If you are considering a job here, welcome. I am the intern, and I have been asked to write an honest account of a normal week so applicants know what they are getting into. Below is my actual work diary. Some entries have been lightly edited for spelling. None have been edited for accuracy, because I was told that would defeat the purpose.
Short version, in case you are between meetings: yes, we are hiring, the hours are flexible in a direction I cannot fully describe, and the culture is what people mean when they say a place has "a lot of history." Now the long version.
First real day. HR walked me to my desk, which is a card table with a lamp that only works when someone else in the building is also thinking about the lamp. My onboarding buddy is a librarian named Marigold. I said it was nice to meet her. She did not blink. I have decided this is a New York thing and I will not bring it up.
Tasks for the day: answer support tickets. I opened the queue. There were four hundred people asking where their free ebooks were, how to redeem a code, and whether their account had been charged. I do not know how to charge an account. I am not sure we have accounts. I answered every one personally and told them help is on the way, because it felt true when I typed it.
My manager is named Doug. I have not met Doug. Doug is "at the lake." Doug sent one email today. It said, in full, "Are the strangers still arriving?" I replied yes, more than yesterday. He did not write back, but the lamp got brighter for about an hour, which I am choosing to read as approval.
I asked Marigold who all these visitors are and why they seem so certain they have an account with us. She slid a green Ledger across the desk. Every page is full. Every name is signed in a different hand. I recognized none of them. She tapped one entry twice, very slowly, and returned to not blinking. I logged this as a productive one-on-one.
Deadline day. I was told the Q3 deliverable was due at noon and that it has been due at noon since 1997. Nobody will tell me what the deliverable is. I built a spreadsheet anyway. When I looked away and looked back, the spreadsheet had a new column titled RANDY that I did not create. Every cell in it was filled. I did not fill them. I have never met Randy. Randy, if you are reading this during your own onboarding, please reach out, we should sync.
A man in a hurry messaged asking to cancel his subscription. We do not have subscriptions. I have started a document called Things We Apparently Do Not Have. It is now longer than the employee handbook, which is one laminated card that says PLEASE BUY A BOOK, AUTHORS ARE FRAGILE ORGANISMS.
I got here early to beat the rush and there was already a rush. Dozens of people, all looking for a place that gives away books and runs contests, all quite sure they typed the right address. I keep telling them I think they mean somewhere else, the other door, the one they were actually heading for. They keep insisting this is it. I am starting to worry that being right about where you are is not a requirement for being here. Neither, increasingly, am I.
The Ghost of Mark Twain visited my desk around three. He read my support replies over my shoulder, exhaled cigar smoke onto my monitor, and said my tone was "warm but doomed, like most good hires." I have added it to my LinkedIn.
Reviewed the week for this post. I still do not have a login, a badge, a paycheck, or a clear sense of what we sell. I do have a lamp, a Ledger, a haunted spreadsheet, and four hundred new visitors who think I can help them and, against every odd, keep coming back. Doug emailed once more. It said, "Good. Do not let them leave sad." That is the whole job. I finally understand it.
So, is Booktrovert a good place to work? I think so. The onboarding is unusual and the org chart is mostly a rumor, but everyone here sincerely believes that a person who wandered in looking for a book should leave holding one, or at least feeling looked after. If that appeals to you, we could use the help. You can practice on the exact same confused arrivals I handle every day over at customer service, and if you want the full institutional backstory before you apply, start with our timeline of events. It explains almost nothing, which is, I have learned, how you know it is accurate.
Apply by staying. That appears to be the entire process. It worked on me.
Diligently,
Booktrovert #593