Today is the fifteenth of May in the year 2012, and it is officially day 4 of being a graduate of the University of Tennessee. I started college as a Pre-Med student with hopes of being a Cardiologist, and finished with two degrees in Advertising and Psychology with a minor in Business. So with my arsenal of state-approved knowledge, I could start and operate a counseling center, run commercials, manage a decent facebook and twitter page, and semi-lucratively manage its finances. Instead, the plan that I have chosen is to work at an Advertising agency in the greatest city in the world, New York City. With all the plans in place, I do not have any offers and the dreaded job search has begun.

Now, did not choose this career path because I like watching restaurant chain commercials, listening to credit report jingles, and looking at ads for chewing gum while reading a Rolling Stone. The fact is quite the contrary. I hate watching a commercial before a YouTube video starts, I hate the commercial break between songs on a Pandora station, and I really think that half the commercials on television are cheesy. But with all that said, I am a very devout optimist and I believe that paying my side of the bill does not have to be a miserable experience. I think that advertising should enhance the experience of watching television, looking at magazines, browsing the internet and checking facebook while helping it cost such  a low price. As doctors have to abide by the Hippocratic Oath to “Do no harm”, I would never want to contribute to a world that I would not want to live in.

Now I started this blog for two reasons. The first is to compensate for my personality to always look forward ambitiously. Author Kevin Wheldon said it with “Good enough is never good enough,” and this blog will act a a paper trail to document where I have been when the time comes for me too look backwards. The other reason I started this blog is because I wanted my experience to be the advice for future generations when they begin their job search. These past two years, I have listen to the advice of hundreds of people from almost every perspective of life. I have heard the “this is what I did..” and the “this is what I should have done…”. I have heard from CEOs, teachers, creatives, managers, interns, planners, doers, and college dropouts. I have heard every piece of “getting a job in advertising” cliche that has ever been said. I have heard conflicting advice from people who are equally successful in relatively the same job, and I have given some advice of my own (some of which I regret giving).

Since the “best” advice is given by people who didn’t follow it in the first place, hopefully somebody will learn from my failings and successes illustrated in this blog.

I know I will.

Talk to you soon,

Daniel Clark

p.s. If you want to check my Linkedin page go to http://www.linkedin.com/pub/daniel-clark/2a/399/77a

email me at: Clark.Daniel424@gmail.com