Hello kids, sorry for the latency between posts. It's just that the new year greeted me with a shocker. I got my ass fired. It's ok tho. I was kind of asking for it. As you may have gathered from my previous post, I have been miserable for quite some time at my last position (employer to remain nameless). I had every intention of leaving on my own mid year 07. The funny thing is this; x-mas party 06 we were just about to loose our 2nd creative director in about 6 months. The job by that point was up for grabs and I had a strong angle. I did not take it however. I nominated a colleague who, it should be noted, was about to leave the agency himself. I couldn't help but chuckle when he looked at me and in his typical oblique stammer said, "I think your done here!"
Let me start at the beginning. After having some success helping to create SemutApi (www.semutapi.com) way back in '02 with fellow Agency.com-ers. Our stalwart leader was forced to relocate the studio to Jakarta. It just so happens that Indonesia is a Muslim country. Post 9-11 Muslim countries are not very popular. Was our fearless friend Muslim? nope. He was just caught up in the same fervor that swept up thousands of other innocents after the tragedy. So there I was, left with a decision to make. Why to god couldn't it had been Tokyo he was going to! A twinge of home sickness led me to finally come to New York. Unfortunately, I had no portfolio. I had lent my disks to the agency so we could pitch work.
Fast forward. December 04. I managed to cobble together a meager body of work. It was pretty pathetic really. I was lucky to land this AD position at said Nameless Agency. Actually the set up couldn't have been more perfect. The internal structure of Nameless Agency was a complete mess. Surprisingly enough it had a small but notable list of clients. I took advantage of the opportunity and bent as many projects that i could to my will. The end goal? Rebuild my frickin lost portfolio. No internal structure meant that i could step in and take the lead with little bureaucratic oversight. I had to eat shit for a while. Technically I should have been playing at CD level. But with little to show for my experience I got bumped to AD. Not toooo bad. Especially in an environment where I was told "Didn't believe in Titles." Um... Ok.... sure, whatever. I navigated the choppy waters as best I could for 2 years. Finally I had enough work to move on from that dysfunctional little hell hole.
Nameless Agency Holiday party 06. Hat metaphorically in hand, I made an arrangement with soon to be Nameless Superior. Up until that point he was harmless enough. Subtly ambitious. Spoke in stammered fits and starts that gave the impression possibly, by dumb luck, something brilliant just might erupt from somewhere inside his shaggy head. We were/are total opposites. I didn't care. By that point i was just going to take my time and look for greener pastures. We both knew the CD seat was going to be vacant. With a drunken burp I said have at it.
Sure enough I stepped aside and let him get promoted. Not without an empty promotion for myself. I was anointed Associate Creative Director and was given a healthy pay raise (still way below industry scale BTW but hey.... It was something). I was all set to jump ship in a few months while I sorted everything out when I was given a project that would probably be the culmination of everything I had working toward up until that point. It was an integrated campaign. Full video. Dynamic and immersive flash. It would be the cherry on top. That lead to 4 of the hardest months I've ever had to put down on a project. I was fried and the summer passed in a blur. Fall hit me like a ton of bricks. I had to get moving. I quickly started gathering materials that would help me tell a CD's story.
Then came the Nameless Agencies first round of layoffs. Turns out their glorious lack of structure and foresight paired with a supreme lack of new business development left us vulnerable to a loss of three clients totaling millions in revenue. Surprisingly I was spared the ax. Suprisingly? you may ask. Because Nameless Superior turned into a little Hitler with whom I rarely saw eye to eye. I guess I managed to fly under the radar just well enough.
It was at that point I knew that I could not dally and longer. My brain screamed "EXIT STAGE RIGHT." I grabbed a crappy little presentation we developed for a new business capabilities pitch. It had all my work in it. I quickly put it on my server and started sending out resumes. A small part of me felt guilty that I was repurposing an agency pitch. A bigger part of me said fuck it! they used you as much as you used them.
X-mas 07. I was in the office for the two dull days between x-mas and New Years. I was full of excitement. After a month of interviews i finally had a respectable agency take an interest in me. I had a 3 hour interview set for just a week after Jan. 01. I was dreaming of the moment when I could give the little Despot my resignation. He came in late on a friday with a grimace. I bade him a small acknowledgment. Not uncommonly he ignored me. He was such a pleasure to be around! About two hours later he called me into the conference room for a meeting. He moved to the plasma display and pulled up the pirate site. Admittedly I was a little shocked. But not so much. It's a small community we work in. We sat there for a second. I smirked and pulled off a little shrug.
"Yeah?"
Flummoxed, he spastically waved at the screen, "you didn't even bother changing the copy."
"I'll take it off this weekend."
"I think your done here."
I let out a snicker. "d'you want me to pack up now?"
"That would be best!"
He was always a little mellow dramatic. So I packed up and left. Can't say I'm none the worse for wear. I've had the whole month off, living off the soft cushion of savings I managed to accumulate, sitting here in the beautiful city of San Francisco.
Oh that interview I had? Got the job. I start on the 28th.
