I recently applied for a gig in my skillset, emailed the job poster, attached some photos, videos and links to my YouTube Channel / showreel , went back and forth on LinkedIn arranging a time for a phone call, waited for 45 minutes AFTER said phonecall’s allotted time, finally took phonecall, listened to the person rambling on about his business (rather manically, whist driving) and finally got to ask: how much are you paying?
Bear in mind, this would be about half a day’s work for a highly skilled, qualified and experienced professional, if I do say so myself.
It was £10!!!! *looks for Scream emoji*
This is the trouble with not stating a pay range. Sometimes people woefully misunderstand the fee they should be paying for a certain type of job – the ‘market rate’. £10 is the kind of money you bung your mate for a pint, for doing you a favour. Not what a seasoned professional needs to be paid. And I don’t want to come over all “I don’t get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day” (supermodel Linda Evangelista) but come on guys! I think, in this case, the person just didn’t understand the task/skills needed and the consequences of doing it cheap and then getting a very substandard result. Which would reflect poorly on his company.
Sometimes people misread your CV and think you’re at a different level, or aren’t familiar with your industry/job. They may think what I do as a broadcaster is basically just waffle/blurt out any old thoughts that come into my head, with no consideration for the content, delivery, tone, pace and the emotional input needed. Anyway, I politely declined and hung up, thinking how I would spin this anecdote into a blog…
So here it is. A lot of posts I look at say “paid” (and I filter for paid jobs), but then it’s expenses only, or ONE of the roles is paid, but not mine (on a film set for example). That’s fine, I scroll on, but it’s wasting everybody’s time. Why not say a range “depending on experience” or add “negotiable bonus and benefits”? Hey, I’m not an HR person, so what do I know? But I think something has to change. So that’s my rant of the day over for now.
