I always said I ended up in the sign business because I couldn’t find a real job.
I was fresh out of college, the internet did not exist yet. How does a young, fresh 20-something go out to find a job without an internet? The phone book. I wrote down every design agency in the book, dashed off my fun, (probably overdesigned), resume the only way there was at that time – the U.S. postal service. I probably sent 200 of them out… a fortune, to me, spent on parchment paper and nice envelopes and postage. Not a lot of responses in those days. I did receive a handful of very nicely worded rejections, some form letters, some from genuine people who took the time to respond personally. I had a bright future, they said, they were not looking to hire at this time, they said. Check back in a few years, we will keep your resume on file, they said. It was a depressing time. Nothing like being shot out of the cannon called higher education only to realize there was no safety net, no guarantee. Felt like I’d been lied to.
So I did what I had to do. I ended up working at Office Depot, making copies for other people, checking out their purchases on the register. Wondering if I could ever find a real job.
Then one day, there was an ad in the classifieds for an entry level design position at a sign company. A sign company? Sigh.. aren’t there any “real” design jobs out there, I wondered? Ok, what’s the harm in applying? So I applied. And they accepted. I quit my job making copies and marched into my new career.. “Just until something ‘real’ shows up.” And before I knew it, I was hooked.