Sorry I haven't been posting lately. It has been a busy couple of weeks. I quit my job last monday. For those of you who are interested or just curious, and in an effort to preemptively answer any of the big question marks in your head, I have supplied a generic Q&A session. This is taken directly from a mass friends & family email that I blasted out this morning.



Q: So, what's up? Why is Friday your last day at Forrester?

A: I gave my official two weeks notice on last Monday, so Friday is when my two weeks were up. I hadn’t considered the national holiday on Monday, which actually shortened my 2 weeks by a day, but hey, no one’s called me out on it yet.



Q: No, I mean, like, why did you quit? Having a job is good. Quitting one is irresponsible.

A: After college, when I had my "hey, I need health insurance" realization after dangling from a 40 ft. ladder while painting the house in Chelmsford—I gave myself four years to accomplish 4 goals. These were, in order of importance: 1. Get health insurance. 2. Get a vehicle that works (you may remember the VW Fox that had leprosy). 3. Pay off $10K in credit card debt. 4. Go to Europe.

As many of you know, because I was able to catch the last push before the tech bubble burst, I lucked out with a great job and did well in it, actually accomplishing these goals in half the time. So the following two years were left for me to think about what I wanted to do and hope to get laid off so I would qualify for severance and unemployment benefits.



Q: What happened to just hoping to get laid off?

A: After waiting for a few years for that to happen, I realized it was an altogether bad strategy. It doesn’t do much for one’s self esteem or anxiety levels. Not to mention the ethical implications of half-assing a job that you hate to go to every day.

I couldn’t let the pittance that I would get from the Commonwealth be what kept me here another three years hating every day. I wasn’t even appreciating the money I made since it was, for all intents and purposes, a payoff to myself to keep me from going after something that I loved to do.



Q: OK, sport-o, so what is that thing that you love to do this time? You know you have a short attention span, so how do you know this is it?

A: Yes indeed, I do tend to jump from interest to interest, from identity to identity, but I have always maintained a core that has changed very little. So, I decided to pursue something that catered to that core, this includes; the overall quirkiness, the twisted sense of humor, the general mastery of useless trivia, the short attention span, the geek who could watch a documentary on just about anything, the love/hate relationship with pop culture, and the love of writing and creating.

The answer that I have found after three years of serious thought and taking various courses, reading books, and interviewing people in the field is to join an ad agency on the creative side as a Copywriter. This is what I will be pursuing full time from here on out.



Q: So, you want to write the words on ads, doesn’t that sound boring?

A: Every ad you see has a team of two or more people. One is the Copywriter, the other is the Art Director. At the end of the day, the Copywriter is responsible for the words and the Art Director responsible for the look of an ad, but both come up with the ideas. So, yes, simply writing the words on an ad would sound boring, but fortunately that isn’t at all that a Copywriter would do. Writing about a toilet seat is lame, coming up with an ad that convinces you that a certain toilet seat is better then another, that is art.



Q: I hear the industry is tough to get in to and even harder when you get in. It is a dog-eat-dog business, and you want to go IN to it?

A: Yes, and I am not fooling myself with a rosy impression of how Advertising is. It is hard. But so are a lot of things, and hey you know what’s even harder? Try not racking yourself with regret for not going after something that every part of your intellect and instinct tell you to.

This would also be a good time to ask for anyone reading this that has any contacts at an Ad agency in the greater Boston area to come forward. Please let me know if there is anyone you would like to put me in touch with.



Q: OK, it sounds like you, but how are you so sure this is the right career for the rest of your life?

A: Nothing is for sure or forever. People change, circumstances change. Ask me again in four years.



Q: What about your creative nonfiction writing? We always kind of hoped you would pursue that more.

A: Well, I have been doing a lot of writing lately, and have recently started sending things out for the first time since my piece got produced on National Public Radio. For any of you who missed me in the Boston Sunday Globe Magazine the other week, I did get published in the “Tales From the City Section.” Nothing dramatic, but it was technically my first byline.

I have produced a ton of work, and will continue doing so, as I always have. Hopefully this time with less job related self-loathing clouding my view.



Q: You had a pretty good gig going, working 2 days from home and all, and you weren’t that busy, why couldn’t you look for a job while you were at Forrester?

A: I had considered that, and even told myself that for years, but for a number of reasons haven’t done a very good job at it. I know myself enough to understand that the only way for me to do it and to do it right is to go at it full time, with the lack of paycheck as added incentive.


Q: So, what are you going to do for money?

A: I plan to practice raising milk-fed veal and Kobe beef at a Pleasant View Ranch in the Berkshires. Just kidding. I have some money saved up, have been doing the numbers on my cash burn-rate every six months (courtesy of the semi-annual Forrester layoff cycle), so I know to the best of my ability what I am getting in to.

But, hey, ask me again in four months and I might be chirping a different tune as I am folding shirts at the gap with a solemn expression on my face. If you want to talk about the effects of this on my long term earnings potential, then I will be more personally vested and interested. I have never felt that in a job before. If I can do OK doing something I despise, then imagine what I can do with something that I like?



Q: Aren’t you worried?

A: If concern is healthy, then I am very healthy right now. What is kind of amazing however, is that the chest pains, heart flutters, anxiety attacks, and migraines that had become part of my daily existence have miraculously disappeared since the moment that I gave my notice. I always knew being here was taking a toll, but I didn’t realize the extent of the anxiety it was responsible for.



Q: Well, Collin, you seem to be OK. Are you really feeling good, or just trying to make us feel better?

A: Probably a little bit of both. I certainly appreciate your healthy concern. But those of you know me well enough will sleep better knowing that I am doing the right thing, wherever it takes me.

I have a lot of great things going for me in my life, and it is hard to truly appreciate those things when you hate what you do most of your day. I know that this feeling isn’t exclusive to me, I know that there is something very mid-twenties post-ironic era about it, but hey, that’s me. I just wasn’t built for this, and after five years of it—I think I have given it a fair enough shake.

Thank you to everyone who I have told so far for your great support and encouragement. It means a lot to me while I step out from this cubicle.


~C