My parents never went to college and were not that interested in my job choice or further education but, with help from my high school journalism teacher, I applied for and received a scholarship to the University of Minnesota School of Journalism. I dropped out after only a year and took a long detour into customer service before going back for my Bachelor’s degree in communications. For a long time, I believed I had wasted years of my career life. Eventually I came to appreciate the important role that customer service experience plays in understanding my audience for the products, services and ideas I market. There’s nothing like explaining bills, products and programs to 100 people a day to help you anticipate almost every possible question and reaction.

While in college, in addition to my full-time job, I was a freelance reporter and feature writer for the local weekly newspaper. I volunteered for writing and editing projects at work and published a basic newsletter for my township’s board of supervisors. When a marketing position opened two years later, these three gigs provided enough writing and desktop publishing samples to land the job! I was only half way through college and very grateful for the opportunity.

I think the sample piece that closed the deal was a spoof brochure selling myself based on my experience with the company. Creativity can pay when trying to stand out in the job market, although it felt like a huge risk at the time. My desktop publishing skills were pretty basic and I had no access to sophisticated art. Basic clip art worked fine for this purpose though and the boss who had been reluctant to interview me due to lack of degree and experience laughed out loud when he saw it.

And so my real marketing career began.

I hope my career story illustrates the power of unpaid or low-paid experience to help you stand out among other candidates when trying to take the next step. In some professions, I believe, it can be even more important than a degree.

Thanks for walking with me down memory lane. The next few posts will follow my journey to create Sampson Communications, as a real life example and a journal of my experience as it unfolds. Until then, may all your marketing efforts bear much fruit and help you achieve your vision, mission and goals.~ Carolyn Sampson, Marketing Consultant, Sampson Communications

My first camera

My career in marketing communications started early, even if I had never heard of such a profession. My father, a photographer, gave me my first instamatic camera when I was only 5 years old. I know, I know…lots of young kids these days have cameras and even video cameras but in those days it was pretty rare for a 5-year old to have a camera. My first pictures were of the barges in New Orleans, where we lived at the time. I wasn’t allowed to take very many pictures, though, because black & white film and developing was expensive.

When I was in the fifth grade, I used my dad’s 8 mm movie camera to make a little film about air pollution, a hot topic in the 70s. My dad showed me how to cut and splice the film with a small splicer and special tape. Though I can’t imagine there’s that much call for that particular skill these days, you can watch this great video to learn how to do it yourself if you’d like. The movie was pretty unsophisticated, with hand-written signs and toy cars used as props, but I entered it in a contest and won second place for my age-level. Like I said, it was pretty unusual for kids to have access to cameras so maybe there wasn’t much competition!

That summer, I learned event planning, thanks to assistance from a Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy (MD) Telethon MD Carnival Kit. I’ve never found anyone else who directed such a carnival as a kid, but it looks like the carnivals are still around. I spent weeks making signs with typing paper and markers, buying penny candy for prizes, planning games and recruiting the neighbor kids to help out. Then we passed the word around for a few blocks and a few dozen kids showed up to play games and buy peanut butter sandwiches and Kool-Aid made by my mom. The first year we cleared $8 and proudly dropped it into the “fishbowl” outside a hotel somewhere in the Twin Cities. I’m sure we more than tripled that amount in the following couple of years but, interestingly, it’s the first humble year I remember best.

In seventh grade I became a cub reporter at the Park Junior High School newspaper and soon learned the power of the media. An uncool kid like me could gain access to all kinds of VIPs. With the mere promise of a little ink in the school paper, I had the full attention of our star ninth grade football player, if only for a few minutes. The phenomenon is still true today, and I have interviewed or worked for dozens of local business leaders, candidates and celebrities over the years, in my roles as a newspaper reporter, feature writer and corporate or political communications professional.

I’ll write a little more about my career journey in the coming post or two but, after that, this blog will focus on expert tips and tricks for marketing communications professionals and wannabes. Until then, may all your marketing efforts bear much fruit and help you achieve your vision, mission and goals. ~ Carolyn Sampson, Marketing Consultant, Sampson Communications