So… I got a job! And to put it in Facebook terms, it’s complicated. So I didn’t want to announce it here until I worked my full first day.

I was at work last Friday when I got a phone call from a number I didn’t recognize. It was a guy named Chris who wanted to let me know that he’d found my resume online and wondered if I was interested in a job. I figured it for a scam and told him to email me the details.

When I read the email after work, I was floored! Chris is an agent for Aquent, a DC staffing agency for creative jobs. He was looking for an infographic designer for one of his clients. And that client turned out to be Pew Center on the States, one of the places I’ve most wanted to work since graduation. I emailed back and let him know I was interested, plus sent some of the interactive graphics from my portfolio (this was what Pew was especially looking for.)

The next morning at 8:30, I got woken up from a phone call from Chris. Using my best wide-awake voice, I asked how he was. Unfortunately, my wide-awake voice needs some work, so he told me to have some coffee and get ready to have a phone interview with Pew in 30 minutes or so. I didn’t need to be told that twice!

My interview went magically well. Maybe because I was just waking up, I didn’t think about what the interviewer wanted to hear and just answered her questions honestly. Honesty, and especially over-honesty, is one of my biggest character flaws but in this case, it turned out to be a good thing! Because the interviewer asked if I could come in for training just two days after our talk!

I called back Chris and told him the good news. He was actually surprised, since I wasn’t the first person he’d suggested to this client. (That’s why he had moved on from suggesting people already with Aquent to doing Google searches for random resumes like mine.) I canceled my other four interviews and drove into DC to sign on with Aquent. Apparently, Pew does their hiring through this agency. So there are two layers here. First, Aquent hired me as talent. Then, Pew is hiring me as a contractor from Aquent for the next three months as their Temporary Interactive Designer. During the interview, my interviewer mentioned that she hoped to make this a permanent position, but I won’t know for sure until February or March.

So when I came in to sign up with my agent, Chris (isn’t that so neat that I have an agent now?) my first question was, how did you find me? He told me that he and another agent had found me doing Google searches. But what site came up, I asked? For Chris, it was my Linked In profile with my old resume. He doesn’t know what the other agent found, but he said it was one of my blogs. I like to hope it was this one that did it.

All I can say about the agency so far is that I should have signed up for one a LONG TIME AGO. It’s great to have somebody to negotiate my salary and overtime for me. Plus, Aquent will provide me with those elusive benefits like healthcare and dental that I was getting as a solitary freelancer. Plus, it’s raised my self esteem so much. When Chris told me that my talents were in demand, I started to remember that I had other skills than manning a cash register. If you’re interested in signing up, let me know since I will get a referral bonus.

My first day at Pew was amazing. I got along great with everyone and the job seems like the perfect combination of creative, challenging, and essential tasks. Before I start for real (either next week or January 1, depending on when my background check is complete), I’m taking Aquent’s online course in Javascript (my title will be Temporary Interactive Designer, but there’s quite a bit of CMS management and programming involved!)

I’d like to say this was a fairy tale ending to NaNoJobMo, but 1) I’m not going to stop writing here and 2) there was nothing magical about it. This would have never happened if I hadn’t constantly applied to jobs and put my name and resume out there on the Internet. Good luck to everyone else in the job application process, and look forward to my infographics on the NaNoJobMo stats!