In an effort to sustain narrative continuity, and cross-fade topics (soap operas do it all the time)...
We never found Amber's glasses. They might very well be here somewhere and could turn up this weekend while we ransack our apartment, preparing and cleansing for our guest (more on this in a bit). But our efforts have so far been fruitless, and according to the Red Cross, if you don't find missing glasses within 24 hours, statistically you have only a 5% chance of recovery, which decreases every day thereafter. So we've called off the Coast Guard, FEMA, and all the local volunteers, thanked them for their efforts, and are just hoping we don't get billed by the State of New York.
As reported on this very blog, I have a new job. Or rather, I'm starting a new job in two weeks (I gave a 5-week notice). I've been going through what I call a Thirdlife Crisis. It's not a Midlife Crisis, and it's certainly not a Quarterlife Crisis because that doesn't exist. (Kids coming out of college, who haven't yet fully experienced the real world in any way, are not able to have crises. Gossip Girl-like dramatic meltdowns, yes. But not crises.)
For a while now I've been going through work-related stuff: reconsidering my job, questioning the field I'm in, wondering what I feel I should be doing, etc. I've been working in the loose definition of the "online / interactive" industry for six years, with pretty much the same job responsibilities, varying depending on which specific company I was working for: a jack-of-all-trades (bad) programmer / (moderate) designer / (decent) project manager of mainly e-commerce sites at The Cyrus Company, a (dedicated) PM of rich media projects at Domani Studios, and an interactive producer at Big Spaceship. All very different jobs at very different companies, and definitely room to grow, both within each shop in the industry as a whole.
After a lot of contemplation, I realized the nagging feeling wasn't with any small things - in a lot of ways, I love my job at Big Spaceship - but with one big thing, and that was my working in production. I love digital, I love online, and I love the work that gets produced, but my working in the production process wasn't jiving for me. The more I thought about this and the more I understood it to be true, there was a) relief that I found the cause of my mental problem (one of many) and could now work on fixing it; and b) dread because I didn't know what to do next.
This whole process spanned from roughly Q4 '07 to Q2 '08, so it took a lot of time (and gin) to figure it all out for myself. I began looking for jobs online, but the situation is tricky. 'The industry' tends to comprise of mainly interactive agencies, like Big Spaceship, and jobs for these agencies tend to be served on industry-specific job sites, like Krop. If you're looking to be an interactive designer, like Li'l Miss Amberino, you'd go there and search, and 90% of the results would be for Big Spaceship, WDDG, Your Majesty, or even Ogilvy or McCann. (The other 10% are either misguided posts, or for non-interactive companies looking for interactive talent, like Puma or Random House.) I tried Krop repeatedly, but between the industry being small and spread out globally - when you need to narrow down, even to NYC, it's that much less of a pool - new viable job posts were few and far between. I also frequently checked out LinkedIn, which has a much broader posting pool, but that then made it much more scattershot. I did consider becoming a CPA, animal trainer, and astronaut, based on some results that popped up, but ultimately decided those were slightly too zany. (Though I'm still considering the opening for Penn Station janitorial. Great dental.)
And then, one sunny morn, I was picking through Krop again, and found a posting for a producer at a place I had never heard of, with a job description that was very vague. Intrigued, and secretly hoping it was a thinly-veiled position at the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, I applied, interviewed, and after a few weeks, locked down an offer. So I am / will be a Producer (still) at Undercurrent, a bad-ass company, co-led by cewebrity, Josh Spear. In their words:
Reviews
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Amber: "Hey, Harrison Ford is still hot!"
Eric: "Hey, Karen Allen is still hot!"
We never found Amber's glasses. They might very well be here somewhere and could turn up this weekend while we ransack our apartment, preparing and cleansing for our guest (more on this in a bit). But our efforts have so far been fruitless, and according to the Red Cross, if you don't find missing glasses within 24 hours, statistically you have only a 5% chance of recovery, which decreases every day thereafter. So we've called off the Coast Guard, FEMA, and all the local volunteers, thanked them for their efforts, and are just hoping we don't get billed by the State of New York.
As reported on this very blog, I have a new job. Or rather, I'm starting a new job in two weeks (I gave a 5-week notice). I've been going through what I call a Thirdlife Crisis. It's not a Midlife Crisis, and it's certainly not a Quarterlife Crisis because that doesn't exist. (Kids coming out of college, who haven't yet fully experienced the real world in any way, are not able to have crises. Gossip Girl-like dramatic meltdowns, yes. But not crises.)
For a while now I've been going through work-related stuff: reconsidering my job, questioning the field I'm in, wondering what I feel I should be doing, etc. I've been working in the loose definition of the "online / interactive" industry for six years, with pretty much the same job responsibilities, varying depending on which specific company I was working for: a jack-of-all-trades (bad) programmer / (moderate) designer / (decent) project manager of mainly e-commerce sites at The Cyrus Company, a (dedicated) PM of rich media projects at Domani Studios, and an interactive producer at Big Spaceship. All very different jobs at very different companies, and definitely room to grow, both within each shop in the industry as a whole.
After a lot of contemplation, I realized the nagging feeling wasn't with any small things - in a lot of ways, I love my job at Big Spaceship - but with one big thing, and that was my working in production. I love digital, I love online, and I love the work that gets produced, but my working in the production process wasn't jiving for me. The more I thought about this and the more I understood it to be true, there was a) relief that I found the cause of my mental problem (one of many) and could now work on fixing it; and b) dread because I didn't know what to do next.
This whole process spanned from roughly Q4 '07 to Q2 '08, so it took a lot of time (and gin) to figure it all out for myself. I began looking for jobs online, but the situation is tricky. 'The industry' tends to comprise of mainly interactive agencies, like Big Spaceship, and jobs for these agencies tend to be served on industry-specific job sites, like Krop. If you're looking to be an interactive designer, like Li'l Miss Amberino, you'd go there and search, and 90% of the results would be for Big Spaceship, WDDG, Your Majesty, or even Ogilvy or McCann. (The other 10% are either misguided posts, or for non-interactive companies looking for interactive talent, like Puma or Random House.) I tried Krop repeatedly, but between the industry being small and spread out globally - when you need to narrow down, even to NYC, it's that much less of a pool - new viable job posts were few and far between. I also frequently checked out LinkedIn, which has a much broader posting pool, but that then made it much more scattershot. I did consider becoming a CPA, animal trainer, and astronaut, based on some results that popped up, but ultimately decided those were slightly too zany. (Though I'm still considering the opening for Penn Station janitorial. Great dental.)
And then, one sunny morn, I was picking through Krop again, and found a posting for a producer at a place I had never heard of, with a job description that was very vague. Intrigued, and secretly hoping it was a thinly-veiled position at the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, I applied, interviewed, and after a few weeks, locked down an offer. So I am / will be a Producer (still) at Undercurrent, a bad-ass company, co-led by cewebrity, Josh Spear. In their words:
Undercurrent is a social interactive think tank. We help brands and agencies understand and engage with a new generation of consumers that were born digital.I've been to the office, hung out with the team, and talked lots of shop, and I am extremely excited about the opportunity to work there. Right now, I am ecstatic in two equal parts: to begin as a part of the Undercurrent team, and to move away from production. So this Thirdlife Crisis is not an entirely new career, it's just a career shift. If 'the industry' is defined not as interactive (which usually assumes online components), but a level higher - digital - (which also includes non-digital elements), then that's closer to where this job would be marked. And if we also include coconuts, neutrinos, and The Dirty Dozen, then it would make as much sense as this attempt of industry explanations. So just forget, and know that starting June 9th, it's the dawning of the Age of Aqu-Aries-us.
Reviews
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Amber: "Hey, Harrison Ford is still hot!"
Eric: "Hey, Karen Allen is still hot!"