Picking up from the interviewing story –
At the end of the interview, the line producer came in. She told me she’d email me with how much money they’d be offering.
Then it was kind of hard ’cause they were asking if I could start tomorrow, and it’s like, “Well, let’s make sure we can land on the same page money-wise. Like, heck yeah I want this job. But I need to be able to afford to live here.”
(That was my subtext. I didn’t actually say that. But we basically left it that we’d talk later in the day about money and official start date and such.)
After I left, I went up to see an apartment. (It was a total bust.)
I also called my high school theater teacher (of course), and I just thought about everything.
I had numbers in my head of kind of like, “I cannot take this job if it’s less than this,” and “I suppose I might take it if it’s this, but it wouldn’t be great.”
And then I had a number in my head that I thought was really fair (not overshooting it for me, and not low-balling it for them – just what seemed like the really fair amount). It was what I’d try to negotiate to…
And when I heard from the line producer, it was exactly what she offered me.
I know that technically you’re always supposed to ask for a little more, no matter what you’re offered. (After all, it’s your only chance to negotiate for a pretty long while.) But I was like, “Dude, they offered me what’s fair. They’re letting me leave early every Monday for BMI. It’s a job in the Jon Stewart family in NYC. Just take this job and be thankful and quiet.” And that’s exactly what I did.
I felt so wildly terrible when I called my boss in LA and was like, “I am so very sorry. I’m not coming in tomorrow or ever again.” (Eesh.) (Also, of course I didn’t actually phrase it that way.)
She is such a super nice person who’s always been wildly supportive of me. She’s given me lots of autonomy so I can still take classes and do things. She was actually the person who gave me my very first assistant editor job. She has done so much for me and my career. So it killed me to quit like that with no notice at all.
Everything just happened so much faster than I thought it would. And I really needed a job in NY. I couldn’t pass this up. (Sorry!)
I extended my hotel stay, went to Macys as I didn’t bring enough clothes to stay. And boom. I was staying in New York.
And we’ll pick up here next time.