Majors and minors

Anyone who was lucky enough to be 1 of 20 students that got to visit Translation’s office in Times Square will tell you that it was an immeasurably positive experience. Based on my conversations with other students after the visit, I think we all agreed that what made it so great was how honest, informative, and genuine everyone was. A lot of the speakers were SOJC alum, and that fostered a strong connection, but a few speakers had other amazing stories that didn’t originate in Eugene, and those people were equally as invested. I was particularly enamored by Art Director Paz Molina, who shared a little bit of her story as not only a woman in the industry, but also an immigrant. She didn’t sugar coat things which I really appreciated. Instead she discussed the fierceness with which she takes on the role of being a female immigrant in advertising. It was inspiring.

Another person from Translation whose advice and insight I found incredible was Joel Rodriguez. He had some unique explanations about Translation’s role in advertising and culture, that I’ll be expanding upon even further in my submission for the idea industry book. One thing that he discussed which stood out to me about their agency culture was the idea of “Majors and Minors.” All of us are majoring in advertising, as it’s the profession. But what are the minors? The passion projects and side hustles? If employers want to know that during the hiring process, it makes sense to keep those relevant throughout the job. Maybe your minor is emceeing and music (which really is Joel’s), maybe it’s cooking, maybe it’s birdwatching. The importance of this is of course primarily to get to know each other better, but even more to see how those minors can be applied to the work. If John is the big NBA guy, get him on the NBA account, obviously.

It’s company practices like these that contributed to the strong sense of family we could just feel walking into the conference room at Translation. It was easy to tell that these practices also contribute to the success of the agency.

-Audrey Weatherhead