A few years ago, I was sitting at a fancy dinner put together by the Tulsa, Oklahoma Advertising Association at which famed writer, Comcast Must Die creator and Advertising Age columnist Bob Garfield spoke. I don’t remember much about his speech, though I imagine that it had much to do with the sky falling for advertising and how we’d all need to get our asses in gear if we wanted to make it out alive. There was a PowerPoint presentation involved.
During the Q&A session, a friend of mine said to him, “I’m about to graduate with a degree in advertising, and you aren’t giving me much hope for the future.”
“Well, dental school is always a good option.” He replied.
The crowd laughed, and it’s taken me a couple of years to get it. At first, I thought that he was saying something about needing a backup plan. Like, as long as people have teeth, the world will need dentists – maybe not advertisers, but definitely dentists. Then I thought he meant something like, if you’re that unsure about what you’ve chosen to do with life, you probably chose wrong. But what he was really saying (or at least what I now think he was saying) was that you need to stay current and adapt to changes around you.*
Relying on books and learning theory will only take you so far, as will following someone else’s system. You need to practice, innovate and refine oyur techniques to truly be successful in the job search or in life.
But Andrew, you say. I work in accounting! What am I supposed to do, be creative with numbers? To which I reply with a solid no. But you could work on finding a more efficient method of calculating those numbers, or develop new cost-effective strategies. Lawyers can work on a new litigation technique. Math teachers can, um…
Okay, so math teachers are pretty much stuck with what they’ve got.
But the point remains: whether you’re trying to find a job or looking to improve on one you have, innovation and development will help you get to where you want to be.
Unless Bob Garfield was really suggesting dentistry as a career option. In which case, let’s just pretend that this metaphor is really what he was thinking.
BY THE WAY: Bob Garfield has a new book out for all your fancy reading devices. Or you can get his other book.
* I came to this conclusion because Bob was also talking a bit about how to profit in a down market, when clients are abandoning you. So the solution seemed to be a metaphorical way of saying “find a profitable area and go with it”.
