Another Interview...

I will be going for my 7th Cycle of my reservist in less than 2 weeks time and from what I have learned from my friend, it is going to be a relatively relaxing cycle due to Covid still being around.

Needless to say, I am still without any new projects at the moment and am still actively applying for job openings. I am using my reservist as a deadline or sorts, so once the reservist ends, it is either I am very close to being offered a new job or I will have to start getting new projects because the past few weeks, months of not having any ongoing projects and knowing that I am now completely devoid of any future project commission is extremely disconcerting, well I do have 1 more but that is so little it feels more like spare change.

I did go for a job "interview" a few days back and it is for a media company that focuses on real estate and interior design, the interview wasn't really one of those proper sit down interviews in an office filled with the usual "share with me about yourself, what are your strengths and weaknesses" questions , instead, it was held in one of the ongoing project that the company is handling at the moment.

When I first came across the job opening for this particular company, I was a little confused about what they were looking for, because they are a media company and it felt a little odd that they wanted to hire an Interior Designer, and it was only after my phone interview with one of the co-founder of the company did I get an idea of what they were trying to do. 

They are essentially, at this stage, a media company that does online articles and videos about real estate and interior design, they also have real estate agents in their company that sells property, so what they want to do is to get the customers who have gotten properties through them to also do the renovation through them as well, which sounds like a good idea, except I don't think it is.

Currently, the renovation department in the company is still at it's infancy stage, so the co-founder who interviewed me shared with me that he has taken on a few projects already but because he is a one man show, he needs someone else to share the load.

The issue is that the company does not have any sub-cons working for them, this means there is no tilers, no plumbers, no electricians, no carpenters, nothing.

How does it work then?

Well, apparently what he is doing at this stage is getting those customers and passing it off to another Interior Design firm to handle, it made zero sense because if you are passing the projects to other Interior Design firms to handle, then how are the projects that you are taking on right now considered your own?

He then explains to me that because his company does not have the sub-cons at the moment, what he does is....

1. Take Customer Leads

2. Meet the customer and get their requirements.

3. Share that requirement with his Interior Design firm that he is partnering with.

4. Interior Firm prepares the quote and design.

5. Interior Designer sends the quote back to him

6. He pass the quote to the Customer

7. Customer looks through quote and wishes to explore a lower cost.

8. He take the feedback from the leads and bring it up to the Interior Designer.

9. Interior Designer works on a new quote and sends it back to him.

10. Repeat steps 7 to 9 until client is satisfied and signs the contract.

11. Interior Designer manages the project and he does occasional site supervision every once in a while. 

... it just sounds like such a redundant process.

You know what would be an easier process.

1. Take customer leads.

2. Pass customer leads to Interior Designer. 

3. Interior Designer deals with everything else.

... that's it, and get the interior designer to pay you a referral fee for every leads that you provide them because what he is currently doing is just needlessly inserting himself into the process. It is just so cumbersome that the customer have to go through him to get to the interior designer and vice versa, like what is the point, it is so troublesome? 

This is the equivalent of me getting a third party company to help me order food from grab or foodpanda, like what even is the point? So if grab or foodpanda screws up the order, I will have to go through the third part company to make a complaint and they will forward it to grab or foodpanda, like what is the point? It just sounds so redundant.

He then shares with me that that is the initial stage, that he ultimately aims to take the renovation on completely, but he will still pass the design work to another Interior Designer to handle.

Hmmm, so essentially I will be doing everything I do not like about the job and not be able to do the only thing I like about the job, that just sounds horrible to me.

I then told him that I was looking for a more creative role and not so much a project manager role because I do not like project management, to which he tells me that it is something that can be explored and then from there on I just got really lost.

So if I join the company, I won't be joining as a Project Manager, I will be joining as an Interior Designer, but you are clearly looking for a Project Manager based on the scope, so what happens when I actually join, will you give me a more creative role or will I end up be forced to do the Project Manager role?

I was honestly still contemplating about the position after the interview, but after thinking about it and typing this whole post out, I don't know what I think about it anymore.

There is a basic, but there is also a commission scheme, which makes sense because there is that sales factor involved, but if this is a sales role and I am going to end up becoming a project manager, then what is the point of even switching company, especially from my current one which is already very well known in the industry.  I would rather stay in my current company if everything else is the same and on top of that, I actually get to run projects that I design.

Sigh, I found this company off cultjobs, the same as the other company that I had applied for previously but withdrew my application from, like what is the deal with the jobs from that website, I was interested to join both companies, but both their jobscopes are so odd.