How I got my first job in advertising

A friend and fellow blogger did a post abut this very subject. So it made me decide to toss out my own story of how I wound up with this as a career.

I had never thought about doing advertising or design as a job. Sure when I was a little kid I love to draw. In fact in 1st grade I won an award for being best boy artist. I still have it.

I was a photography major, and had gotten accepted to KCAI, but never went.

I then pretty much gave up art.

After many things I ended up in the bicycle industry. I worked at shops, I was a part owner and founder of one, I worked at a parts distributor.

Then I got hit by a car on my motorcycle. Long story short I ended up taking graphic design classes at a community college.

My dad had always been in graphic design. And at this time he was working at Kiku Obata & Co. And it just so happened they needed a part time intern. With my good connection, I got the job. After a couple of weeks it lead to being full time. It was doing all sorts of shit work. But even doing shit work I was taking knowledge in. Having that real world experience helped me with assignments in my classes. I also got to do a few projects and help out on things now and again.

I owe my big break to my friend Joe. By this time my dad had left that agency and moved on and Joe saw something in me and I was soon sharing an office with him and Kathleen. It was three of us in a small cramped office but we had a blast. I ended up as an official designer working under Joe. I got to work on some kick ass projects. Then continued to learn and expand my knowledge when I sat in-between the senior architect and the interior designer.

While still taking classes I met Matt in a photoshop class. He had signed up late and got the last spot in the class. We hit it off right away. I got him a job at Kiku, as a shit worker as well. He too ended up following my same path there. His connections there are also why he has the job in this industry that he does today.

So I guess in short, fate brought me into this.