Wahoo!

Everyone, I would like to announce that... (drum roll please)... I have another interview! For those who were counting, like me, this will bring the total number up to 2. But that's depressing, I don't want to think about that. What I do want to think about is how much meeting random people in bars rocks... um, that sounds wrong... but whatever, that's what happened. I was hanging out at a sports bar in Westwood, sitting at the bar and watching the Dodger game (and the super hot bartender who had inspired me to stay and sit there in the first place, despite the fact that the person I'd hung out with earlier had gone home). And I made the discovery that, if you're just hanging out and drinking your beer, you start talking to the people next to you, who are doing about the same thing. I ended up chatting with the girl sitting to my left who'd come there with her boyfriend to watch the Michigan State game (and who looked a lot like Catherine Keener in Being John Malkovich, now that I think about it), and we did the small talk thing, which always includes occupation. I told her I was looking for a job in marketing, blah blah blah: it's actually a subject I've come to dislike intensely, but you've gotta have some answer when people ask what you do and I haven't gotten to the point yet where I'll just start making shit up. And as much as I hate the topic, I recognize the advantages of telling as many people as possible that you're looking for a job, because you never know who might be able to help you.

And then she pulled out her business card. She works at the Los Angeles division of Campbell-Ewald, which is primarily concerned with the production of Chevrolet retail advertising (retail advertising refers to the cheesy car commercials that talk about no money down, etc. to bring in buyers to meet that month's quota, as opposed to more brand-focused advertising, which has a lot more imagery and much less information, usually just the MSRP). She said that they really need assistants to help everyone because there's so much work that needs doing. It'd be entry-level work, but it'd be a way to get agency experience. I told her that sounded good to me; I was currently working at Starbucks. I sent her my resume the following morning, she responded right away and said she'd forward it to her supervisor, and then I got a call from his assistant this afternoon scheduling me for an interview on Friday morning.

An interview! With Campbell-Ewald! I'm interested in agency work and am excited to have an interview at a place I've actually heard of. The funniest part is how I heard of them to begin with: not because of their relationship with GM or Chevrolet (for whom they did a great commercial for the Super Bowl last year, for the SSR), but because of their relationship with the U.S. Navy, an organization to which I devoted most of my winter quarter last year in an effort to devise a recruiting strategy for their medical forces. One of their account executives at Campbell-Ewald is an IMC alumnus and he brought the project to us last spring.

And regardless of the job possibility, the girl I met seems pretty cool, and plays golf at about the same level I do. So now I've got a golfing buddy to go to the driving range with. Those lessons are already paying off.

Damn, I can hear the I told you so's from a mile away...