I’ve made it a bit of a habit now to visit the demolition of the building wherein I took on my first “real,” full-time salaried position at an ad agency—stopping by more frequently than I get haircuts (see previous entry).
It won’t be long before the building becomes a pile of rubble.
As I recollected last week, I’d been fortunate enough in the late ‘80s to get a work/study job at the Wisconsin Division of Tourism while at UW-Madison pursuing a Secondary Education degree. It was an actual desk job—no shoveling, sweeping, or getting dirty—and I was able to learn quite a bit about public relations, photography, and even production and printing of newsletters.
At the the end of last week’s entry, I related the life-changing moment when I looked over the shoulder of a person assembling another State agency’s newsletter on a PC—which, pre-‘90s, was complete and utter witchcraft. Fortunately, the woman working this magic was happy to share with me the magic of QuarkXpress and Microsoft Word, and I was off to the races.
Never Too Old to Learn
Remember, these were the days before America Online—or the internet in general—existed, so if you wanted to figure something out, it helped to have a person show you the ropes. Fortunately, Gayle (I still haven’t forgotten her name) was willing to demonstrate how she was able to make neat columns of type and boxes with “x’s” in them to indicate where photos and illustrations would go (scanners were not yet widely available).
But that’s not the only earthshaking thing I learned in a short period of time.
One day, as I was typing up a newsletter story via a primitive “portable” computer, the account rep from tourism’s ad agency, John Ricks, stood over my shoulder as he waited for a meeting to get started.
“So, you’re a writer,” he stated. He didn’t ask.
“A what?” I answered.
“A writer. You write marketing copy and other narrative material,” he explained.
A writer?
“It can be a really interesting job,” he went on. “I see you writing all the time and laying out mailers, editing to fit… I can get you the names of some ad agencies that are looking for writers. Better yet, writers who can go ahead and handle the design and layout as well, like you do.”
The Earth moved beneath me. People get paid to write?
Yes, at the age of 23—having months ago graduated from college with a Secondary Education degree—I had no idea whatsoever that Writer was a job title.
So, it wasn’t just news reporters and authors writing books. Putting words together for mailers, catalogs, ad copy, etc. was an actual marketable skill that someone would pay me bi-weekly to do.
Writing was a job!
I pumped John for more information—in hindsight, he must have thought I was quite the rube, not knowing what a copywriter was. Amused or not, he passed me the names of some agencies, and I got started sending query letters and making calls.
Within 10 days, I had two interviews set up. One in northern Wisconsin, and one in a suburb of Milwaukee called Hales Corners. I still have a picture of my note for the Milwaukee interview (water damage from the Flood of 2008).
Interesting bit of information I was given: The Milwaukee firm was an Apple shop. I had never touched a Macintosh computer up to that point (it was still considered “cutting edge” and new to the party), so it was off to the UW-Madison computer lab to get on a Mac and see if I could fake it.
Another step closer…
In Part 3 - Competing Interviews, and the Cold Shoulder…