Sara and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Morning
An reinterpretation of Sara’s venti iced Starbucks coffee that she unfortunately had to leave behind to water down due to the circumstances.
At HMA, when you apply for an entry-level position with the agency, the second step of the interview process is a writing test. This is pretty standard, it seems, for most agencies at some point or another during the process. For HMA, you have three hours to complete an extensive test ranging from AP style questions, to developing a marketing plan, to some creativity questions. One part of that test is also the Critical Thinking section.
One of the questions in that section is as follows: “It is your first week on the job and you are on your way to staff a 4:30 a.m. television segment for one of our clients. Your car has a flat tire. What do you do?”
Go ahead, answer that question quickly in your head.
If you’re like me, you immediately thought, “Thank God for Uber!”
Well now let me present you with an even worse scenario. It’s 7:10 a.m. and you need to be at a TV segment for a client a mile and a half away by 7:30 but don’t have your wallet, phone or keys. Now, what do you do?
Unfortunately, this isn’t a hypothetical situation—it just happened to me Friday. And I still made it to the TV segment, albeit four minutes late, but I’ll take it. And I’m still saying, “Thank God for Uber.”
How, right? I got to the office early to print off the segment sheets and was the first one in the entire office building, so I had to unlock the exterior door. After setting all my things down, I walked back outside to grab the newspaper. Big mistake, as I had not fully unlocked the front door.
After quickly realizing I was really the only one here and all of my coworkers wouldn’t be in until at least 8:30 (when our workday starts), I decided to walk to the Circle K about a block away and talked with three cashiers before one of them graciously handed over his phone to let me call myself an Uber. Don’t worry I logged in with my own account and then made sure to log out before I left. I made it to the TV segment at 7:34, and the show didn’t start until 8, so I’d call that a win.
If anything, the situation taught me that if there’s a will, there’s a way, you just might need to be extra resourceful. And from now on, I will always carry my phone and keys with me if I’m the only one in the office.
Any PR pros have a similar morning (or day) when things went completely off track?
An reinterpretation of Sara's venti iced Starbucks coffee that she unfortunately had to leave behind to water down due to the circumstances.
