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Meet Joe
One time, I grew up.
I grew up in north-central Connecticut, in the same working-class small town where my parents were born and raised. At the age of 14, I joined my town’s volunteer fire department, becoming the fourth man in my family to join the department. This was a great way for me to help out my community and have fun doing it. Around the same time, I also became (somewhat) handy with a wrench, so I joined my dad as a crew member for a race team that competed on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. Every weekend during the spring and summer, our racing series would tour the Eastern US, competing at tracks as far north as Loudon, NH and as far south as Martinsville, VA.
They let me into college.
One night during my senior year of high school, it dawned on me that I needed a change from the small-town life. I applied to a few schools and ended up moving to Boston, Massachusetts to attend Northeastern University in 1999. I graduated in May of 2004 with a BS in Business Administration- Concentration in Marketing, a Minor in Visual Arts, and nearly three years of real-world (paid) work experience through Northeastern’s Cooperative Education (Co-op) program.
Attending Northeastern during that time was a great time to be there, as the university had just entered into the Top-100 Tier-1 colleges in the United States as published in Business Week. It now ranks in the Top-33.
Then I graduated.
Right after graduation, I decided to go into business for myself, doing freelance design and marketing consulting. At first, the work was slow, but with considerable effort it picked up, and I had several steady clients. I was doing well for myself freelancing, but all the while, I focused on getting hired at an agency in Boston.
I got sick of the snow.
In early 2005, one of my clients in Ft. Lauderdale started flying me down to their offices every few weeks to work on site. I spent a few weeks in Florida creating a web presence for them, and after about six months of freelancing, one of the owners of the company created a full-time position for me. I said “goodbye” to Boston and moved down to South Florida- my tenure as Marketing Director with them lasted for about four years, and I couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity right out of college.
In that my position was newly-created, I was tasked with building a marketing and design department from scratch, and in doing so, cut outsourcing costs by over 75%. I ended up with a very rewarding job covering every aspect of design and marketing, and lent my expertise and services to over 20 internal stakeholders across 19 Eastern U.S. cities and five brands.
Unfortunately, the recession came along and the private aviation industry (and my company, in turn) started to fall on hard times toward the end of 2007. After more rounds of layoffs than I care to remember, my position was eliminated in September of 2009. I had a very successful experience with this company- I had helped it double in size since my hiring and it made me realize that I had made the right choice by pursuing a career in marketing and design.
I missed the snow.
After the layoff, I packed my things and moved back to the Northeast, and I’m fortunate to be back home closer to family and friends.
