During my last year of high school, I was afforded some amazing opportunities to pursue my passion in the areas of marketing and advertising. During these experiences, it was pretty clear I had figured out my WHAT (am I going to do with my life). For the remainder of that year, I set the intention to figure out the HOW (I was going to get into advertising). I knew what I wanted to do, I just had to figure out how I was going to do it.
My memory of the actual next steps is a little hazy and I want to be true to the process that I’m sharing. I was able to get a meeting with a top executive at the leading advertising agency at the time (McKay King in Epsom – you don’t forget your first crush) but I’m not sure how I got the meeting. I’m thinking my Media Studies teacher knew the guy and I called to schedule a meeting to discuss how this ambitious – albeit somewhat naive young man – could break into the next-to-impossible world of advertising.
I remember wearing a tie (thin black leather) and catching the bus to the agency. I have vivid memories of the sign as it was on the bus route to the city which was the thing to do at the time – grab a bus with a mate and head into the city.
And yes, you can form that imagine of me staring out the window of the bus and thinking “one day”. Yes, that was me. Only today, I was going inside…
When I actually got that opportunity to go into this building, I had a very clear intention of what I wanted to leave with: I wanted a plan.
I had distilled the process of actually getting a job in advertising into two paths: go to university and get a degree in communications or business and then apply, or just get my foot in the door right away and figure it out from there.
The conversation was fruitful. He helped weigh the pros and cons of each path that I presented to him. The degree way was the norm, but I’d be competing with hundreds of university graduates all vying for the same opportunity. The “get in my foot in the door any way possible” was an option, but it’s much less glamorous and that strategy ran contrary to the expected norms in my world: high school, then university (and maybe a gap year to travel) and then a job. At the end of the meeting, he opined his advice – get your foot in the door, study part time, and figure it out from there. The study part-time option was his idea and it would change everything – I could (and would) do both.
I’d love to say that I walked out of that meeting by asking and getting a job with my dream company… but I didn’t. I did ask though. He was polite, but not very optimistic. But I wasn’t focused on his response, I had received incredible advice and created a plan.
I was thankful that I had decided on a career path early on. I know many young people lament the process of figuring out what to do with their lives. I found my passion (or did my passion find me?) by recognizing the feelings (or the thrill I felt) when it came to the field of advertising and marketing. I loved making home movies with a video camera, I was a keen amateur photographer, I enjoyed designing/drawing things and I enjoyed writing. It seemed that a career in advertising and marketing was just a great way to get paid for doing stuff I loved to do.
Yes, there’s a follow-up story of how I got into advertising and marketing. Right here.
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