New York, Take Four

I recently returned from a short trip to New York City. This trip had a much different motive than any of my other visits to the Big Apple. Sure, I had some fun on the side, but the main point of this trip was to meet with advertising professionals to learn as much insight on the industry in NYC and gain any advice I could for my final year of college going into my first real year of my “career.”

But of course being in New York on the weekend when the offices aren’t open, I had to have some fun first. Arriving on a game day for the Washington Huskies meant we had to find a good place to watch the football game. We found ourselves at the Rattle ‘N Hum on 33rd street. This bar happens to be designated by the University of Washington’s New York Alumni Association as their official bar to meet up for sports games and functions. I anticipated a good turn out, but I had no idea that the entire bar would be packed full of Huskies. Unfortunately, we lost to BYU, but most of the fans couldn’t be too upset due to the temporary open bar granted to all UW fans.

On Sunday, it just so happened to be the Brazilian festival on 6th Avenue. The entire street was closed for multiple blocks featuring stages with live music, dancing, street vendors and food. It was pretty incredible, but way too crowded for my liking.



We later took the Staten Island Ferry to see one of my good friends from West Seattle, Zach Varce, pitch for the Staten Island Yankees, the New York Yankees’ minor league team. They have a beautiful stadium right on the water with the Manhattan skyline right in the background of the outfield.


After the game we went to Lombardi’s Pizzeria, which is supposed to be the oldest pizzeria in the United States. I don’t know how factual that title is, but the taste sure measured up to it. Either that, or it was the fact that we had to wait over an hour to get a table at the Soho restaurant.


After the fun weekend, came time for the business part to my visit. Over the next three days, I would meet with marketers from JWT, Google, BBDO, OMD, Grey, Razorfish, Wunderman and Taylor. I got a wide array of advice, all of which was extremely helpful. I was learned more info on the agencies themselves, what the industry is like in New York versus Seattle, and the process of moving to a place like New York

What I learned there, combined with the advice I had gained from some of my supervisors at Wunderman made one thing clear: New York is where I need to go. Though intimidating, the rate of professional growth, the competitiveness, and the new-city-experience could prove to be one of the biggest challenges of my life, and hopefully the most rewarding.