Unsolicited career advice
For one of my classes, we were assigned to stand near an ATM machine for four hours and watch the people who use it. Why, you ask? I'm not entirely sure, but it has something to do with observation skills, I guess. Or maybe the professors just want to see what they can get us to do in order to get a free Ivy League master's degree. Winter assignment -- c'mon, just lick the frozen lamp post! Nothing will happen!
Anyway, I was standing on the street corner watching my ATM this afternoon. At about the 90 minute mark, a guy walked by pushing a shopping cart full of styrofoam coolers. He was kinda short and beefy and was wearing a sweat suit and a white yarmulke. He stopped and looked at me, then started the following conversation out of the blue.
Him: What are you, like 27?
Me (startled): Um, yeah.
Him: What do you do?
Me: Uh, I'm a student at Columbia. Why do you ask?
Him: I'm just curious. What are you studying?
Me (this is getting weird): Journalism.
Him: Ahhh. Your dream -- your dream is to be a reporter? (I nod). I wrote a story and sold it to the newspaper once. It was on the front page. Let me tell you something, you need to stop wasting your time. Working for someone else, you'll never get anywhere. You need to come up with a story that you think is a front page story, go out and write it and sell it to the newspaper. They'll buy it. Okay? Stop wasting your time.
And then he left, pushing his coolers. Maybe I'm just too much of a New York newbie, but I'm consistently amazed by the number of weird people around. This guy didn't even seem that crazy. He just honestly wanted to give me his unsolicited career advice.
By the way, what did I observe by standing there? Uh, lots of people use the ATM. And occasionally someone will leave their card in it when they walk away, and it'll get eaten.
Anyway, I was standing on the street corner watching my ATM this afternoon. At about the 90 minute mark, a guy walked by pushing a shopping cart full of styrofoam coolers. He was kinda short and beefy and was wearing a sweat suit and a white yarmulke. He stopped and looked at me, then started the following conversation out of the blue.
Him: What are you, like 27?
Me (startled): Um, yeah.
Him: What do you do?
Me: Uh, I'm a student at Columbia. Why do you ask?
Him: I'm just curious. What are you studying?
Me (this is getting weird): Journalism.
Him: Ahhh. Your dream -- your dream is to be a reporter? (I nod). I wrote a story and sold it to the newspaper once. It was on the front page. Let me tell you something, you need to stop wasting your time. Working for someone else, you'll never get anywhere. You need to come up with a story that you think is a front page story, go out and write it and sell it to the newspaper. They'll buy it. Okay? Stop wasting your time.
And then he left, pushing his coolers. Maybe I'm just too much of a New York newbie, but I'm consistently amazed by the number of weird people around. This guy didn't even seem that crazy. He just honestly wanted to give me his unsolicited career advice.
By the way, what did I observe by standing there? Uh, lots of people use the ATM. And occasionally someone will leave their card in it when they walk away, and it'll get eaten.
posted by Ryan Davis | 3:34 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home