You're Hired!

Since I was in high school, I’ve been an employee. I’ve worked the gamut, every time someone said, “You’re Hired!” I learned something. My first position was at the local McDonalds flipping burgers and dunking fries into the oil bath that created the world’s most famous French fries. It was a fun job, but all grease no glory. Luckily it only lasted a few months until I got the coveted job of working on the grounds crew at a local community college outside of Kansas City, Missouri. It was a sweaty but fun job slaving away in the Missouri heat and humidity of summer. Working there taught me attention to detail, a reliance on good co-workers and the willingness to do a work hard, regardless of if anyone was watching or not. While away at college I worked two jobs. One at a local liquor store, the other as a laborer on a commercial construction crew. The construction crew was filled with fun, talented men,  Squirrel, Vinny, Brad, Richard and Rick. These guys had years of experience and  could make any college kid feel like the dumbest person on the face of the earth when mistake was innocently made. I quickly learned the seriousness of the job and that a simple mistake easily could have gotten someone hurt. This experience taught me the valuable skill of working with different personality types and attention detail. Looking back they are some of the finest men I’ve ever known, and because of them I learned how to get a job done right, on time and under budget.

Now that we’ve hired our first two advertising and public relations employees, I hope someday they’ll be able to look back at their experiences and remember fondly the “lean” times with Stokes+HERZOG. Those days when we were loading up the credit cards to buy desks and computers, and hoping to cover the rent; while at the same time churning out really good, exciting work, and charting a course much like the ancient mariners. We have a boat and a sail, and we’ll see where the wind takes us.

by Chris Herzog