I went to a second interview on Friday afternoon with a company... I wouldn't mind working for, honestly. They're a younger company with only about 8-10 employees who are doing very well, but they have some questionable issues that I'm not sure how to address at this point. I'm interviewing with the owner of the company and his director of operations... who is... 25? Maybe?

First of all, they aren't sure what to do with me. They want me to establish their marketing area in some capacity, but are hoping to have another guy who used to work for a competitor come in and direct that area. They kind of expect me to come in, learn about the company and then develop some marketing strategy. Great.

Secondly, the first thing they asked me to do in this role is "damage control with the distributors".

Oh, goodness.

"Sure, I can do that. No problem."

ADD kicks in, this guy spins around a million different directions, pauses, looks at me and asks, "Is there anything else? We should talk salary, shouldn't we?"

I pause, trying to gather my thoughts after his tirade of oral spewing about virtually nothing. I think to myself, I have to learn something about this company. I ask a few questions that give me a better idea what they earn annually, what their production costs are, etc. Estimated profit will be somewhere around $12M for 2008. Losses are around 2/3 that...

Sure.

He then hightails into salary-speak, saying, "You said you were looking for $40,000-$50,000? Yah, I'm not sure, you know, I'm not very comfortable putting you into a managerial position because you're kind of young-ish and right out of school, so how about we look at $40,000... or just under that to start you out."

There are so many things wrong with these statements that I can't even begin to fathom how to respond. I'm not right out of school. I worked for 5 years and finished my master's while I was working full time. I was making significantly more money in my previous job and expected a bit of a pay cut because of the difference in the cost of living from one state to another, and in actuality, I was a manager in my last position. I was the one planning work-flow, managing other employees, hiring and training new employees, supervising an entire area. Secondly, those things are illegal to say in an interview. Not just that, but the fact that those things came in direct correlation to what position he would want to put me into and how much he would like to pay me to do that job.

I've spent the entire weekend trying to decide how to respond to this. I feel that by taking the job, no questions asked, would put me in a position that would allow him to push me around because he thinks he can get away with this from day one. That's not okay with me. I don't want to come off as threatening in any way because then I'll still be SOL with no job in sight. I can do this job, do it well, and probably exceed his expectations in less than a month, but how do I let him know that these actions are not kosher in the business world? How do I say that this kind of attitude may have burnt the distributors, thus the need for "damage control"? Obviously it isn't easy to approach these things with someone who hasn't hired you yet, but how can I do this carefully after accepting the job? How can I get paid what I deserve? How can I make him feel like I'm help, assisting him to grow this business without pushing boundaries?

I'm so not cut out for this. My attitude is to push, push, push... which is really why I should run my own business... and stay there.

Any suggestions are welcomed and helpful. :) Cheers to a happy Sunday.

Labels: advertising, business, change, complaints, confidence, confusion, development, interviewing, marketing, state of unemployment, training