How I Landed a Job Without Applying For It.

If I were to give one piece of advice to those looking for work, it's to avoid being one of dozens or hundreds in the casting call.

Find a different way in. Do some homework. Navigate a chance encounter. End run the algorithms. Pull strings. Don't be one in the freakin' crowd.

Case in point. One morning before heading upstairs to hang in my Zoom Room with my spirit animals, I went to the Denver Egotist, which I hadn’t looked at in months.?

There it was. An ECD gig.

The role? Intriguing. The salary? A travesty.

Instead of dismissing it, I went fully Sherlock F'ing Holmes on the gig.

I dug around, and made some interesting discoveries. The company was going through creative directors like three-ply, the kind employees steal and take home for the ultimate remote constitutional.

Back to the sleuthing.

Both the agency's two prior ECDs had come from a shit-hot Boulder agency with a churn-and-burn ethos.?I formulated a hypothesis, and instead of applying, wrote one of the agency's founders a letter.

I boldy suggested I darkly suspected why his two prior ECDs failed.?I shared my personal hypothesis and it hit a nerve.

He offered to fly me in for a face-to-face, suggesting I bring my wife as well. I reminded him that I didn't apply for the job because the specs didn't work for me.

I brought an unpublished manuscript as my resume.

Once in person, I explained a lot of things would have to happen right if I were to go there and I wasn't really looking for a job but remembered seeing good work from his agency when I'd helmed Barnhart in Denver.

To better explain my own ethos, I handed the founder the manuscript of an unpublished book I was close to completing, Book One of The Advertising Survival Guide and told him I'd leave it with him.

I mentioned that it was the first in a trilogy, and I'd planned to write the others in the next two or so years — unless he was interested in a two-year deal — and if so, I'd hit pause assuming everything else fell nicely into place.

I then pivoted and pointed out what made me different from his prior Executive Creative Directors.

It hit another nerve.

My message? I’m the antithesis of my predecessors.

I wasn't a hotshot in a hurry, busting out from the world's best agency, looking to prove my creative direction chops using a formula from whence I came.

Instead of a grindhouse mentality, I proposed creating the culture he wanted, assuming it included good creative.

I had a trail of happy clients in my occupational wake, and recommendations from Shiner Beer, Central Market, Land Rover, Microsoft, Whataburger, and Wyoming Tourism.

And my manuscript would tell him everything he needed to know about how I roll.

I was able to focus my day spent with his employees learning as much as I could rather than selling myself.

I wasn't just about putting medals on a shelf. I was about doing work that succeeds in the real world and not based on bullshit. I was looking for opportunities to leverage human insights and solve real issues, and thankfully, I felt his agency had its heart in the same place.

My work worked because it was consistent with my work philosophy, which was to focus entirely on the work, and remove any and all superficial barriers that got in the way of it.?

I suggested a different approach than past creative leads.?

Bu-bye Egos, Agendas, Politics, and Us vs. Them.

I’d respect the agency founder’s vision for what he wanted his culture to be, and would apply my skill set to getting the agency there in two years, identifying my replacement before stepping down and heading back to Austin.

I negotiated for a salary I felt was fair and commensurate with the challenge and asked for a different title than the job listing offered.?

I asked that one employee be removed if I was offered the job and explained my rationale, having spoken to many of his staff privately over the course of a day spent in their offices.

Done.

The staff knew I meant business and had no time for petty fiefdoms.

I asked for the title of Chief Creative Mentor.

Sounds made-up, right? It was at the time. But it was on-brand with giving me the flexibility I needed to get involved in any department.

I knew it was a great title when Ernie Schenck reached out and asked me what it meant.

Fast forward, a year and a half, and I was steering the ship through creative squalls without forcing ungodly hours on anyone. and spending time in all departments.

Everyone was getting along and nobody was getting any free passes. Having moved deck chairs around in all departments, we were finally functioning like one cohesive team.

No silos. When we win everyone wins. And when we lost, we all lost. No pity parties. No politicking. No silos. We were fiefdom-free, and everyone was getting good work produced.

Morale was on a definite upswing and I had staffers focusing on campaign architecture, not just one-shots.?It was all falling into place and I was beginning to hunt for my successor, per the plan the founder and I had agreed upon.?

Then COVID hit us like the young Mike Tyson.

I saw the writing on the wall: My KPIs for year two were a statistical impossibility if my theory that the pandemic was going to be a serious one held true.

I knew I was going to miss my year two goal and I exited stage left, on good terms, the same way I entered.?On a handshake.

Leaving six months sooner than anticipated, I had two more books to write, and was confident that I could continue to freelance while writing the rest of my trilogy.

Which leads us to today.

When I look at the current market conditions, I know things have changed and it is even tougher than what we experienced during COVID-19. But I do have a piece of advice.

Don't play someone else’s game.?

If you’re out there, tossing job apps into the void, take a page from Ted Lasso and me—sometimes, you gotta just figure out what the game is before you step onto the field.?

Do your homework, and maybe you can score without ever kicking the ball.

I did.

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You can purchase Cameron Day’s books, catch him on the speaking circuit, or hear him on podcasts, which beats writing any day of the week in his humble opinion, but he continues to do that every day, whether it’s for paid clients or to keep the ol’ hypothetical muscles exercised.?Be on the lookout for Book 4. Kinda. Yep, you heard it here first.? ?

www.iamcameronday.com