Our latest podcast is up, and it’s a discussion about our Careers: my work in Legal Technology and Derrick’s work in Finance. And one of the questions we discussed was whether or not we are happy with our chosen careers, and also what else might we have done instead?
Well, thinking back to my Freshman year in college, I can’t help but wonder about a choice that I made. I occasionally ask myself what my life would have been like if I had chosen a specific summer job back in 1997.
During that summer before my sophomore year in college, I sent out a resume blast to try and find some work. I didn’t really have a specific position in mind, just wanted to get a job to help pay for school, rent, and the usual expenses.
The resume blast actually solicited quite a few responses, but it was 1 job offer that I didn’t take which makes me wonder from time to time about “what could have been.”
Here’s why:
I had 2 interview offers come in and scheduled for the same day. One was scheduled for 10 am, and the other was at 3 pm in the afternoon. The 10 am interview was fairly standard. It was for a clerk-like position in a small law office; paid above minimum wage, and made for a great addition to my resume as a stepping stone job. The 3 pm interview was for a small “tech company” (this was still early in the whole dot com craze, so being a “tech company” brought it to my attention), and I only applied because “a job is a job”.
The 10 am law office interview as a standard meeting, lasted less than an hour, and I could tell I was going to get the position. The 3 pm interview rolls around, and the “tech company” turned out to be an ADULT Entertainment tech company. Yup, online porn.
That interview lasted 4 hours and was one strange experience. I met with the 2 owners: one was very professionally dressed, he handled the money and business end; the other looked like the stereotypical porn producer (he was wearing a loud shirt, top couple buttons opened, gold chain, curly 70s hair). For 4 hours they told me what they were trying to set up – online adult entertainment, easy direct home access to quality porn, etc., I met the rest of the staff, walked around the area where filming and live chats were occurring, etc. It was a surreal experience, in that I was in a suit and tie, and my guide is pointing to nude men and women and explaining the intricacies of their webcam system. They were looking to hire someone to help with “creative marketing” – build spiderbots, inserts into chatrooms, SEO, etc., to get more traffic for their site. I was actually somewhat hooked because 1) Online Porn? Great money making idea! 2) The team I met seemed like genuinely good and smart people, and 3) Work with Porn actors? College sophomore dream comes true, right?
But it was one of the owners who gave me pause: during the interview he asked “do you think your friends and family would be ok with you working in this position?” It was that one line of questioning that did make me a bit reserve during the entire interview.
Fast forward about a week or two later, I get a call from the law firm interview – I got the job. Less than 24 hours later, I get a call from the online porn company offering me the position. The question one of the owners asked came back to me, so I decided to turn it down, told them I already accepted a position elsewhere.
Since those phone calls, I’ve been working for law firms for the past 20 years. My entire career surrounds law offices. And every once in a while, when I get tired from work, I think back to that summer. What if the porn company had called me first? What if, instead of a law office, I took that job marketing for online porn? I did a quick search for the company’s name a few years back and found they’ve since been bought over several times. But I wonder. What career path would that have taken me down? Would the people I hang out with be different? My business contacts, my work colleagues, the conferences I attend, my interests – what would they be like now if I had gotten that job offer before the law office?
I wonder.