I had some nifty jobs while still in college and I will circle back to these. My first real job out of college was as a salesman for a printing company in Nashville. I learned a lot there. I learned to respect salespeople … they have a tough job. I learned this was not a good career path for me. How did this lesson hit me? I got fired! Best thing that ever happened. That’s when I learned to fall back on my real passion as a career path.
While at the University of Cincinnati, I was fortunate to get a job in the Athletic Department, working as the Assistant Sports Information Director. That was when the Bearcats won back-to-back NCAA basketball championships and narrowly missed the third. And, yes, I even got an NCAA watch as a momento of being part of the team.
This led to positions as a sports reporter and as Weekend Night Sports Editor for The Cincinnati Post. I loved writing, but did not see it as a career that would meet my financial goals. So I went to work as a printing salesman after graduating.
When I got fired, it forced me back to what I did best and what I enjoyed most — writing. I also made a very important decision: I would take build my career by working for people who could help me get better. I chose my positions over the next decade based on working for the best mentors I could find.
I went to work in the sales promotion department for Union Central Life, and worked for Myron Jones, an old pro in life insurance marketing. He taught me how to write so that my work would help sales reps win business.
Then I took a position as editor of a global trade magazine. I thought I had another mentor — this time back in journalism, but I soon learned that even at that young age, I knew more about writing than the management. So I left to join KDI Corporation.
The big attraction for me at KDI is that the company committed to hire Gordon Lippincott (founder of Lippincott & Margulies, now Lippincott Mercer). Gordon was the most renowned expert in the world on branding and he was my personal consultant. He flew into Cincinnati every other week to teach me about branding. I’d probably still be at KDI except that it went into a spectacular bankruptcy that sent us all scurrying for jobs.
That led to my next incredible teacher — Mark Wiederschein. Mark was founder of a sales promotion agency in Toledo, OH. From this sleepy town, he had attracted some major clients. For me, this was initially a terribly draining job. Mark put me through an experience that was as tough as the Marines’ Leatherneck Island training. He taught me in the end the difference between writing and communicating. He taught me to write so that my words delivered a business strategy.
I was now ready to stand on my own legs with the full confidence that I was a marketer.
I left Wiederschein to lead a marketing team at NuTone, where we were industry leaders in built-in appliances for homes. I learned how to work with distribution channels and how to make those channels more successful by creating programs to build business.
After six years at NuTone, I was ready to start my own marketing consultancy — I had the experience, the skills and the confidence to take this leap. Within a year, we landed business from Procter & Gamble. This client relationship lasted for 20 years, until I sold the business. P&G turned out to be my most instrumental teacher … they are such a great company … more than anything else they taught me process to deliver value to their trade customers and to their consumers.
So, for me, it was not so much what I learned at my first job, but what I have learned at every turn in my career.
What can you learn from my experience?
First, determine your goals. Expand your concept of the possibilities. Create a vision for your career. And then set off to follow your dreams.
Second, absorb everything possible while you are in school. Take every opportunity to practice what you are learning by participating in career-related extra-curricular activities.
Third, work for great role models. Study these role models for the clues for improving your skills, for gaining a reality-based sense of how a business works to create value for customers. Keep yourself on the cutting edge of change. Keep reading business media like Fortune and participate in the blogosphere that is most relevant to your dreams.
