Good Enough is Not Good Enough

So it's been a while...more interesting stuff coming up, really.

For now:

1.  If you have contacts in the fashion industry (any aspect) who would not mind talking to me, please let me know!  I am specifically looking for opportunities in Fashion Public Relations - agency or in-house for high fashion brands, but I would love to talk to anyone in any aspect of the field.  Spanks!

2.  Two weeks after I quit my job, I began interning at a fashion PR firm (one of the top 3 agencies I want to work for!) that represents high fashion and luxury contemporary designers/labels, and I love love love it!  God, it's weird to love going to work...not like, love.  And even weirder to leave work before 7pm...slackers. 

Among the other interns I have met:

-3 career changers (a former management consultant, a former auditor w/a Big 4 firm, a former investment banker)

-several people who graduated with degrees from reputable schools (many ivy leagues) that have nothing to do with fashion (Political Science, Art History, Economics, Finance)

-90% of interns have already graduated from college

What is significant about this is that the internship is unpaid - ubiquitous in many creative industries, but still mind-boggling to me.  Working.  For free.  Crazy.  Summer finance internships are usually paid starting salary (pro-rated) with perks like housing stipends, excessively lavish dinners, box seats at sports events, etc.  But in fashion, there are A LOT of well-educated, well-spoken, personable, well-dressed kids in NYC who are willing and able to work unpaid, full-time, indefinitely, until they land the dream job.  WTH?!?! That's my competition?!?!  Oh, I forgot to point out that there is zero correlation between interning and getting a full-time offer.  Ok, maybe like 2%, but that's it.  

3.  Just something interesting I came across:

Satisficers (yes, satisfice is a word, I checked) are those who make a decision or take action once their criteria are met. That doesn’t mean they’ll settle for mediocrity; their criteria can be very high; but as soon as they find the car, the hotel, or the pasta sauce that has the qualities they want, they’re satisfied.

Maximizers want to make the optimal decision. So even if they see a bicycle or a photographer that would seem to meet their requirements, they can’t make a decision until after they’ve examined every option, so they know they’re making the best possible choice.

Most people are a mix of both approaches. For example, one friend was a satisficer about renting an apartment, but a maximizer about buying an apartment. As a consequence, he and his wife are renting an apartment now, because they had to move, and they're still searching for the perfect apartment to buy.

In a fascinating book, The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz argues that satisficers tend to be happier than maximizers. Maximizers must spend a lot more time and energy to reach a decision, and they’re often anxious about whether they are, in fact, making the best choice.

My mother is a good example of what I’d call a “happy limited maximizer.” In certain distinct categories, she’s a maximizer, and she loves the very process of investigating every possibility. My sister is getting married next year, and I know that my mother would love nothing more than to see her try on practically every possible wedding dress, just for the fun of it. But too often maximizers find the research process exhausting—yet can’t let themselves “settle” for anything but the best.

The difference between the two approaches may be one reason some people find a big city like New York overwhelming. If you’re a maximizer, and you live in New York, you could spend months surveying your options for bedroom furniture or even wooden hangers. In a smaller city, like Kansas City, even the most zealous maximizer can size up the available options pretty quickly.

From The Happiness Project

I'm a satisficer when it comes to trivial things (buying hangers), but with long term goals, I am the ultimate maximizer.  Simply "good enough" is never good enough for me.  So yes, this means that I too am determined to remain unemployed indefinitely until the perfect job at one of the top firms comes along.  Um...again, email me if you have fashion industry contacts!

What are you, a satisficer or a maximizer?

And yes, I am writing this before 6AM.  And no, I didn't go to 1OAK last night.

SO LONG SUCKAS!!!

At 9am EST on Friday, September 19, 2008, I did the most amazing thing I have done in a long time: I quit my job! 

It took every ounce of self control for me not to skip out of my HR Manager’s office yelling, “SO LONG SUCKAS!!!!” - but being the mature, poised adult that I am (stop laughing), I managed to, at least until I go to the elevator.  I also may or may not have been humming the chorus of George Michael's "Freedom" on the way home...

Do his waxed eyebrows/precisely trimmed sideburns and facial hair scare you too?

That’s right, during a week of turmoil in the financial markets beyond what I could ever have imagined even a few months ago, I decided to resign from a perfectly stable, currently decently-paying-but-eventually-lucrative job at one of the world’s most reputable companies. 

AND GOD IT FEELS GOOD!!!

This must be what those guys who have been wrongly imprisoned, and later released because DNA forensic testing proved their innocence, must feel like. Okay, maybe not the best analogy! Anyway.

It has been the most humbling experience to admit to myself that a job that once made me excited to go to work, that challenged me, that I took pride in, was now making me truly miserable.  It was depressing to realize that I was working 16+ hour days with zero sense of accomplishment or satisfaction, that I was really BORED, that none of it was worth it since I knew I did not want to stay in finance anymore. But once I admitted this to myself, the decision was easy, and it was just a matter of time before I pulled the trigger.  The next time I meet someone who asks me what I do (which in our society always means what one does for a living because we totally define ourselves by our jobs whether we want to/realize it, or not), I cannot wait to say, "Oh, you know, this and that. I'm exploring my options."  And I love run on sentences.

Of course, voluntary unemployment entails a plethora of new concerns….how long can I live off savings before finding another job? How can I be sure that I’ll be happier in a new job/industry? How will I survive not taking cabs while in 4 inch heels? Am I going to have to rent forever? Will I have to start eating ramen (and not good ramen which I set out to do, but cheap, packaged ramen)? Will I be in agony when I can no longer afford to go to whatever new restaurant is opening? Opera season is starting soon – am I going to have to settle for the shitty seats in the back where you can only see half the stage (the botton half)? AHHHH!! But in the grand scheme of things, these are insignificant problems, and since I am self-confident to the brink of arrogance, I know I’ll be successful in my new endeavors. =) 

So what are these new endeavors? Stay tuned...because I obviously now have time to write more crap, more frequently, for your entertainment. 

Toodles!!!!!!!!

P.S. For all my friends who have doubts that I can live frugally with no income, I'd just like to say that I haven't taken a cab for over 48 hours. Baby steps...