New York feels different this year.

At this time last year, I was getting ready to visit New York for the first time. I learned so much during UO NYC 2017 and fell in love with the agencies and sites I visited. This year, I’m visiting different companies with the exception of two: Rokkan and our annual visit to Wieden+Kennedy. I’m excited to look at these agencies from a new light and eager to explore what my other visits have to offer. As my second trip to New York approaches, I feel like a different person with different goals and questions to keep in mind.

I work for the Career Services department in the business school and my boss often compares the career exploration/development process to a spiral. Early on, maybe even in high school, one starts at the outside of the spiral and slowly spirals into what they finally specialize in during their career. It’s not always a perfect or direct spiral.

My spiral looked something like this: 1) interest in business/communications, 2) application and acceptance into the University of Oregon, 3) acceptance to the School of Journalism and Communications, 4) focus on advertising, 5) focus on design/art direction, 6) focus on starting my career in an advertising agency. Last May, I was still on Step 6 in my career exploration process. A year later, my path is more defined but still in need of guidance to get to the center of the spiral.

As a junior last year, I was a sponge who was taking everything in. By the end of the week, I had a better sense of the City and advertising opportunities, from small to large agencies. This year, I still want to be a sponge, but I want to think even more strategically about where I want to be and what I want to do. Here are three general questions I plan to evaluate and focus on throughout the week:

1) What size agency do I see myself working at within the next year? How will this affect the range and type of projects I’m working on?

2) What kind of design/art direction work do I want to do, and what type of brands do I hope to work on for the most part?

3) Is New York City truly a place I want to move to, or am I the type of person who does best when I’m just visiting it?

I plan to touch base on these three questions later next week. All that said, I can’t wait to step foot in Manhattan and explore Brooklyn once again. New York, here we come!

-Emily Foster

5.03.18