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 Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 3:56 pm
With the end of the semester, Jett had a lot of free time. Which meant one of several things—he could: a) spend more time working in the antique shop, which sounded a little tedious and boring, b) sleep (which always sounded good, c) focus on some extra energy gathering for the DMC or, d) apply for an internship to keep him busy for the next few weeks until school started.
Sitting in the office of a rather large advertising firm a little too early in the morning made him question if he should have gone with the last choice because—right now—sleep was sounding really good.
He glanced at the watch on his wrist as he sat in the waiting room of a well established advertising firm; there were a good number of people that seemed to have been applying for the same internship as he was, though he gathered plenty of them were a lot more desperate than he was.
Jett still had a few years before he was done his business degree, so he wasn’t feeling any pressure. It helped that he was naturally confident—his palms weren’t sweating, he wasn’t perspiring profusely. Instead, he was leaning back in his chair, picking at his nails and waiting for his name to be called.
It wasn't like he wasn't taking this seriously--he'd dressed up, put on a suit, brought his resume, all the proper little things one attended to prior to an interview. Just, minus the anxiety.
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Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 4:53 pm
It had all started when Garethon had fired his assistant.
Garethons assitant had been consitantly late, and so he fired her without a second thought. It wasn't until after that he had learned that the company wouldn't hire another assistant until it had paid his last ones last pay check, so it would be a month or so before he got his new assistant.
Only then did he realize how much of his work his assitant had actually managed to get done, even with being an hour late at least fairly consistantly. On top of that, Garethon found himself tired from his nightly rotation as Magnetite, so he had even had to go straight from work a few times. He hadn't sparred or even practiced in a week and he was getting VERY frustrated.
So hed cut a deal with the person organizing the internship. He would conduct the interviews to choose four interns for the winter break, and he could have one as his personal assitant for the month. If he liked the person, he could even offer them the job permanently.
He opened the door to the room the prospective interns were waiting in.
"Jeff Dimagio?"
He looked around the room expectantly, but no one stood. One of the hopefulls spoke up.
"Um, I think hes in the bathroom."
Garethon nodded, crossing his name off the list.
"Well tell him when he gets back that the position has been filled. Jett Draven?"
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Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 5:32 pm
Jett hadn't expected to be called so soon, or perhaps he would have prepared himself a bit more--looked a bit more professional, paid a little more attention to the man in charge.
Well. Apparently that's not the way today was going to go. Instead, he lazily pushed himself up from the chair and snagged the folder from the desk. If Garethon wanted papers to sing praises for Jett, he had plenty of them. He didn't bother to speak up; he was standing and that should be evidence enough of his identity.
He exuded confidence but, then again, that was easy to do when you had nothing to lose. He approached without any hesitation and waltzed right into Garethon's office, figuring he'd rather get this done than putz around and waste Garethon's time by brown nosing and kissing a**.
That simply wasn't Jett.
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Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 5:38 pm
Garethon closes the door behind Jett, moving over behind his desk.
"Have a seat, Jett."
He sat down in his own chair.
"Now Jett, my name is Garethon Lafeu. I'm managing director of North American sales, and I'm going to be the one interviewing you today."
Garethon crossed his arms.
"Now we’ve looked over your resume and application, that’s why you're here today. What I need from you right now is an answer to a simple question. Why should I hire you instead of any of them?"
He leaned back to listen to the man’s response.
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Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 7:03 pm
Lafeu? That was not a common name. That was, in fact, Millicent's name. Which made Jett suspicious; he had heard her gush over her father, though also talk about how he wasn't often there, so it was a bit of an odd position to be in when thinking you might be sitting in front of your friend's deadbeat father.
Wait. Scratch that, no. When did he start considering Millicent a friend? And who said that there was only one Lafeu family in Destiny City?
He leaned back in the chair he'd taken a seat in while directed, laced his fingers a bit, and answered with confidence--quite simply, "Because you can find any generic s**t for brains employee on the side of the road, Sir, so if you're looking for one of them--go ahead. You've got a whole room full of them. And you can make the mistake of putting one of them on a pedestal and dressing them up like something fancy, but the fact of the matter is, they're not going to take you anywhere. Whether or not you hire me, I'm going somewhere in life, and the choice you're making right now isn't just whether or not you want to hand me my paycheck for the next four weeks, it's whether you want to risk making me an enemy to you and your firm."
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Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 7:14 pm
Garethon chuckled. The kid had guts, there’s no doubt about that, but he might be a little too big for his britches. A kid like this, he wasn't going to like being told to go get coffee, he'd be the kind to complain that his talents weren't being used correctly.
Still, he wasn't going to count the kid out just yet.
"You realize what your job would be if I give you this position? You'd file papers, get coffee, and take phone calls. You wouldn't exactly be the mover or shaker in the company. At the end of the internship, if you did well enough, you might get offered a job here, but as it stands you're not likely to be looking at more than a resume buffer."
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Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 7:33 pm
"And that's all I'm here for," Jett shrugged. "That and a new hobby until school starts back up. If you want me to file papers, get coffee and take phone calls, fine. I knew what I'd be getting into when I filled out the application, had a long hard think, and decided that I'd rather have this buffer on my resume than let one one of those guys out there have it."
He still seemed rather leisurely; Jett didn't like having to start out at the bottom of the food chain, but if he could get in good here, now, there was no question that it would help him in the future and he was willing to risk it.
It didn't seem like he'd blown the interview so far, so he continued, "You've got--what, thirty, forty people on that list? And most of them will be carbon copies of the last. But it's not that hard to make coffee, or answer the phone or file papers. Maybe some of them will do it better than me," he shrugged. "But none of them are going to go as far as I am, and you'd be doing yourself a real disservice to cut me out of the picture, Mr. Lafeu."
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Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 7:42 pm
The kid was right on about the Carbon copies, and Garethon really did like his exuberance. Still, he wasn't sure if the kid had the right attitude. But normal interview techniques weren’t working. He’d get the quick, necessary questions out of the way and then try something more challenging.
He looked over the application on his desk at a glance.
"So, tell me about your classes. Have you taken any that give you specific insight into the advertising business? Do you have any experience that would give you a leg up here?"
Garethon could have just read the application, but he wanted to hear this kids answers.
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Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 8:03 pm
For this answer, Jett had a little less glamour. "Mostly only what DCU has had to offer me. And, admittedly, I guess my schooling is a little behind. Was out of town for six weeks and got transferred to HITS, so I'm still working that whole mess out. But it's nothing some more schooling can't make up. Besides, how much specific insight do you really need when you're just making coffee and filing papers?"
For as much show as Jett was, he was a hard worker and a good student. He studied for a good few hours a week to make sure he was on top of everything, and his life kept to a pretty busy schedule. He had a near perfect GPA, had a good number of letters of recommendation, had a few years of work experience--and had taken over the advertisement for the antique shop, albeit his boss wasn't too big on 'crowding up the store'.
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Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 8:11 pm
Garethon nodded.
"Well, none actually, but if we were going to look at hiring you out of this position, it would be nice if you had some experience. Not that you can’t get the position if you don’t have experience, but it'll be good to know."
He shuffled some paper on his desk.
"All right let me ask you a better question. You are trying to get a client and find out that client is thinking about going with another firm, but you can't tell which one they are going to go with. You're fairly certain that our firm is better, but they may have gotten a better impression from the other firm."
He leaned back again, watching the kid carefully.
"Shoot me some ideas. What do you do?"
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Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 8:24 pm
Jett offered Garethon a curious look, but didn't seem too phased by the question. "...There's a lot to do, given the situation. And it depends on the client and the project, especially. And the other potential firms involved. You can't just make a broad statement saying 'this is what would work in this situation'. I'd have to get a feel for the client, first and foremost. There are different ways to deal with different people. If it's a paranoid person, all you have to do is place doubt in their mind. If it's a cocky person, you play off of them. You push and pull until you get them back on your side. Everything is negotiable, and if you spend enough time with someone, you can always get them back on your side."
He leaned forward in his chair, resting his elbows on his knees. "You're throwing up a hypothetical situation where there's an infinite amount of things you could do, but what I would do depends on the having all the facts and not just a broad idea. You want ideas? I can give you anything from sweet talking to blackmailing, but the same technique doesn't work on everyone."
Everyone knew that; in a vague situation, Jett could have started listing ideas, but working with so little meant that he couldn't really apply any sort of innovation, just repeat the same things they taught you in school.
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Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 8:31 pm
Blackmail, that’s the word Garethon had been listening for. He saw alot of himself in this kid.
"Sometimes you have to work with what you have. I could drop a case with this much information in your lap and say 'go get me that client' and you’d have to figure out how to do it. Of course your right, you’d still get a little more, so let me tell you what you can find from a simple Google search."
"The client is a large corporation, so you're dealing with their head of marketing and anyone else on his team. That should tell you enough to get started on them. The other firm is older; it has a lot of old fame but hasn't done a lot of interesting stuff lately. They rely on older accomplishments to get their business. You don’t know what they’ve told your prospective client, but you have good reason to believe they are thinking of going with the other firm."
He crossed his arms.
"From that, you should be able to give me a basic attack strategy."
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Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2011 5:24 pm
“Well,” Jett shrugged a bit. “The simplest thing to do is look for dirt on the other company that would sully their old reputation. If they haven’t done anything heinous enough to immediately deter the client from dropping all ties, then make some up if you have to. Which, you know. Certainly isn’t encouraged. If the firm hasn’t slipped up somewhere along the line, go on a more personal level. You don’t get into business without slitting a few throats, so it’s guaranteed that there are people in that firm that have some skeletons in the closet. All you have to do is find the right piece of dirt and appeal to the client. By the time you’ve pitted the client against the other firm, it’s too late for the other firm to do the same to yours. Or,” he shrugged, seeming quite relaxed still.
“Just start talking about how archaic and old fashioned the old firm is. They haven’t done anything impressive lately, so clearly they’re losing their edge. Test the client, ask them if they’re willing to put their business in the hands of a firm who has been progressively slipping. They’re riding on the coattails of their predecessors and are getting sloppy. They can take a gamble that the firm is going to impress and deal with the consequences of second rate work.”
He tilted his head just slightly in thought. "But, then again. If you're really that worried about this other firm, just buy them out."
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Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2011 6:44 pm
Garethon scoffed. As if buying out a competing company was such a simple proposition. If the company was privately held, you had to convince its owner to sell, and even if it wasn’t buying out a controlling share of another company wasn’t a simple task, nor an inexpensive one.
Still, this kids other suggestions hadn't been bad. He was right, you have to slit throats to succeed in business. You didn’t have to slit throats to be his assistant though, and Garethon wasn’t sure how comfortable he was with having someone working for him with his own attitude. Still, the kid would only be on the payroll for a few weeks, after which Garethon could just not offer him the job if he really thought the kid could ever be trouble.
The kid had the right attitude, if not the best approach. Garethon was not your typical interviewer, if he had been this kid would have been sunk.
"All right, one more question. You have two options for payroll, one gives more money, the other gives better medical, dental, a company car and all that jazz, basically it has about perks to make up for the lower pay. Which one would you take?"
The answer to this question would tell Garethon a lot about this kid. Garethon was pretty sure though that he knew what the answer would be.
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Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2011 7:21 pm
This answer was the easiest for Jett. “Money. I’m healthy as a horse, haven’t had a dental problem since I was in fourth grade, and—no, thank you, but keep your company car—I like mine just fine.”
He was cocky with youth, but he spoke in earnest. Though he might have considered the benefits a little more now that he was running around, picking fights at night, he had a pretty good insurance plan already. His mother’s benefits were doing a fine job of taking care of him so far, so he wasn’t going to waste the money on redundant benefits.
When he was older, he might change his mind—but right now, he was thinking of the little things. A larger paycheck would pay for the home renovations they needed, would make sure they could pay their bills.
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