Laura Shin - The Millennial Game Plan

Shannon Carrus graduated from the University of Texass advertising program with a concentration in art direction in 2004. Like many millennials, I graduated overconfident and underprepared, she said when she first wrote me. The first two years of my working life were spent in what can only be described as pits of despair.

The agencies that called her in for jobs would tell her that, if hired, she wouldnt be respected by the other designers because she was just 23, or that they wouldnt hire her in the first place because she had no work experience. She ended up taking the first job she could get, at a print shop that doubled as a Norteo music recording company. She battled 80 other applicants, endured a 12-hour interview process with five different people and was simultaneously tested in a design-off (like a bake-off) against the other final candidates before being tapped for the position, which paid minimum wage. She did, however, receive time and a half for overtime, which she earned every dayworking 9 to 5 doing print production, and then doing band covers for the music recording company until 9pm or even as late as 2am. One time, she worked 14 days in a row.

I finally quit when we were pulling another Friday night, and I had the flu and they sent me home and told me to take a nap, says Carrus. I came back, and it was 11 oclock on a Friday night, and the other designers were grumbling, so the principal of the company called us upstairs and said, I want to talk to all of you guys now. I can tell some of you are upset to be here at 11 oclock on a Friday, but let me just tell you, there were 80 other people who wanted your job, and I could fire you tomorrow. I dont need you. The only person here who should be complaining is Shannon, and shes sick.

At that point, Carrus raised her hand, thanked the principal for the opportunity and said that after finishing her current project, she was not coming back.

She found a job at an ad agency, but it was, she says, One of the most hostile work environments possible The turnover rate at that agency was less than three months. My claim to fame was that I made it six months at that agency before I was crying on my lunch breaks. (It usually took people about a week.) She quit after nine monthsa record tenure at the company.

At this point, she started soul-searchingwondering whether she even wanted to be in advertising and if she was any good. She decided she still wanted to pursue a career in the field but realized she might have to leave Texas to find the right job, so she sent her resume everywhere and landed a new gig in Orlando.

Finally, she had found a job she loved with talented coworkers and a boss she admired. But less than a year later, the agency drastically downsized, laying off two-thirds of its staff, including Carrus.

She was out of luck again. She wanted to find another agency job, but she interviewed to freelance for an in-house position, and was surprised when they called and said they had loved her and created a position expressly for her. They had even ordered her a new computer.

She wasnt exactly pleased, however. In the ad world, agency jobs are coveted, while in-house jobs, unless they are at companies like Disney or Coca-Cola, are seen as a step downnot as creative as agency work. Carrus was put off by the fact that it was a cube farm and that people wore suits. At her last job, the creative director would skateboard across the office, and Carrus herself liked to dress casually. But she needed the money, so she signed on.

Her new boss was not a creative but really impressed her by listening and being open to new ideas. She now laughs about how, when she got there, the advertising shtick was more like, Call now, today! Sign up! But with her and other new hires, the direction quickly evolved. Within six years, the marketing team grew from 11 to 50, and Carrus found herself managing a team of six.

It was great, because it was like, all of a sudden, I had caught up, she says. I really regretted not going to New York right out of school. Thats what my program essentially groomed us to do, and I didnt do thatbecause she married right out of college and her husband was in law schooland I started with these small, shitty jobs, and I felt like I had missed out on a couple years of learning and moving up. I had this crisis: Did I blow this opportunity from the very beginning? Am I going to be behind my peers in terms of my creative experience and salary potential? So it was really surprising, I landed this in-house position when I was 24 or 25 and moved to a creative director position by the time I was 27, so all of a sudden there was this huge growth professionally.

A series of events then allowed her to jump ship and become co-owner of her own agency. Before starting the in-house job, she had divorced her first husband and a few years later began dating the man to whom she is now married. In 2011, the agency he was working for closed, and Carrus declined to follow when her company relocated its marketing department to Minneapolis. Her husband had previously run and then shuttered WhoisCarrus, a boutique ad agency, so they decided to relaunch it together.

Weve been really fortunate, she says. Over the years, weve made strong friendships with other creatives, and in terms of the project load, weve been fortunate in having consistent work, which is nice because that was one of my biggest fears. But I think the best thing is cultivating an environment true to my personality. Im not a corporate person. I like to wear jeans. And owning my own business allows me to be myself, my husband to be himself and to choose who we work withto choose employees we mesh with professionally and personally, and conversely, to work with clients we want to work with. We get to choose which projects were interested in, and I think thats a huge luxury.

Of her journey, she says, The biggest thing Ive learned is that there are different paths to success. I thought I would take the traditional path through agencies and thats how Id become a creative director but instead I took all these crazy turns and I thought I was failing but really, I was learning so, so much.