Streets of Philadelphia

In an effort to increase my pavement pounding during my last week before beginning a full-time internship, I took a train into Philly yesterday with plans to meet some contacts I've made at an advertising agency called MBC.

Actually, the first thing I did when I arrived downtown was follow a long, windy hall to a nook in a big building close to City Hall where the Greater Philadelphia Film Office resides. These are the people that helped M. Night Shyamalan arrange for the shooting of all of his films; they are also involved with the TV show Cold Case, as well as a bunch of other projects I'm sure you've heard of that were shot in and around Pennsylvania. Anyway, I walked right in there and got only as far as the secretary. She gave me a brochure and told me to check out the website to see if there were any employment opportunities available. It was pretty much what one would expect to happen, but a worthy stop just to say I was there.

The visit at MBC was more productive. I received a tour of the place and met individually with three very helpful, knowledgable guys. They gave me a lot of hope that I can find a job that allows me to use my technical knowledge in combination with my creativity. One guy spoke my thoughts exactly when he talked about the merging technologies of digital video and personal computers. He showed me an example of an interactive video he put together and told me that Flash technology was where it was all happening right now. He said somebody with a communication/computer background could do pretty well for himself in the advertising industry. All he needs is the right opportunity. Yeah, that's what I need.

Another guy I met spoke with me about the future of the Internet. He claimed the way we surf the web is going to change dramatically in the coming years. It's going to move away from being browser-based; instead our PCs will be more fully integrated with the web, and we'll have these little translucent widgets on our desktops... I don't want to repeat the whole discussion here, but take my word for it -- it's exciting stuff. Take a look at this site for an example of what is to come: www.pageflakes.com.

MBC has a lot of creative juices flowing through it. It's a much hipper environment than anywhere I've worked, full of bright colors, dim lighting, artistic people. Knowing that a place like that exists makes me glad I passed on the AdminServer opportunity. As casual and relaxed as AdminServer looked, it was still in an uptight business without much room for stretching one's imagination.

My visit to MBC was not a job interview -- it was strictly informational -- but I hope they keep me in mind if any opportunities arise or if they hear of anybody else hiring. Commuting to Philly everyday is not ideal for me, but it would be worth it for the right job. I think I'll start targeting some ad agencies in Wilmington too. Also on my to do list: relearn Flash and Adobe After Effects.