About My First Job

I started as a secretary (creative assistant) at a big New York ad agency in a big Fifth Avenue building, answering phones, doing time sheets, expense reports, manually building TV storyboards. 

Nabisco, AT&T, Avon, Winston were the big accounts. A big characterless packaged goods place. I loved it.

This was the early nineties, so it was a mix of manual and PC. A big paste-up studio competed for work with the emerging Mac studio. Some of my creative directors were known for great work, many were not. Accounts came and went. People got fired. The boss was tall.

I also started to get writing assignments for clients, especially from some generous people who I'll write about here. (I'll also point out who was horrible since there's learning in that too). Everyone wanted to do TV but it was fairly easy to get print, radio and then in 1994, internet assignments (most people could barely use their computer as it was).

This blog (born out of a drunk conversation in a bar) is to share your first full-time job and share wisdom learned in it and how it shaped you — or still does.