There have been some not-so-recent goings-on in my ongoing efforts to become an advertising dynamo.
About a week and a half ago, I received an e-mail from a talent scout at a newish agency in St. Louis, asking to speak with me about a possible copywriter position. Upon my absolute elation that someone had actually responded to a portfolio I sent to them (so what if it was in August of 2007), I immediately checked out what life would be like in my new home of St. Louis, Missourah. And as can be expected, St. Louis has the second highest per-capita violent crime rate in the United States of any city with a population above 350,000. "Well", you might say, "at least it's not the first," to which I would gleefully respond, "It was in 2006!" However, I digress from the actual story.
Being the worldly genius that I am, I respond to the e-mail explaining that I would love to speak with her about a copywriter position, and that not only do I want to speak with her, but that I will call her tomorrow between 2 and 3pm, knowing full-well that I usually take my lunch from about 1:40 to 2:40pm. This leaves me plenty of time chow down on the packed lunch I bring to work every day because I can't afford to pay for my lunch AND smooth talk my way into getting flown down to St. Louis for an interview...or having to turn down an interview because I can't afford to pay for the tickets to fly down and I don't have any sick days. As the talent scout requested, I resubmitted an updated version of my portfolio that night and immediately started becoming anxious.
Having been completely overwhelmed by the prospect of having a copywriter position at an ad agency, I failed to consider the fact that St. Louis is further west and actually in a different time zone. So the 2 to 3pm St. Louis time that they're expecting me to call is actually 3 to 4pm, the time that I have to be in a meeting that I really can't miss. Fucking sweet. To add to this debacle, I didn't realize this until about an hour and a half before I was thinking I had to call, NYC time. I can't call from my office, so I e-mail the talent scout, letting her know that I have to call earlier than I said due to a time conflict. I'd like to say that this doesn't typically happen, but somehow I manage to absolutely annihilate every meager opportunity that arises. Once again, I do not disappoint. I call early and get her voice mail. I leave a message and never hear from her again.
Four or five months ago I would've been disappointed and discouraged at yet another apparent rejection. I guess I've grown a fairly tough skin, at least in some aspects of the business. It still stings a little when someone trashes my work, but it's not devastating and I can usually brush it off, much like this latest rejection. It happened all summer and fall: send my book, hear nothing. It's the nature of the beast. I don't get concerned anymore with not hearing back, but with turning someone off to the prospect of hiring me in the future because of the book I submitted in the present, which is why I stopped applying for advertising jobs until I get an amazing portfolio.
So here I am, absolutely failing at my plan to write about all the things I wanted to write about tonight to maintain my desired craft and obviously not working on my book (although I have made some decent strides as of late with a few ads). Because I'm totally distracted right now by the ad on TV advertising all of the rock music from my high school career that I wouldn't pay money for, I'm going to end this suddenly and with no conclusion whatsoever, and also not spell check it or anything.
