Confessions of a Serial Interviewer by Steven Ra Ga

During my time in Vancouver I found myself working odd jobs to pay the bills. I was a student who just graduated and the film industry wasn’t consistent. It takes a lot of time to build up your hours then you gotta take and exam and course that doesn’t exist then pay $1,000 just to get into the union to get more work…

So I started looking at Craigslist for work and I found some.

I saw an ad for painting hand needed to help paint a boat. I thought to myself I have loads of painting experience. So why not.

I met Jim at one of the local harbours, he mentioned he had only a short a mint of work, that the boat needed to be prepped and painted as soon as possible and that he would pay cash.

I was hooked. Let do this I told myself.

The boat was small, it looked like a large tugboat but it was more of a sail boat. Jim had a daughter and wife who seemed a bit out of place, like maybe Jim was on the lamb, or he was in witness protection or maybe he was a kidnapper but I was just speculating as I didn’t want to ask too many questions in case he wanted me to walk the plank.

The work was tough, I had a tough time sanding the small surfaces of the deck using hand tools and he didn’t have electric tools. I baked in the sun for hours working away.

What I remember of the job Jim was impatient, I was there barely 4hrs before he decided to stop the job, he told me he need to leave, gave me a $150 and kicked me off the boat.

I was used to rejection by this point so I just left.

IKEA

My next side project was interior design. Since I had a film background in just that I felt I could be qualified for the job. I soon met two lesbians in their 50s at their home in gastown. We chatted about the position and my experience and what I could provide for them with my knowledge. Like an interview when I left they said to as I walked out the door “we didn’t know straight men could do design” I paused and said nothing, it would appear these women had a bias of who could work in the industry.

Now to be fair women and gay men do better in interior design because the female gender mimics birds and nest building. Homes often become nests or dens to raise the young and like the hermit crab when it’s time for something different a new home is required.

Where the stigma of straight men are often too busy with sports or video games to care about fashion or decor. I would be an outlier.

As you can tell I didn’t get the job.

2 weeks later I get an email from the lesbians, they asked if I needed work, I said yes, they stated the need man muscle to help build ikea stuff but couldn’t pay, though they offered to give me some of their furniture instead.

I accepted.

When I arrived at the flat (apartment) there was boxes of IKEA stuff and the designer they hired instead of me. Jackie was fresh out of design school, she had been looking to cut her teeth on some gigs while her boyfriend paid the bills. The lesbians introduced us.

I spent the day building items and chatting with Jackie it was fun until. The lesbians started hinting I take Jackie out on a date.

Jackie having a boyfriend wasn’t impressed.

It would appear the lesbians who were out of touch with reality felt it was there duty to play match maker with the “breeders”… I go the impression they were aware of how straight people operate.

Once the gig was done, I collected my furniture payment and moved on…