How Did I Get Here?

Right now, I’m on the Boston to New York Megabus on my way to film a commercial for Yahoo! And it got me thinking, “How did I get here?”

I mean, two years ago, becoming a director was the last thing I would have imagined. Climb the ladder to creative director? Sure. Own an agency some day? Possibly. But film director? Those were the specialists. The hired guns. That could never be me.

Yet here I am, one and a half films and a few commercial shoots into my new career as an independent film and commercial director. There have been so many divergent paths along the way. But as the months go on, I am doing more directing and less ad-guy freelancing, and I have to say, it’s incredible.

So I thought it would be a fun exercise to plot my career path in much more detail than the greatest hits you’ll find on my resume and LinkedIn page.  I think it’s a pretty good example that even if you’ve spent most of your life doing one thing, it’s not too late to evolve into something else.

Here’s a rough time line of my work history from college graduation to present day:

• 1993: Graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a Bachelor of Arts in English/minor in Journalism.
• 1993: Worked for the Boston Phoenix Personals department in their call center, helping singles write things like: “29 yo man seeks woman for long walks along the Esplanade. Must share  passion for leather masks.”
• 1994: Realized this was not a gateway to more serious journalism. Quit and moved to San Diego without a car or a job.
• 1994: Became a receptionist at Flowers Group Advertising & Design in San Diego. Published my first ad copy. (A coupon ad for Sea World.)
• 1995: Homesickness and a desire to pursue copywriting bring me back to Boston. No job, but a clarity of purpose.
• 1995: Odd jobs at mutual fund companies and call centers as I worked on my spec copywriting portfolio. Most likely interrupted your dinner to sell you an MBNA credit card. Sorry about that.
• 1996: My first advertising job! The Morrison Agency in Atlanta takes a chance and hires me as a junior copywriter. Start to believe I’m hot shit.
• 1997: After roughly a year at TMA, I get homesick again and move back to Boston. This time, though, I had a job lined up at Allen & Gerritsen. My account was to be Sybase.
• 1997: Writing sales sheets for enterprise software was not exactly what I pictured when I got into advertising. Where were the frequent flier miles? The Super Bowl commercials? The stays at Shutters?
• 1998: Enter the portfolio program at the Creative Circus in Atlanta (my second stint in that city). Even though I was working in the business, I wasn’t doing the kind of work I wanted to do. And my portfolio wasn’t strong enough to get me into the agencies that were. Time to start over.
• 1999: Graduate from the Creative Circus. Get a job at a Boston-suburb startup agency called the Donovan Group.
• 2000: Win my first advertising awards.
• 2001: The Donovan Group closes its doors after several dot com clients stop paying their bills.
• 2001: Move to Cleveland for job at Brokaw.
• 2004: Move to New York for job at Lowe
• 2005: Lowe restructures management. With new management, I go “out with the old” and rack up my second layoff.
• 2005-2006: Permalance at StrawberryFrog.
• 2006: Move back to Boston for job at Arnold
• 2007: Create campaign that won Volvo business. Feeling secure.
• 2008: Get offered raise and promotion from direct boss.
• 2008 (two days later): Get laid off. For a third time.
• 2008: Start writing this blog.
• 2009: Make a movie about people who reinvented themselves after a layoff.
• 2010: Begin production on another movie about the reinvention of Detroit
• 2010: Get my first commercial production work for Dell.
• 2011: Get my second commercial production work (also for Dell).
• 2011: Finish 15-minute short of Detroit film. Continue production of feature.
• 2011 (today): Hired for more commercial production work, this time for Yahoo!

I’m having a blast, and I have the forced exploration into alternative careers to thank.