“You said it, kitty.”
Innings Gate Co. is my company. We do everything except make gates! Well, actually we do Brand Communications and Publicity Events for businesses in the Arts sector. Our services range from writing press releases, to event planning, to copywriting advertisements, and more. We can help a new or existing business establish, or re-establish, their brand identity with creative communications and promotions. Our target market includes art galleries, book publishers, artisan food & drink producers – anything that could be considered a work of Art. Ultimately, IGCo. seeks to be their key to unlocking creativity.
I registered my business in 2005, but didn’t start working on it until 2010 when I was accepted into the Ontario Self-Employment Benefit Program. This is a great opportunity for Ontario residents who have received Employment Insurance within the past three years, and are interested in never losing their jobs again – because from now on they work for themselves! After being downsized from my last “real job” in Summer 2009, and upon returning from a three-month hiatus travelling and working in the U.K., I looked into the OSEB program only to discover it had been cancelled.
However, I refused to accept this, and kept on it. Then one day I read online that the program was re-opening the very next day! Quelle timing. The application process took about three months – from April to June. I had already begun working on some client projects since the start of the year, but that didn’t prevent me from applying to OSEB. You basically have to demonstrate a need for the business training and support – you can’t have a thriving company already. I had potential and a couple clients, but I needed refinement. For 10 weeks, I and 26 other students attended full-day business school, and at the end of of August, we each presented our completed business plan to the Ministry for approval. From the first day we were accepted into the program, legally we were SELF-EMPLOYED! Woo!
OSEB has been really beneficial to me and Innings Gate Co. The major difference between starting your own business, and starting one through OSEB, is that all of us had been recently laid off. It changed the whole dynamic. We didn’t quit our jobs because we had a massive nest-egg and decided to be like Kim Kardashian and “come up with loads of ideas.” (I saw an interview with her the other day on Cityline, where she was all Ooh I’m so creative and can’t sleep at night because my mind just RACES with ideas! Yeah we ALL have ideas, Kim. But the rest of us do not have fame-without-substance and Daddy’s money or contacts to help us actualize them.) Everyone in my OSEB class was determined to succeed because they have felt the loss of a job personally. At the mercy of someone else’s decision. But this time, it would be OUR decision. We would be our own bosses. Only WE could fire us now! (Quick, look busy – the boss is coming! Oh wait, that’s just my reflection – as you were!)
Anyhoo, at the same time as it’s motivating being in this situation, it’s also quite a burden. Because we did lose our jobs prior to embarking upon this journey of self-employment. And that hurts a girl’s ego. Especially when career rejection happens 94 times in a row over the course of one year, as it did for me. Yes, you read that correctly: NINETY-FOUR. I applied to, and did not get, 94 jobs in 2010.
Have you ever seen the film Stranger Than Fiction? Harold Crick is a character in a novel, and when he becomes aware of the fact that he has no control over his life, he tries to stop doing anything that would progress the story. But the story keeps finding him, often in fantastic ways. I guess this goes back to what I mentioned in my New Year’s Resolutions blog post about the universe having a destiny. In the Discover Magazine (April 2010) article “Back From The Future” by Zeeya Merali it is explained that the end doesn’t only justify its means, but actually creates its means. A scientific way of discussing fate. So, since the story Harold exists in ultimately results in his demise, no matter what he does to avoid it, his fate draws him back onto that path. Like a magnet to steel. (One of my favourite songs from the Boogie Nights soundtrack: Magnet and Steel by Walter Egan!)
What I am trying to get at here, in my round-about didactic way, is that perhaps I have not been offered any of those 94 jobs because my end result has me self-employed? And that if I did get one, it would probably end anyway, since it was never meant to be? It’s hard to tell with fate. Sometimes the most obvious signs are the easiest to avoid (like a stop sign on a deserted country road).
Here’s a list of the 94 jobs I applied to in 2010:
1. Sponsorship & Local Marketing Coordinator – Winners
2. Assistant Brand Manager, Innovation – Molson
3. Planning & Execution Assistant – Molson
4. Event Coordinator, Literary – Harbourfront Centre
5. Communications Coordinator – Waterfront Toronto
6. Coordinator, Event Operations – Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE)
7. Account Executive, Corporate Partnership Marketing – MLSE
8. Senior Account Manager – Evidently Toronto
9. Assistant Editor, Meetings & Incentive Travel Magazine – Rogers
10. Associate Producer, Game Entertainment, Toronto Blue Jays Baseball Club – Rogers
11. Associate Manager, Entertainment & Production – Ontario Lotto & Gaming (OLG)
12. Event Manager – Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO)
13. Marketing Coordinator, Events – Indigo Books & Music
14. Coordinator, Corporate Events & Communications – Holt Renfrew
15. Marketing Coordinator – PriceWaterhouseCoopers
16. Coordinator – NBA Canada
17. Project Coordinator, Integrated Solutions – Astral Media
18. Public Affairs & Communications Specialist – Coca-Cola
19. Development Officer, Patron Programs – Royal Ontario Museum (ROM)
20. Communications Officer – CBC Radio-Canada
21. Coordinator, Corporate Partnerships – Hamilton Tiger-Cats Football Club
22. Account Coordinator – Capital C
23. Communications Specialist, Greenberg Fund – Astral Media
24. Corporate & Foundations Coordinator – CanStage Company
25. Communications Manager – Air Canada
26. Marketing Coordinator – Bayview Village Shopping Centre
27. Marketing & Sales Assistant – Ontario’s Own
28. Coordinator, Marketing – Joe Fresh
29. Manager, Event Operations, Air Canada Centre – MLSE
30. Communications Coordinator, Phys Ed – University of Toronto
31. Marketing Coordinator – Tourism Toronto
32. Project Coordinator – Events Marketing
33. Program Manager, TV Division – Rogers
34. Publicist – Food Network
35. Copywriter – Tamm Communications
36. Staff Writer, Hello! Magazine – Rogers
37. Communications Officer – CBC
38. RFP Leader – Baxter
39. Promotions Executive – Tourism Ireland
40. Sr. Manager, Executive Communication – Scotiabank
41. Communications Specialist – Rogers
42. Events & PR Manager – Foster’s Wine Estates
43. Publicity & Promotions Coordinator – Alliance Films
44. Manager, National Programs – CIBC
45. PR/Marketing Specialist – Ikea
46. Coordinator, Content Acquisitions – CanWest Broadcasting
47. Promotions & Communications Coordinator, Astral Radio – Astral Media
48. Marketing Coordinator – TorStar Digital
49. Marketing Coordinator – Bagg Group
50. Marketing Coordinator – LCBO
51. Marketing Coordinator – The Eaton Centre
52. Marketing Coordinator, Brand Partnerships – CTVglobemedia
53. Communications Officer, Corporate Communications – CTVglobemedia
54. Special Events Coordinator – Canadian Opera Company (COC)
55. Communications Coordinator – The County of Simcoe
56. Website Coordinator – foodnetwork.ca
57. Special Events Coordinator – LCBO
58. Part-Time Counter Help – Provenance Foods
59. Part-Time Adminstrative Assistant – Infrastructure Ontario
60. Administrative Assistant, Communications – CBC Radio-Canada
61. Coordinator, Creative Production – Holt Renfrew
62. Copywriter – Option B Creative
63. Account Coordinator – Paradigm PR
64. Media Assets Planner – MLSE
65. Communications Coordinator, Entertainment Channels – CTVglobemedia
66. Writer – Ontario Power Authority
67. Junior Copywriter – Pulp & Fibre
68. Communications Coordinator – Randstand
69. Account Executive – NKPR
70. Scriptwriter – Ubisoft Toronto
71. Online Editor – WagJag.com
72. Editorial Assistant, Publications – York University
73. Staff Writer, Marketing Magazine – Rogers
74. Part-Time Web Copy Editor – The Globe and Mail
75. Stewardship Communications Specialist – Toronto General Hospital
76. Development Associate, Major Gifts – ROM
77. Alumni Development Officer, Arts & Sciences – University of Toronto
78. Donor Communications Specialist – TVO
79. Communications Coordinator – RBC
80. Corporate Communications Coordinator – CTVglobemedia
81. Communications Officer/Account Coordinator – Ministry of Labour
82. Communications Officer, In-House Publicity, Factual Entertainment – CBC Radio-Canada
83. Part-Time Consular Assistant – British Consulate-General
84. Sr. Coordinator, Public Programmes – TIFF Bell Lightbox
85. Major Events & Business Development Coordinator – Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery
86. Communications & Events Manager – Business for the Arts
87. Copywriter – Pi Media
88. Copywriter – B STREET Communications
89. Communications Coordinator, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies – York University
90. Associate – Longview Communications
91. Travel Blogger – Flight Centre
92. Web Content Writer, CP24 – CTVglobemedia
93. Publicist – ROM
94. Public Affairs Coordinator – Toronto Board of Trade (I applied to this last one on New Year’s Eve)
And here’s a list of the ones I had interviews for:
1. Associate Manager, Entertainment & Production – OLG
2. Event Manager – TSO
3. Major Events & Business Development Coordinator – Power Plant Gallery
4. Communications & Events Manager – Business for the Arts
The national unemployment rate is 7.6% right now. I think of job hunting like online dating: you send out this written description of yourself, what you’ve done with your life, where you’re headed, what you’re capable of providing. And you have to sit back and – fingers crossed – wait for someone to find that description appealing enough to want to meet you in person. Then you have to live up to your description, and of course charm the pants off your interviewer/date so that they ask you out again. And, ultimately, so that they never want to stop seeing you. Oh, and hopefully they also want to give you presents (like a paycheque or Tiffany’s necklace).
Sometimes interviews, like dates, don’t work out. Sometimes no one bites your line even when you’ve posted an incredibly witty, charming, and intellectual online dating profile – I mean, resume. Maybe they’re just not your guy. Maybe you’re just not their girl. Maybe fate has other match-ups in store? Who knows?
Regardless of the reason why I didn’t get any of those 94 jobs last year, whether or not it was meant to be, you have to admit the odds seem stacked against me. But for some reason – call it determinism, call it stubbornness – I continue to push on. And I guess the point of this blog is to say, you should too.
In solidarity,
Your friendly neighbourhood Coco Hobo
ps. I suppose one could argue that all hobos are self-employed…
CAREER OPPORTUNITY:
Wanted – One Hobo
Required skills include salesmanship, graphic design (signage), and compelling story-telling
Must be willing to travel
Renumeration depending on experience, plus commission
Benefits include flexible hours, independent workload, (soup) stock options
Office adjacent to (soup) kitchen
No dress code!
x
Update: I ended up getting #94…