The first job I remember wanting to be was a plumber. My mom is an electrician but I had quite a scare with a bobby pin and a wall outlet (doesn’t everyone do that at least once) so the idea of being shocked as part of my daily to do list was the furthest thing from my mind. A plumber was obviously the next best thing. They still had an amazing set of tools, they could fix anything and they were someone you could always rely on. That was the type of person I wanted to be when I grew up – once I figured out that it also required fixing toilets and clogged drains, I changed my mind pretty quickly.
The next job on my radar was scientist / astronaut / engineer. Having spent many hours watching Star Trek (Next Generation) space was my the unexplored frontier. I worked pretty solidly towards actually becoming an engineer, taking all the advanced classes in school and participating in all the math, science clubs I could find. It wasn’t until my junior year of high school that I learned exactly how much math would be involved if I continued down that path leading me back towards where I belonged – english / journalism and writing.
Today I’m not a scientist, or a plumber, or an engineer, but I think what I loved about all of those things have merged together into a job that didn’t even really exist when I was growing up.
Marketing of course was around, but it was a different world. There was a lot of shouting in hopes that something would stick and inspire that person to do what the brand in question wanted them to do. Thanks to social media advertising and marketing have evolved into a living breathing community, where brands have to at a bare minimum listen to their customers, if not interact and engage with them.
The constant evolution of the internet and how consumers interact using it is a fascinating social experiment that as a marketer I get to witness firsthand. On a daily basis I find myself somewhere between being terrified about the digital identity trail we leave behind and excited about the amount of intuition complex consumer profiling can provide for marketing tools.
What I have done, whether I meant to or not, is find exactly the type of career I always wanted when I was a kid – a career where I get to be resourceful, inventive, and creative, and that is something pretty exciting.
Today’s NaBloPoMo post was inspired by BlogHer’s November writing prompts – check it out and see if you are inspired to get started on your own November writing challenge!
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