Rant: Advertising Job Search (& Welcome WAS readers!)

One of the sites I visit daily is Why Advertising Sucks, a multi-writered blog that covers pop culture, has funny “Top 5″-type entries, and of course, poops on advertising.

Here’s a mini-rant, dedicated to the WAS peeps and their many other devoted readers:

(Disclaimer: I am blessed enough to be currently employed and NOT searching for a new position.)

A colleague of mine (never worked with or even met the guy in person, but he’s a fellow copywriter in the DF-Dub, funny/brilliant/creative/etc. and we “met” through online networking) who’s currently unemployed hit me up yesterday, asking if I knew anybody interested in a copywriter gig.

Now why was this guy – who’s been at several of the “major” shops in the area – not even considered for the job? Because he didn’t have enough experience with the certain industry/market in which the major new client did business.

So this writer who’s been putting words together professionally for the better part of a decade, a guy who comes highly recommended by former bosses and colleagues alike, and a highly intelligent human being, is told that he’s not qualified for a position.

This is a problem that runs rampant throughout advertising. “If you haven’t done it, you can’t do it” is the attitude of many hiring-decision-makers (HDMs, for our purposes) in our biz, which is incredibly stupid. Eminently qualified creatives with years of experience and high IQs can’t “learn” a new industry?

Here’s a quick lesson on some of the “niche” industries that these decision-makers are so picky about:

• Pharma = Don’t say it if you can’t back it up or have Legal back it up. Have disclaimers ready for everything.
• B2B = Give up now. Mediocrity reigns supreme. Pick up any trade magazine and you’ll see 90% crap. Just ask the client’s company president’s wife to throw something together. Either that, or use a big-ass product shot. They love that. “Ooh, show ‘em our new flibbertygibbet valve!”
• High-tech = Buzzwords, buzzwords, buzzwords. Robust. Synergistic. Leverage. Platform.

Final message to HDMs: Don’t eliminate candidates who don’t have the exact specifications you’re looking for, because frankly you’re eliminating new, fresh perspectives on the industry/market. If they can write or art direct or run an account or buy/plan media for other types of accounts, they can handle yours too.

Random Ramblin’s: Last 2008 edition

My commute last week and this week was sheer bliss. Lots of people on vacation = less drivers at rush hour = Happy Harley.

We’ve hit temperatures in the high 60s several times this December. Freakin’ awesome.

Driving around my neighborhood a couple Saturdays ago, passed by some people on the side of the road in orange vests, picking up trash. Figured they were convicts doing community service or something, but as I got closer I saw on the back of the vests: “Keep Plano Beautiful – Volunteer.” You don’t see stuff like that in a lot of other places.

TIME FOR SPORTS:

PHILLIES  – Still not sure what to think of signing Raul Ibanez for three years. He’s by all accounts a great guy, so team chemistry will be good. By many accounts, he’s a lousy defender in left field. By my calendar, he’s 37. But he’s in great shape, he’s liable to hit about as well as the outgoing Pat Burrell, and there is something to be said for team chemistry. Just look at the Cowboys with all their superstars and no heart. Or the Mets in the ’90s when they overspent on Bobby Bonilla and paid big bucks for Bret Saberhagen. Yes, the Phils will have a left-handed-heavy batting lineup, but the majority of starting pitchers are righthanders anyway.

YANKEES: Certainly not one of my favorite teams, but I had to say something about them spending nearly a half-billion dollars on three players. It’s their right to do so, and it does stack them up as one of the top teams, but many things could go wrong. C.C. Sabathia is a workhorse, but he’s a big heavy dude and injuries could be a concern after pitching like 469 innings last year. (Approximately.) A.J. Burnett has a long injury history, but could be dominant if he stays healthy. Mark Teixeira will likely fit well in that lineup and bang out 40+ homers and play a great first base. The AL East will be very interesting to watch.

EAGLES: What a crazydiculous season. A tie to the woeful Bengals, Donovan McNabb pulled from a game, Andy Reid continuing to call questionable plays. And somehow, they win a bunch of games down the stretch, Tampa Bay loses to a bad Oakland team, Chicago loses to Houston, and the Birds CRUSH the gutless Cowboys to squeeze into the playoffs. And they have a good shot to beat Minnesota this weekend, and they’ve already beaten the Giants in New York. NFC Championship game, here we come?

COWBOYS: Gotta say my piece on the ‘Pokes. FOX’s Michael Strahan and Jimmy Johnson had this one right: the Cowboys are messed up because it starts from the top down. And owner Jerry Jones is the problem. He also serves as General Manager – even though he’d never get that job if he wasn’t an owner – and makes moves like a fantasy football owner (analogy stolen from ESPN Radio’s Colin Cowherd). T.O.? Sign him. Roy Williams? Don’t need him, but imagine the receiving numbers! But not when your $67 million boy Tony Romo throws stupid interceptions and the whole team looks like a bunch of quitters. I actually feel bad for Cowboys fans, because unless Jerry hires a REAL General Manager (even George Steinbrenner hired Brian Cashman), he’ll keep running the team into the ground and out of the playoffs.

76ERS: Mo Cheeks fired after going 9-14. Elton Brand out for a month. And we only get like eight 76ers games on network TV, so all that excitement I had about the team has drifted away. (Yes, “fair-weather fan” would be accurate.)

FLYERS: Apparently, they play hockey. From what I’ve gleaned in my not-caring mode, they started off sucky and then won a bunch of games, and they’re playing well.

ARENA FOOTBALL: They’re taking 2009 off and plan to get back to work in 2010. Can I do that too?

Back to ramblin’…

New Year’s Eve? Bah humbug. My REAL New Year begins on January 13, when you can send me as many birthday gifts as you like.

Oh, and of more import than anything else written above…our twins are officially both girls! So yes, Daddy’s Little Girls will be arriving this spring in theaters near you. (Well, not so much in theaters, more like subjects in my blogs that will surely embarrass them later in life.)

Peace out, yo.

Why I Love Texas: Reason #3

7-DAY FORECAST

Plano, TX

Date		Forecast	Hi	Lo	POP
Tue Sep 30		Sunny	85°F	55°F	10%
Wed Oct 01		Sunny	86°F	58°F	10%
Thu Oct 02		Sunny	86°F	60°F	0%
Fri Oct 03		Mostly Sunny	84°F	65°F	10%
Sat Oct 04		Sunny	88°F	64°F	10%
Sun Oct 05		Sunny	86°F	64°F	10%
Mon Oct 06		Mostly Cloudy	83°F	62°F	20%

The big news!

From today’s Dallas Morning News (online):

“Report: Dallas-Fort Worth has strongest job market in U.S.”

No duh – I got a job!

More details later…suffice it to say that I’ll be a Senior Copywriter, mostly direct marketing to start, for a rapidly growing agency.

Really psyched to start next Tuesday!

Release the Kraken!

If you recognize that quote from the classic “Clash of the Titans,” then I salute you.

I’m about to unleash my own Kraken – which is to say, I’m about to send an amazing amount of unsolicited e-mails to potential employers.

I’m doing a gigamegaload of online research, and when that’s completed, I’ll be directing the aforementioned lucky souls to this blog.

Here, they can read my innermost (and self-censored to remain professional) thoughts, see my work samples and resume, and best of all, brighten their day with a laugh. (Man, I’m humble.)

So I will soon see a large spike in blog visits, and I’ll be seen by everybody who’s anybody in the DFW marketing world.

By Zeus’ beard, I welcome you all!

“It’s got cache out the yin-yang!”

[[UPDATE: Many of my visitors are being directed here...please view THIS blog for an explanation:

My blogapology to misdirected readers.

September 26, 2008]]

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Ah, George Costanza. One of television’s greatest characters.

Welcome back to my insane ramblings. I hope you missed me. I missed you…or at least the thought of actual people out there, bathed in the soft light of your monitor, reading what I type in off the top of my head. I appreciate you very much.

Fantasy baseball update, Yahoo league: Still bouncing between 7th and 9th place out of 11 teams. Traded away Lance Berkman, J.D. Drew and Heath Bell for Carlos Quentin, Jon Rauch and Chris Perez. I figure for a keeper league, Quentin is a big-time guy to have – and his numbers were Berkman-like for much of this season.

Fantasy baseball update, CBS (and money) league: Also still bouncing, although I had a tremendous week and went from 13th to 7th for a few glorious days. I thought that some of my long-time slumpers were finally living up to their usual stats, but then they kind of went back into suspended animation.

Turns out I will *not* be staying on at my current freelance gig, at least not in the same role. We’ve discussed another position in the company, but I still need to talk about it with the person who would be my supervisor. If this doesn’t pan out, I’m working on some other options. Stay tuned…

No big boxing this past weekend, but that’s OK because we were in Philly for my friend Howard’s wedding. They had it at this little winery north of New Hope, PA. (I enjoyed their sweet riesling.)

This weekend, it’s pool time for sure. Dallas has been hovering around 100 degrees the past couple days, and it’s supposed to “cool down” to the mid-90s for a while. And summer officially starts this weekend.

Our apartment complex is being really jerky about trash. We were putting out our trash bags (no garbage can be left out unless it’s in a bag, by the way) the night before trash pickup – which is 8:30 a.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. It wasn’t hurting anybody. But the complex policy, which was redistributed in memo form, says that we can’t do that anymore. So trash has to be out some time between sunrise and 8:30 a.m. This is an inconvenience that annoys me.

The Phillies are doing very well. Of course, now that I’ve said that, they will probably begin to suck. Sorry for the jinx, boys.

Writer’s block, jet lag and overall malaise have overtaken me.

In the heart of the Beast

On my way back from my Remicade infusion this morning, I had to stop by Blue Star Imaging in Irving to pick up some X-rays for Shannon.

But Blue Star Imaging is located in Valley Ranch, an exclusive section of Irving which is where the Dallas Cowboys’ training facility spews its demonic evil.  (Yeah, it’s redundant, but so is Evil.)

So I actually had to enter the facility (the security guard was nice, but clearly a scion of Satan in disguise) and park in the visitors’ lot to get the films.

Of note: parked illegally in the circular driveway was a black convertible Corvette with the license plate “SACKED.”

I had to take four showers when I got home.

Freelance fun

So I worked on-site as a freelancer at a downtown Dallas agency.

Came in, they put me right to work–which is understandable, they’re paying me by the hour.

The account supervisor “downloaded” the projects I’d be working on–pretty easy stuff (letters, brochure edits and a DM postcard) for a large HVAC service provider.

The agency is pretty quiet, and since I had pretty much zero distractions (none of my usual office knick-knacks or posters or toys), I really focused in on the work. My undiagnosed AD/HD must be pretty mild compared to most.

Work-wise, it was an interesting change of pace. I got to write a lot less formally than I was at my last job–considering my two major clients near the end there were really corporate and B2B focused.

Anyway, the office was pretty cool and the main people I met were nice.  The rest of the people mostly gave me a quizzical look and moved on, but upon further review I realize that’s how I was with freelancers at my previous agencies with whom I wasn’t working closely.

So basically, it’s a lot like temp work.  It just pays a lot better and you might get to work on some interesting projects.  (And it’s a whole lot more exciting than my “home office” environment.)

Unpaid Endorsement: Buffalo Wild Wings Cafe

Shannon and I were driving along Belt Line Road in Addison this past Saturday night, cruising the restaurant-heavy avenue for a not-too-expensive, not-too-dressy but still decent place for dinner.

We went past the busiest section, then did a U-turn when we saw a wings place.  We pulled into the parking lot, but it looked like a super-heavy college/high school crowd.  Us being old fogies, we remembered that we saw a Buffalo Wild Wings Cafe further up and headed a few blocks down.

It wasn’t crowded at all, so we got a nice booth near the humongous big screen (showing the Rangers, getting beat again).

We each got an adult beverage (beer for me, mojito for Shannon), and got 12 BBQ wings, 12 medium wings, and an order of mini-corn dogs that was freakin’ awesome.

Crowd was a mix of families, dudes going out to watch the Mavs or Stars, and more of those young’uns out for a good time.

Service was good and attentive.  Manager checked on us twice.

They had outdoor seating, too–maybe next time.

A nice walk on a beautiful day

It is just crazy gorgeous here in Texas today.  Sunny, temperature in the mid-70s, a nice breeze.

This morning, I dropped off a prescription for Shannon at Wal-Mart.  They said it would be ready in a half-hour, but I wasn’t about to browse around.  So I headed home with the intention of driving back later.

But as 3:00 rolled around and the daytime TV options dwindled, I figured I’d walk back up to the WM.  Granted, it’s not like it’s 5 miles or anything.  But my trademark laziness (which I guess isn’t so trademarked, based on the general obesity of our country’s population) would normally play a large role in me getting in the car to zip back and forth in 10 minutes.

Instead, I did the smart/healthy thing and headed over on foot.  Left foot, right foot, just like our forebears.  And it was freakin’ awesome.   I highly recommend it.