Case Study: Seth In The Flesh

Some of you readers may already know me. Marketing initiate by day, and just another fella tweeting about poetry by night, I’m Seth.

A little over a year ago I was an intern for TheFilmSchool. Times were tough for any recent college grad, especially anyone with a degree in English. I had a job that required no real special skill in the writing department and few hours of my life. When I found out there was this internship over at TheFilmSchool, my first thought was, “Well, why the hell not?”  My second thought was “Why didn’t I think of this sooner?”

Working for free is nobody’s first choice, but the chance to develop my professional life outweighed the sacrifice.  Couldn’t get any poorer than I already was anyhow, so volunteering ten hours a week didn’t seem like such a big deal.

Fast forward to now, the month that I quit my day job to rock the marketing gig full time. What changed?

Everything.

My interview for the internship was only so-so. Word has it that Nate, my current business partner and founder of Small Biz Triage, not only said no, he said “That Seth kid? Hell no.”

Admittedly, interviewing for jobs is not my greatest skill. It might have been my boasts of having written a feature length movie, claiming to be a published poet, explaining my love for Doctor Who in detail, or it may have been my gratuitous use of the word “networking” that set off his B.S. detector.

No one but Nate knows for sure. Aside from my regrettable attempt at using marketing geek-speak, the rest of my interview was the genuine article, Seth in the flesh. I was prepared for any outcome of the interview with the knowledge that Nate and Chris would have at least had a chance to evaluate my potential sans B.S. If they didn’t need Seth the intern, then I’d find someone who did.

TheFilmSchool hired me regardless of Nate’s first impression. I guess I made a new impression on him later, because it wasn’t long before he was asking me to help with projects for his other clients. I moved from grunt copywriter to project manager, and when my internship wrapped up at TheFilmSchool, I became their new intern manager.

I carved this position for myself with the help of three qualities that you can put on a resume, but look ridiculous:

• Consistent, hard work. I don’t begin a project unless seeing it through to completion is important to me.
• Fearlessness in the face of my own mistakes. I own them, and through them I become better.
• Working smarter. If something isn’t working, I know when to quit and try a new approach. Adaptation is the key to survival, after all.

These qualities are the same qualities that I bring to all my projects. The genuine article, Seth in the Flesh, keeping marketing lingo to a minimum.

Pleased to meet you.