Steve Wilson was on top of the world. Three years after first sending out his resume, then following up with over 100 query letters, he thought he’d finally gotten his foot in the door at Chicago’s Glancy Advertising.
He soon discovered, however, that he’d misread the address and had gotten his foot in the door of an entirely different company – VeraLite Luggage, also located in the Parsons Building, but on the floor directly above Glancy.
“They tell you how important it is to get your foot in the door,” says Wilson, 25, an aspiring copywriter. “What they should tell you is to double check to make sure you’re getting it in the right door.”
At any given time, 34 million people trying to get one of their feet in the door of a US company, says Dr. Glenn Simmon of the Pinsicle Institute. Amazingly, he says, 3.6 percent get it in the wrong one.
“Most of them realize their mistake and pull it right back out,” says Simmon. “With some, though, it doesn’t hit them until after they’ve been hired.” He cites one case of a man, now in his late 70s, who 50 years ago thought he’d gotten his foot in the door of a New York tattoo parlor. Instead, it was in the door of a hotel. He stayed, and ultimately became a real estate billionaire and politician.
Wilson – who’d been anxious to use some of his advertising ideas like singing porcupines and nuns racing each other in golf carts – started working at VeraLite, but was still trying to figure out how to get his foot back in Glancy’s door.
After just two weeks, however, he was promoted to make-up case specialist and now he says he’s considering staying put.
“I’m thinking there’s pretty good job security,” he says. “Advertising jobs come and go, but people are always going to need to pack.”
