False Start or Gateway to Career Heaven?

Photo Courtesy of City of Lennox, SD website.

A few weeks ago I was reading a brief article about career false starts. The person had aspirations of being an actor. They were, but the area they were in was a bit limited and the person found another creative outlet; marketing within the theater industry. He eventually decided to pursue a day job as a theater marketing director. Creating websites, posters and other promotional images and materials allowed him to build up a network of clients, leave his day job and go freelance full-time. All along the person knew they wanted to be in the theater and perhaps wasn’t exactly sure in what capacity. Their false start as an actor led them to a wonderful opportunity that they seem to enjoy and truly love.

After I read the article I found myself wondering a bit if people recognize a false start. Probably not. You won’t see it until hindsight shows you. Weeks later I found myself thinking back to the article and eventually breaking out into laughter.  You see, I’ve always known I wanted to do something creative and with writing. Being a creative fiction author was of course my top choice, but when I got older I knew the reality of things would show me that being a starving artist is no joke. By the time high school came around, I had made up my mind that I would to college and break into journalism; specifically in the print media for news editorial.

During my senior year in high school I naturally went through the process of applying to different colleges, taking the SAT and handling all the responsibilities that comes with preparing for college. I did college tours and scheduled interviews with journalism or communications departments at the various schools I applied to. When it came to Howard University, I met with the journalism department’s chairperson at the time. During my interview I presented her with a project I did for a math class. I created a magazine, bound and all, complete with articles (with faux content) and advertisement. She looked at it carefully. Cover to cover.  I noticed she stopped at the pages where I created ads.

Let me just say, this was the late 90s. It was 1998 to be exact. Though computer apps like Dream Weaver were around, it wasn’t quite a phenom just yet. My ads – my magazine – was done with Microsoft Word, Print Shop graphics (software that came with my computer) and lucky me my mother had the machine and materials to make plastic spiral comb bound books. Looking at my publication, the chairperson was impressed. She listened to me babble about my aspirations to be a journalist and when I was done she smiled, sat back in her chair and calmly said

“Have you ever considered going into advertising? It seems you are creatively talented to pursue a career in advertising. You should try it.” 

I remember telling her that journalism was all I could think about and that’s where I aspired to be. In present day, my laughter comes in after receiving leads, calls and emails from agencies that contract with advertising firms and want to try to bring me in as a content writer. I laugh because I can’t help but to think back to that day in the department chair’s office declaring my love for journalism. While nothing is set in stone just yet, there is a possibility that my career may shift a bit. However, it wouldn’t be anything new as in I wouldn’t be totally in uncharted territory. I have done some type of copy writing and editing for various government and private agencies. Still, I can’t help but shake off wondering if journalism is my false start. Actually I wouldn’t want to see it as a false anything. Though I’ve fallen into complicated lover’s spat with the industry – as much as I admire the advances with the technology and so forth I get pissed that the industry has allowed lazy journalism to infiltrate its pool, which can leave really good quality journalism out in the cold – I’d like to think journalism is my gateway to other areas that coincide with it; such as advertising.

By definition, career false starts are those jobs that look good at first look and first hire, but eventually go stale and turn out to be trap jobs. You aren’t in a position or field you want to really be in. Unfortunately, it becomes more about getting A job, than actually capturing one in your desired field. As a result, your job skills are now defined by the stale job especially, if you have been there for some time. This is why it is so important to keep the skills in your desired field fresh, even if it is just a side gig while  you take on the day job to help stabilize your income.

I know my love ones think I’m crazy that I don’t even look at administrative jobs anymore.  It’s not that I didn’t apply to score just a job until something in my desired field came up, but I did that already, plus my resume is a bit more hefty with journalism/communications experience that I get passed over for the admin jobs. I’ve actually been told “You will be bored. You are over qualified.”

I will say with each experience, journalism and non journalistic, it has been a stepping stone and allowed my background to be bit more broad and fluid. It’s a beautiful thing to be in such a pivotal position, that is if you know which route to go. Me? I’m still figuring it out. Well, I pretty much have it figured out, but then again… ask me next week or the week after that… that route may have slightly changed. *insert boisterous laughter*

I just wanna write and tell a good story. The possibilities are endless.

Tagged: advertising, career, false start, Howard University, journalism

Posted in: regular