Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try

First of all let me begin with an apology. This blog will be in English for two reasons:

1. My keyboard doesn't have Hebrew letters on it, making the ability to write in Hebrew kinda hard in this case.
2. I must work on my English writing skills if I wanna make it here.

So, to all of you who might find it a little hard to follow, I'm sorry, but hey, maybe this will help you on your English reading skills?


Anyway, about nine months ago I was trying to figure out what my next professional step should be. As I sought for guidance I was asked by Tal Ronen, one of McCann Israels coaches, a hypothetical question: 
"Should your plane come crashing down while flying to wherever, what would be the one thing you would regret not being able to have achieved in your life?" Three days later I had the answer: "Living & Working in New York City". Seven Months later I packed up all my life into a couple of suitcases and moved to a small apartment on 15th St. & 7th Avenue in Chelsea, New York City, New York.


Looking back at the past six months I think I prepared myself pretty well. I talked to a few high level execs in Israel and in NYC who were working or had worked in the American advertising market, trying to learn as much as possible. Then I re-opened my Linkedin account and started contacting "Mad Men" in New York along with some recruiters.
My first two weeks in Manhattan were actually filled with interviews. I met with three recruiters and two advertising agencies and even landed an interview at Google. Yep, thing looked pretty good. Since those first couple of weeks I wasn't successful in obtaining a job but I have been on several more interviews: McCann, MRM, BBDO, McgaryBowen, JWT, Wunderman, AKQA, RGA and Merkley+Partners.
From all of these interviews I have learned a few things that should anyone think of doing as I did must definitely think of:

1. The experience anywhere in the world is not equal to experience in the US. It doesn't matter if I managed five or fifteen TV spots, if I oversaw a full integrated campaign nor if I worked on a Google SEM campaign. As long as it was done outside the US it didn't mean the the same...
2. The people are hard to read. There were so many interviews I went on and ended up thinking they went well, sometimes even getting a "We want you to proceed and meet the rest of the team" from the interviewers, never to hear from again. On the other hand, sometimes I would go out feeling the meeting went horribly just to find out that they liked me and get invited to additional interviews.
3. The chances of actually seeing reel progress during the years end holidays - Thanks-giving and Christmas are pretty slim as most of the agencies are busy summing up the year, trying to figure out what will be next year. I guess like in Israel during the September holidays the common response is something like "Lets talk after new years". I guess I can't really blame them.   

Although I knew that during this time of year finding a job would be difficult due to "end-of-the-year" set of mind at the agencies I don't regret coming here at this time. I knew that I had to be on my "A" game in January and so I thought to myself that the last couple of months of 2010 would be used as "practice", getting to know the lingo, tone&style of the New York advertising market. Meanwhile I have had some time to begin to know the city, to try and start my life here. I've hooked up with some Israelis here, with some family, moved in with a roommate in a great apartment in Chelsea and even have my favorite Cafe (even though they don't exactly know my name yet...). I also found my neighborhoods bar where I can go have a Bud light and a burger for under 10$ (!!!) and am fine tuning my Football skills (Go Eagles !). Mostly I spend my days walking around, having coffee and reading Adage and other advertising sites and blogs, researching, trying to learn as much as possible about the agencies and about the business.


As of now, just as Christmas day is about to end, it's a great time for me to sit down, recap the past few weeks and get ready for the new year as it brings the real opportunity to begin the journey to join the "Mad Men". 

I would like to end this first post with a great quote I recently came across: "Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try". My decision has been made - step one - complete.