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“But it’s working. Everyone has been studying it, but they simply don’t understand why it works and others don’t.”
He opens the door to an office twice the size of the one he showed me. It’s a vision of grandeur, and I wonder how long he’s sat in this same office. It’s nothing like the simple one Em has in Aspire. This feels tacky and old rather than classic, as I’d expected. There’s a recreation of a statue of some Greek god in the corner. Paintings that remind me of things I’ve seen in museums hang on the walls. More than anything, it’s the amount of gold inlaid in everything that bothers me. There are even streaks of gold in the dark chocolate floors.
He gestures to a leather-backed chair in front of his desk, and he sits in his. “You saw the offer we made you, and we would expect you to reproduce the numbers you had with the Bronze Goddess campaign. Do you think you could do that?”
I’m tempted to be arrogant, to project the same persona that I had at Aspire at the end. That’s not want I want, though. I don’t want to show up and act like I know everything when I really don’t. And if they hire me expecting a lie, then I’ll have to work ten times as hard to hide the extra work I have to do.
“It depends on the product, Mr. Herman. And it depends on how much freedom I have to be agile while designing the campaign. Mr. Brooks told me to do what I thought was best without a budget and without any rules for the Bronze Goddess campaign. Can you give me that?”
He blinks in surprise. I guess he expected to dominate the conversation since he was talking to someone who only has a month of experience. The thing is, I know I don’t need this job. He does need me.
“I can’t give you that kind of freedom with the budget, Ms. Carter. I certainly won’t approve anything that doesn’t meet our quality demands. You’ll need to go through me for everything you plan. You’ve had success with your campaign at Aspire, but you’re still lacking experience. It would be best to have someone take a glance at your work before sending it to the client.”
I sigh. I know that working for Mr. Herman will be so much worse than working for Emery.
“Mr. Herman, I don’t know if this is going to work out.” I think back to what Shonda said about the Herman and Schuster ChitChat campaign she heard about. Five videos. They don’t know what they’re doing at all. “Your company is struggling with success on ChitChat. I’m not. I may be inexperienced in a company like Herman and Schuster, but I’m not inexperienced at selling products on ChitChat.
“How many videos has your company made as a whole? How many views has your entire company managed to get?”
He sputters for a moment, and I say, “Mr. Herman, I have made more videos than your entire company combined, and I’ve gotten more views. I did that as a hobby, a side job during college. I have more experience than every single person in your company combined doing what you want done. Including you.”
He leans back, his hands going to his lap as he accepts that he’s not talking to someone he can push around.
“What are you saying?” he finally asks.
“I’m saying that the only way I would work for you is if you give me a team of three people who are clever, and then you take your hands off everything we do unless we request help with logistics or planning. Even if you think we’re doing the stupidest things imaginable, you’d need to approve it.”
He laughs. Not a little chuckle. A full-bodied laugh, and it’s directed at me. “Ms. Carter, you think a little too much of yourself. No one at Herman and Schuster, much less a twenty-two year old with a month of experience, gets to demand approval. Your resume is a single campaign that could very well have been a fluke.”
I’m a little surprised that he doesn’t give in, especially after his company is the most likely candidate for the doctored photo of Em.
I’m not here to argue or convince anyone. Especially not after having seen the work environment. This place would stifle me.
But my reputation does matter in this business. He needs to know that I’m worth it, even if I’m turning him down. I stand up with a smile on my face.
“It wasn’t a fluke. Find out the numbers for a little company called Organo-cleanz. It doesn’t matter, though. I don’t think this is going to work out, so it was good meeting you, Mr. Herman. I’ll see myself out.”
He looks shocked, but it doesn’t matter. The feel of this place isn’t right for me. But what place will be? Everyone knows that Aspire is the best.
Chapter 55
Madison
I’m tempted to catch a cab but decide against it. I had doubted that I’d take the job with Herman and Schuster, but I hadn’t realized how much the office environment matters to me. This calls for a bit of thinking, and the day’s perfect for a walk through Central Park.
I could have convinced Mr. Herman to give me what I needed. I could have carved out a position within Herman and Schuster that I was comfortable with. It might have taken some time, but after a few successful campaigns where I didn’t tell them how or why things worked, and they just magically did, I’d have been able to negotiate.
But the energy was so wrong.
The traffic zooms by me as I walk on the crowded sidewalk. The smell of exhaust is in the air, the perpetual scent of Manhattan. A road crew uses a jackhammer on the street, blowing concrete dust around them and filling the air with sounds of construction.
This is home, and I love it here. I take a path into Central Park and sit down on a bench. Pigeons swoop down and stand in front of me, hoping that I’ll feed them as they peck at the concrete.
A couple walking their dog pass me, and in the middle of their conversation, the woman jerks her head toward me and squints. It’s bizarre and shocking for someone to do that in a city where everyone ignores each other, and I immediately run my hand over my hair and face, trying to find whatever drew her attention. There’s nothing there, but the experience bothers me.
It reminds me too much of how the people in Herman and Schuster looked at me. Once again, I try to brush it off, and go back to thoughts of what I’m going to do about a job.
From what I’ve found, Herman and Schuster is more the norm than Aspire. There’s a reason that Emery is known throughout the business as a visionary, not just in terms of the product he sells, but also for the way he treats his team.
