Uncouth

Because my interview was rescheduled, I spent the day over at the Oranienplatz branch of the Berlin Biennale. I left around 6, had dinner, and then walked home.



While I was out walking, I finally discovered where the artists have been hiding their studios. They're in the courtyards – the "Hof"! Once I figured that out I walked into every Hof I could get into, just to see what was there.


Retarded foreigner moment of the day: I got an awesomely big ice cream cone from the Eis vendor inside the Alexanderplatz station. It was hazelnüss und vanille, and I was really enjoying it – I'd wanted one all morning. I went downstairs with it and my train pulled up, so I got on. I walked in all happy as a clam with my great big ice cream cone and walked down the car and stood by a pole because there were no seats available.

But then I noticed that everyone was looking at me with these big saucer eyeballs and I wondered wtf?? Was there something wrong? Did they all want my ice cream cone or something? And then I noticed a poster directly beside me of a cartoon woman eating an ice cream cone (with spatters of food dripped all over her) and there were big words across it that read (in German) "Eating Food is Forbidden on this Train"

oh mein Gott.

I immediately got off the train at the next stop and waited until I was finished with my ice cream cone before I boarded another train and continued on my journey. How uncouth of me...lesson learned!

Interviews

Today's interviews went well.

The first one was with the placement agency and it was encouraging. Unfortunately I've already contacted most of their client base, so they can't do as much for me as they'd like. There is one place they're going to try to schedule an interview for me with, and I'll hear back about that on Monday. I asked the agent what he thinks my prospects are in Berlin and he told me, "with your work it will only be a matter of time. Berlin is slowly becoming the center of advertising in Germany. The agencies are finally realizing that they need to have people in-house who know interactive, and you go even further than that with a 360º background. All you need to do now is to be patient and wait."

At the second interview, with a company with an open position, everyone seemed really pressed for time and a little bit distracted. It didn't help that I was the third interview of the day, and there must have been some big deadline or something because people kept having to excuse themselves to run to other meetings, and other people joined in halfway. I did my best to go through my portfolio quickly and calmly, highlighting my achievements, etc, etc. The company does a lot of work for the government and has a contract with them, so they're actually doing pretty well despite the tough economic situation. There's a bunch of other English speakers in the company, mostly from the UK, although one is from Canada and one is from the US. They asked me when I could start and I told them a month. They told me that's about how long it would take them to get a work permit, so it works out for both sides. They asked what kind of salary I'd like to make, and I told them I didn't really know because I was unfamiliar with the cost of living in Berlin compared to Chicago, so they're going to see what they can come up with.

They're going to show my website and portfolio to the Creative Director (along with the work of other applicants who have made it this far). I'm interested to know what will happen now. I can't tell if they liked me or not – they were too focused on other things. I get the feeling that this meeting was more of a vetting process before showing my work to the Creative Director, who will ultimately decide. I feel like the Creative Director should have BEEN there though, or that they should have at least scheduled the interview when things wouldn't be so busy, but it's advertising and I know how it can get.

Anyway, here's hoping that something will work out.