Narrowing The Search

For anyone new to blogs, blogs run in reverse chronological order.  This week has turned into kind of a mini-series about how Margot, my daughter, broke into advertising and tips on how to go about a job search.  It starts two blogs down so go there if you want to start at the beginning.  But now... 

Like I said, looking for a job is a job.  Margot and I had our work assignments and we got started.  After getting the resume fine tuned I started thinking of people to send it to for help.  Not a very long list unfortunately.  Having once been a somewhat senior executive I once had lots of contacts and it would have gone something like this.  Call Joe in Marketing. 

"Joe, how's it going?  Hey, need a favor.  My daughter just graduated from A&M, great kid, has an interest in advertising.  Know somebody over at our agency she could talk to to get a feel for the industry?"  Done deal.  Joe makes a call and Margot gets in the door and then she does or doesn't make it on her own.  (This cronyism is not just in Big Business.  Look at the film industry and the family connections--Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Angelina Jolie.  All with connections.)  But Joe doesn't give a flip about me anymore because once you are out, you are really cold.  Made a few calls but my circle is non-existent.  Except for Phil.

Phil and I were classmates in college, not regular college, but our year abroad at the University of Vienna.  We have managed to run into each other or somehow stay in contact or play golf every once in awhile over the last thirty plus years. 

And Phil is in advertising.  And he is sympathetic since he was in the same boat as Margot thirty years ago.  Somehow talked himself into an agency in Pittsburg (a friend helped there I think), learned a lot, went to J. Walter Thompson in Chicago, then New Zealand for some reason, Bangkok, Ann Arbor and Kansas City where he started his own agency specializing in hospitals.  Talk about a tough sell.

And Phil owed me a favor.  Phil knows and I know that he tried to steal a girlfriend many years ago.  Not much leverage but take what you can get.  Actually, Phil would help no matter what since he truly believes the industry needs talent and wants to help young people, a disgusting habit that grows as one gets older.

Flipped Margot's resume to Phil and he flipped it to a headhunter.  Headhunters usually could care less about resumes from recent college grads with no real experience but this one, for some reason, flipped the resume to a senior VP at the largest ad agency in Houston.  Not a slam dunk but real progress. 

In the meantime, Margot was mining the A&M underworld.  More later.