From the heart

The first job I got, in JaanPakistan.com as a webmaster, was a case of ‘being hired before the interview’.

My friend had his family friends over for a social visit and during the conversation, his family friend mentioned that he was starting an online portal, and was looking for a writer cum webmaster, to do up the content of the website (the portal being a content-based website). My friend asked him,

‘what about hiring the guy who wrote that?’

pointing towards the cover of that month’s Spider Magazine. Lo and behold, yours truly had one of his articles as the cover story for that month’s Spider magazine, the number one IT magazine in Pakistan. The guy told my friend to ask me if I’d be interested. I was interested, not because I was getting five thousand rupees a month for showing up for two hours, five days a week, but because the job was what I loved doing anyways. Internet, technology, writing, creating, doing new things, all in one!

I have a direct interest in marketing and of the two jobs that I have ever taken, the other one was as a copywriter. This is sometime in 2001. The owner of the then up and coming ad agency Blaze called me up, introduced himself and told me that he is looking for a copywriter. I was in college at the time, and the idea of an employer ‘cold-calling’ me for a job was exciting in itself – and the field of advertising was something I had always liked.

I went there for the interview – I remember making the interview on time although I was on a motorbike and Lahore was going through the stormy season. The soon-to-be boss was visibly impressed by my drenched clothes as I walked into his office.

He told me that he has already hired me, as I come strongly recommended by his friend. This ‘his friend’ knew me  from my previous job that I had taken, as a webmaster for JaanPakistan.com, a startup Pakistani portal. His friend had told him that I was good (nice!) and warned him that I am not a ‘normal’ employee (nicer!).

I was hired before I walked in the room, and stayed with the ad agency for the first six months of its inception, learning a lot and enjoying the company. I left to ‘do my own thing’, with the boss telling me to come back any time.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the difference between doing what you love or just looking for a job. If you are not doing what you love to do, then what the hell are you working towards?

Is not your interests worth at least an effort to get involved in it in one way or the other? Go. Go. Go.