drink a fair amount of iced coffee to mix it up a little. I also want to send a shout out to Le Kiosk on First Avenue at Houston, as their lattes are some of the best I�ve had in the city and they often fuel me on my commute.

9. Describe the type of people you work with. Are they similar to you (age, interests, etc.) or very different from you?

Many of the temps employed at the company who I'm friendly with tend to also be artistically minded writers, musicians, actors, artists and recent graduates looking for full time work in New York. But most of the full time employees are either people with customer service and jewelry backgrounds I don't share or are skilled in the manufacturing side of jewelry or some sort of business management. They tend to have families and commute long distances from Jersey or Queens, which isn't what my life is about right now. Everyone that I work with couldn't be nicer though � I�ve been invited to a christening in New Jersey and have had post-work drinks with a few � we just don't have a whole lot in common on a surface level.

10. What�s your favorite work implement/office supply?

My favorite office implements are the hand scanners. I don't really get to use one, but as a tech-minded girl I find them fascinating. On the production side, each of the components used to make a particular piece of jewelry is bar coded and catalogued. Occasionally, I'm called upon to walk an order through the production system and in each of the component departments they use the scanners to move the merchandise from inventory to an order. I love all of the beeping and the regimented order of it as each piece is put together.

11. Do you travel for your job? If so, do you get to go anywhere interesting?

Once every two weeks I attend a morning meeting uptown at our retail location on the Upper East Side, which, while not travel that requires supersonic trains or airplanes, feels like going to a different world. I like our retail location meetings, as I get a bit of break from the telephone ringing, and it�s fun to see the jewelry in its natural habitat, all shiny and new in the cases. I find the Upper East Side a rarified little universe, filled with polished shoppers who expect the utmost service and aren't afraid to throw a fit to get it. It makes me happy not to be working in high end, designer retail every day, now that�s a tough gig.

12. Describe a funny moment at your job, something that illustrates what it�s like to work there.

During my first week as a temp, I spent what seemed like hours on hold with various jewelry stores, calling them to give estimates on repairs or information about an item we were working on. On one store's hold music, rather than cheesy easy listening radio or advertisements for their store, they had helpful factoids about jewelry. I swear at one point the friendly professor voice said, �And the ancients believed, diamonds repel lunatics.� I wrote this little aphorism down on a post-it note, taped it up to my monitor and occasionally remind myself that Diamonds Repel Lunatics really helped me get through those first few months. And surprisingly, I've noticed most of the subway crazies give me a wider berth than before.

Karen W. holds a master of the arts in cinema studies from New York University, a degree that has nothing to do with her Day Job really. But it does justify the amount of time she spends on Cinecultist.com, a blog about her cinephilia.

Day Job Interview: J. Mattthew Brauer

This is the third installment in the Day Job Interview Series.

If you're interested in being interviewed, please email me at teapot [at] dailygusto [dot] com.

J. Mattthew Brauer, Web Designer

1. Where do you work, and what do you do?

I work for myself out of my own bedroom. I design and build web sites.

2. How long have you worked there?

I quit my old job about four months ago. I was at my old job for four years, doing mostly web design.

3. Does your job require regular hours? If so, what are they?

Not really. I am officially available to my clients Monday through Friday, 10:00 am to 6:00 pm. My contracts with clients say that I charge time-and-a-half for any hours outside of that schedule or if I bill any more than six hours per day. But in reality, I work whenever I feel like it. I might not really get started until noon, or I might work as late as 2:00 am, or I might take Friday off and work on Saturday. So I don't bill my clients overtime unless they need me to work on off-hours when I don't want to.

4. Do you like what you do? Do you respect it?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Corporate work is the low hanging fruit, but it's not all that interesting work. Clients often have specific aesthetic ideas that I strongly disagree with, or have a poor attitude. On the other hand, there are dream clients, such as an artist who wants a daring and complex web site. In the end web design is an imperfect but satisfying compromise between the desire to work in the arts, make a decent living, and work at a relaxing pace.

5. What’s the best part of your job?

Creative discovery. Often the client rejects the best designs. But sometimes they make suggestions that lead me in a direction that I never would have thought of, and a wonderful design. Then they the reject that too :-).

6. What’s the worst part of your job?

Currently I work by myself. It's not that it's lonely. I'd rather do my socializing while not at work. But in a good team environment the creative synthesis is better than what any one person could have envisioned. I also miss the organizational challenges of huge team projects.

7. Do you consider your job a career, or is it something you do to make money to subsidize other pursuits (or to bide your time until you can get your career job)? If not, what do you want to be when you grow up?

Undecided. The web is barely a decade old and is changing rapidly. The specific technical things that I do right now will be completely obsolete in another 10 years, and there's no telling if I'll be able or willing to keep pace with that evolution. My ambition is to dabble and to live a life of leisure.

8. Caffeine: preferred source/amount per day?

Single shot dry cappuccino with sugar. Daily, including weekends. Sometimes I switch it up with a regular brew or an americano, but I rarely change the dosage.

9. Describe the type of people you work with. Are they similar to you (age, interests, etc.) or very different from you?

I have no co-workers. The clients are unpredictable.

10. What do you do to goof off?

Play with my kitties, send instant messenges, go to the park, sleep. In that order.

11. What¹s your favorite work implement/office supply?

I'm almost a paperless office, so it's just me and the computer. Since I use the same computer for recreation, I'm using it at least 50 hours per week. I'm very attached to it. Mac's OS X desktop and interface is very visually appealing. It also sometimes makes little noises that I find comforting.

J. Mattthew Brauer grew up in suburban Virginia, went to art school in Manhattan, and witnessed firsthand the rise, fall, and rebirth of a Silicon Valley dot-com. He now lives happily in San Francisco, where he is currently risking his life savings to start a web design company (www.shshweb.com).

Day Job Interview: Kenny

This is the second installment in the Day Job Interview Series.

If you're interested in being interviewed, please email me at teapot [at] dailygusto [dot] com.

Kenny, Sub Shop Employee

1. Where do you work, and what do you do?

I work at a toasty sub shop, where I make sandwiches for people. It says “Crew” on my paycheck.

2. How long have you worked there?

A long and horrible five weeks.

3. Does your job require regular hours? If so, what are they?

Yes. Every other day, 4:00 to 9:30.

4. Do you like what you do? Do you respect it?

I like it, but hell no, I don’t respect it.

5. What’s the best part of your job?

Between 4 and 6 when the boss isn’t there. Then I joke around with customers and co-workers and don’t work. Me and this Mexican lady who works there were talking about going to get some Tequila during one shift. I would have done it if she was gonna buy.

6. What’s the worst part of your job?

Doing unethical things because my boss says so. He makes us give less meat to people with coupons.

One time, a black guy came in and we were out of sweet tea up front, and he refused to go get more from the fridge in the back. But then when a white guy came in and asked for it, he changed it out right away. It took like one minute.

He also recommends bad sandwiches. Who in the hell wants a meatball on low-carb toasty flatbread?

7. Do you consider your job a career, or is it something you do to make money to subsidize other pursuits (or to bide your time until you can get your career job)? If not, what do you want to be when you grow up?

I wanna be a full-fledged bum when I get older, or be just like Bob Crane in AutoFocus. This job is just to get people off my back.

Actually, I want to be a history teacher.

8. Caffeine: preferred source/amount per day?

Coffee, 8 a.m.

9. Describe the type of people you work with. Are they similar to you (age, interests, etc.) or very different from you?

They are very different. One guy sings really bad, in a trying-to-be-good way. Everyone else but my boss is ok.

10. Do you have people at work with whom you hang out socially, or do you keep work/personal life separate?

I dated one but I got nowhere. Well, I guess we’re friends, though.

11. What do you do to goof off?

Make fun of my boss with co-workers. We make fun of his accent and mannerisms. He smokes cigarettes all the time while he’s on the phone outside, and I do a great impression of that.

Kenny is 17 and lives in Durham, North Carolina where he reads too much Bukowski and works at an "MMMM...Toasty” sub shop during the summer when he's not in school.

Day Job Interview: Steven C.

This is the first installment in what will be a regular Day Job Interview Series, with a new interview posted each Monday (from now on). While there are scores of great interviews on blogs, I hadn't read any that focused on what people do to make a living, despite the fact that most people spend more of their waking lives at work than at home.

So, I rounded up some people I know to do brief interviews about their jobs. The point is not whether their jobs are particularly glamorous or lucrative, but about the idea of working -- the variety of jobs people (especially young people) have and the ways they make them bearable.

If you're interested in being interviewed, please email me at teapot [at] dailygusto [dot] com.

Steven C., Associate Creative Director (Advertising)

1. Where do you work, and what do you do?

I work for an advertising agency that specializes in interactive marketing for large corporations. I help make websites and ad banners. My title is Associate Creative Director. It’s a solid middle management position.

2. How long have you worked there?

It’s only my second job and I’ve been there seven months. I’ve been in the industry for over nine years.

3. Does your job require regular hours? If so, what are they?

We’re required to bill 37.5 hours a week. I roll in around 9:30 and leave at 6ish.

4. Do you like what you do? Do you respect it?

When I was fresh out of college I loved advertising. My first job as a graphic designer was one of the best days of my life. I was proud to have a ‘marketable skill.' Yet over time I became more and more disillusioned. Let’s face it. I make something that nobody wants or needs. I’m embarrassed to tell people what I do for a living.

5. What’s the best part of your job?

It’s very easy.

6. What’s the worst part of your job?

Having to take it seriously. Have you ever tried to have an earnest opinion about a web banner?

7. Do you consider your job a career, or is it something you do to make money to subsidize other pursuits (or to bide your time until you can get your career job)? If not, what do you want to be when you grow up?

I make ads for money and I draw comics for fun.

Since I can remember I’ve always wanted to be a cartoonist. In 10th grade I published a comic with a friend of mine in the local newspaper. Later, I tried to get into my college newspaper. The editor rejected my submission and gave me some brutally honest feedback. Devastated, I quit. I went into advertising because I thought it was the only way to be “creative” and make a living.

It was my frustration with advertising that eventually led me back to comics. I saw other people publishing online and decided to give it a shot. In a way, my comic makes my job more bearable. It’s a great outlet and I’ve actually had some success. My comic appears weekly in the Atlanta Journal Constitution and I’ve been in Esquire twice.

My worry is that one day I’ll do comics for money and it will start to suck. What then?

8. Caffeine: preferred source/amount per day?

I used to drink about 2 liters of Diet Coke a day, but that shit will kill you. Now I have a double espresso (1 sugar) as I’m walking home from work. Recently I’ve been sneaking a Diet Coke with my lunch. Nobody’s perfect.

9. Describe the type of people you work with. Are they similar to you (age, interests, etc.) or very different from you?

There are two groups:

a. The group who buy into it and are really ambitious and want to have “Vice President” in their title so they can finally buy a NICE car.

b. The group who thinks they’re SO special because they are SO talented and they are totally wasting their time at this B.S. job!

Steven C. is a committed cartoonist who publishes two strips a week without fail. He also maintains a personal chat/photo blog slightly less frequently.