Thank You, John Smith (Whoever You Are)

Remember when things were normal?

When the process of getting a job wasn’t absurd, ironic, or predictably dysfunctional? You know—normal.

I remember. It wasn’t that long ago.

A showrunner reached out. He was staffing a new project, got my resume from someone named John Smith (not the real name, obviously; more on him in a second). We scheduled a call. Talked. Hit it off. A few days later, they made an offer. We agreed on a rate, and I started the following week.

No flaking. No ghosting. No bait-and-switch. Just a professional process that worked the way it was supposed to.

Normal.

Well… almost.

Early in the call, the showrunner asked, “So how do you know John Smith?”

I was hoping this wouldn’t come up because the only answer I had was: “I don’t.”

The real name was pretty distinct, so I knew we’d never worked together and I’d never reached out to him. I looked him up. We’d been in similar circles, but our paths never crossed.

“That’s funny,” the showrunner said. “To be honest, I don’t know him either.”

Apparently, John Smith had worked briefly at the company, left, and dropped off my resume before this showrunner even started. We laughed, I got the gig, and later I found out a friend of mine had passed my resume to John—who passed it to someone else—who handed it off to the showrunner. A strange little daisy chain of helpful humans.

I like to believe that my hard work and experience got the fickle finger of fate to point in my direction… instead of flipping me the bird. Because lately, that seems to be the new normal for a lot of us.

Here’s hoping we switch it back.

That normal means clarity, respect, and a process that makes sense, even when the answer is no.

And that abnormal—a lucky break, a random advocate, an unexpected yes—starts swinging back in our favor.