Surviving
The Dot-Com Collapse
by
Brian Jacob
June 2001
It's
been almost two months since I was laid off from my comfy
job in the world of e-commerce consulting. Needless to say,
finding new work in the tech industry has been anything
but easy. So you can imagine how excited I was when my friend
Charlie e-mailed me with an opportunity for some "freelance"
work.
"Hey Bri, My friend has some work she needs done for her
website. It doesn't pay a lot but if you're interested let
me know."
Great,
I think. Money's money, and I certainly have the time in
my schedule. "Sure,
C. Hit me with the info."
"Well, it's only going to take between 4 and 6 days. Maybe
two hours worth of work per day, $40 each day. Plus, we'll
get to work together. It'lll be like hanging out, only we're
getting paid."
Not
bad. I ask him to give me a call to go over the details.
I pull up a copy of my resume, just in case. Wonder what
it is? HTML coding? QA/Usability testing? Graphic work?
Document design? Information Architecture?
*Phone
Rings*
Let's
pause to go over this again: My friend has some work she
needs done for her website.
"Thanks
for helping out, dude. Here's what needs to happen: we're
going to wear some crazy t-shirts and stand in the park
handing out magnets PROMOTING her website. It'll be FUN!"
Good
grief. I set the phone down, but could still hear him babbling
away:
"...and if you wear the butterfly wings, you'll get
FIFTY-FIVE dollars a day! How's that sound? Bri? Bri, you
there?"
As I found out, people love free stuff. It didn't take that
long to give everything away and we actually did have fun.
My biggest fear centered on having to do it at Bryant Park
(right by the offices of the consulting firm I used to work
for).
I
could just picture it: "Well well well, looky what we got
HERE. I seem to remember you giving us the finger and storming
off a year ago. You said something about joining the revolution
and forging the new digital economy. How goes the battle?"
Thankfully,
that scenario was avoided.
And
no, I didn't wear the butterfly wings. I didn't want to
look STUPID. I just wore the pith helmet and banana yellow
t-shirt while waving a giant butterfly net filled with promotional
magnets.
Oh
well, the adventure continues. Maybe I need a vacation.
I've heard about this great new travel site called:
http://www.escapemaker.com
Check
it out if you can. Look for the butterfly logo.
THE
END
