Flickr image by FLC

“So, what do you do for a living?” Why is it that I have a hard time explaining this to people? My actual job title is Executive Producer. I work for a marketing and advertising agency. If we create something that moves around on a screen or monitor, or if it makes noise, speaks to you or plays music, I am somehow involved in the process. Some of the work I do is very public. In fact, you’ve probably seen some of it. Much of the work I do though is not going to be seen by the general population.
 

Rarely am I in the same spot for more than a few days in a row. I’m in the office, I travel some, I hold casting sessions, I go on location shoots, I’m in a recording studio, I’m on a sound stage, I’m in an edit suite…and each location represents a different role that I play at times. It’s a great job, though not nearly as glamorous as some might think it is. It definitely has its perks, though. It allows me to see a lot of different places and meet a lot of really interesting people, and it keeps me on my toes. The industry is constantly changing.

The process is changing, the technology is changing. Hell, the way people consume what we have created has changed almost as fast as the technology used to make it. As an exercise to myself, having been recently asked, yet again, what it is that I do for a living, I began to try to write out an accurate job description. When I finished writing it out, I read through it, thought really hard about it and concluded that if I were to have posted the “accurate” job description out on CareerBuilder or Monster or some other job site, nobody would apply for it. Why? Because even though it is all there on paper, it is still hard to wrap your head around, because it is constantly changing. At the same time, I’ve been reading a lot of articles lately about college teams starting their “campaign” to rise in the polls, player/agent relationships, student athletes being arrested, player abuse allegations, and other such crap that NCAA head football coaches are dealing with, and I began wondering what percentage of a head coaches actual job description would be “coaching”.
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Flickr image by Ed Yourdon

We really do live in a great time in history. It is rather amazing to think that in my lifetime, we went from having to actually go to an arcade to play video games to not only being able to play them from your home, but against an opponent that is all the way on the other side of the world. Boredom would quickly set in on long road trips back when I was a kid, but now, nearly every minivan rolling off the assembly line has a built in DVD player and backseat monitors.

But to me, I feel like we have damn near reached the promised land now days, since I was able to enjoy the Texas A&M/Oklahoma State game live, while traveling on a flight from Denver to Milwaukee. Now, this is not a full on sponsored plug by any means, but I love flying on Frontier Airlines. The airfare is competitive with the rest of the industry, they are adding new cities to their route map on a regular basis, they have a great frequent flier program, and they have DirectTV on a most of their flights. Like I said, I’m not getting paid for this endorsement, but they are just that good.

Now, for a simpleton like me, getting to watch TV on an airplane is just over the top cool, but to be able to actually enjoy a college football game while traveling is amazing. Aside from getting to enjoy the game, the other thing that was cool is getting to sit next to another college football fan while on the flight. So here we are…a couple of guys, having some beers and watching football…it was like a flying sports bar.
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