The world is a different place than when I got out of
school.
That’s a phrase I swore I’d never speak, much less write
down. But, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that:
A.
My parents are not, in fact, stupid
B.
Things change
C.
Keeping up with change is everything
So it is with the intention of helping you, younger writers,
that I tell you things have, in fact, changed. I will share with you some public service
announcements (PSAs) along the way in hopes that it helps you in your collective journeys.
Here we go!
When I first graduated from college, there was no Internet
(at least outside of the military) and certainly no Social Media. In fact,
newspapers (my first two employers) were doing quite well, thank you very much.
If companies wanted to promote their products or services,
they advertised. People couldn’t avoid ads back then (no TiVo, no Netflix) so
that’s where I wanted to be. I could make great advertising and help companies
promote whatever it was that they sold. My argument to myself: hey, who didn’t
have things to sell? This is going to be great.
PSA: If you have to
convince yourself of something, question it immediately.
While still in school, I sold advertising in the school
newspaper. But it wasn’t selling, really. I attended a very large midwestern
university with more than 50,000 students as a captive market (did I mention we
were the school newspaper?) so we had to beat the advertisers back with a stick.
Selling? I didn’t know the half of it.
After graduation I thought this newspaper thing was going so
well, I should do it full time. I accepted a job selling ad space for a local
chain of weekly newspapers. I didn’t realize, until it was too late, that I
was, in fact, selling space, not ads.
PSA: Make sure you
understand what a job entails before you accept it (especially before you give
up the one you already have).
In school, I had grown to love the creative side of crafting
a message. This was also at a time when Macintosh started to mean less about
fruit and more about computers. So, using a talent for writing I inherited from
my mom, I started to realize I could lay down the occasional effective headline.
PSA: Try to notice the
things you’re doing when people say things like, “You’re really good at that.”
or “You make that look easy.” This is what you’re meant to do.
Alas, the weekly newspaper people didn’t hire me to create
ads – they had a department for that, they informed me – I was supposed to be
selling space. I was told to hit the streets. Yuck.
Needless to say, that first gig didn’t last long. The lesson
from this part of the story is to learn to recognize when you don’t like
something and get away from it as soon as you practically can. The key word
here is practically.
PSA: Don’t quit your
job today because you don’t like your evil boss. Everyone has to deal with evil
bosses at some point. What I’m saying here is don’t waste too much of your life
doing what you hate. This means you’ll have to work harder than most people,
but it’s worth it.
So, I sold my soul to the corporate man and took a job in a
Fortune 50 company to get out of the door-to-door sales business. I learned
quite a bit in this next gig about communication to employees, rather than
customers, and gained a lot of respect for my corporate communication brethren.
But I needed to keep moving.
PSA: Different people
like to do different things. Respect that. When I say I didn’t like sales, it’s
because I sucked at it, not because it’s not a worthwhile vocation. Don’t stomp
on others’ dreams as you’re looking for your own.
I finally landed a job in a marketing department, albeit a
small one, and joined a four-person marketing staff of a large equipment and
engine distributor. Perhaps this would be where I would make a difference (I
told myself, both thumbs in the air!)
During my time with this firm – 10 years in all – the
Internet came to be, cell phones happened and I became friendly with the
corporate expense account. All good things, but I learned even more about business and life.
PSA: Appreciate what employers
can give you beyond pay and benefits. Take advantage of any and all training
opportunities and, if you don’t understand what a balance sheet is or how
budgets are made — ask! At this company, I developed friendships I still have
today and learned about the business world in ways I could never learn in
school.
Rather suddenly, the company I worked for was purchased and
my job was eliminated. This is not fun but, if it happens to you, realize two
things:
A.
It’s not your fault
B.
This is exactly why you have a rainy day
fund (Don't have one? Start one today.)
It was time for me to try the advertising agency world and I
was more than ready. I was fortunate to hear about an agency that needed an account
guy for one of its major accounts, which just happened to be my former
employer. Remember the part about being sure what the job entails before you
accept it? I should have known that no part of ‘account guy’ means writer.
PSA: Sometimes you’ll
have to do work you don’t love in order to pay the bills. We all have. Don’t
get mad at your employer or take this frustration out on your co-workers,
they’re all trying to pay their bills, too.
It turns out that travel, another key element of my non-writing
job, wasn’t something I loved either. And, with three small kids at home, they
didn’t love it when daddy wasn’t home (and ‘daddy’ was my most important job).
But this time I had learned. I kept working and travelling
while looking for something closer to home and finally found what I think is the
perfect fit.
At an insurance company. Who knew?
PSA: Don’t pre-judge a
potential employer based solely on their industry. A so-called boring category
means it’s easier for your work to stand out!
Of course there are other words of advice I could offer,
like start investing for retirement as soon as possible and make sure you get
all of that company match, but you’ll get that elsewhere.
This diatribe is designed for writers, so I’ll leave you with
these few final thoughts:
- Always read your work out loud before you publish it, you’ll be able to hear how it sounds to that little voice in your reader’s head
Never publish a first draft; even if it’s a rush
Always make sure you completely understand who your audience is before you start writing to them
Never send a hastily written message (email, Tweet, etc.) you’ll almost always regret it; ‘save as a draft’ is a message purgatory created to save us writers from ourselves — use it
Always be gracious to those you interview, they are providing you with an opportunity you wouldn’t have without their insights
Never change direct quotes to fit your need
Always try to be consistent; if your brand has standards, don’t just follow them, become the example of how they are followed
Never present someone else’s work as your own
Always be able to defend your position; you may not always win, but always have a well-thought-out point of view
Never stop writing
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