Creative Turns: Matt Welch–From Journalism to Advertising
Emily Parsons / WNW Member
“Creative Turns” is a new series about the unexpected paths that bring individuals to embrace a new creative profession. It’s never too late to transition into a role that energizes you and apply your experiences in a seemingly disparate field to your new career. Matt Welch, a program director at Wolff Olins, started his career as a page designer and copy editor at The New York Times Company. Below, we see how his time in journalism along with a healthy dose of determination and curiosity led to an unexpected––yet informed––pivot to his current position in advertising.
What was your first gig? Can you explain how you went from a copy editor and page designer in journalism to a program manager in advertising?
Well, my first first job way back in the day in college was as a delivery driver at Pizza Hut. It was a great life experience dealing with people, which we all have to do every day.
My first industry job was an internship at The Wall Street Journal. I really thought that I would enjoy working in news, working in media. My first job after school was doing that at The New York Times Company down in Florida.
What I liked about working in news was that I was working with a team of people who brought interesting skills to the table, who all came together to create a final end deliverable. I liked working in a fast-paced environment, with lots of pressure, lots of people seeing your work at the end of the day. Growing up, I would read the B section of The Wall Street Journal every day at my parents' kitchen table.
“What I liked about working in news was that I was working with a team of people who brought interesting skills to the table, who all came together to create a final end deliverable.”
What is the B section?
The B section of The Wall Street Journal was the corporate news section, like the typical marketplace. I thought that I wanted to be somebody who would write or edit for that section. What I realized later was that I want to be somebody who's impacting those companies or working on those kinds of projects and campaigns and those types of things, who got covered in those stories.
After my first job at the Times company, I bounced around a little trying to figure out how to take the skills that I had to use them in the best way. A few years later, I took a job at an agency in Chicago called Avenue, a small B2B focused brand agency. While I was there, I felt like I brought a lot of interesting skills to the table and felt that it really was a strong experience for me to be working on different kinds of brands. I loved the agency environment because I felt like I could use my various journalism skills in a cohesive way and felt like it was more exciting, more impactful.
It’s encouraging hearing how you discovered what drives you to form an educated decision on where you could take your career. Like how your interest in the B section helped you understand where you could transfer your particular skills and interests from journalism to business, and business in advertising and branding. Was there anything that scared you about making this transition? Did you seek any advice when you went into an agency world from your time in journalism?
Yeah, I mean I was definitely scared. I was worried because I didn't really know anyone who did this and I wasn't sure if, "Oh, God, I work in advertising. I'm going to be some vacuous person who cares about nothing. I just create things that people like to skip." What would my career actually look like, what would the trajectory be? I had no idea. I didn't know how to figure it out. I think part of my approach was thinking about applying for opportunities and seeing what was out there. I had a number of interviews and phone interviews and that all helped me understand where I wanted to go, especially as I moved from my first agency job in Chicago to my second one in New York. After exploring and doing a ton of research online and taking interviews to see what was out there, I realized that there are opportunities to do many, many different things within an agency setting.
“I loved the agency environment because I felt like I could use my various skills in a cohesive way and felt like it was more exciting, more impactful.”
How do you think that your past work has influenced the work that you do now?
All the skills that I have, which are communicating with people, speaking concisely, and being able to ask interview questions––so much of what we do when we're working on a brand strategy for a campaign is about asking great questions and getting the information that you need from the folks who are part of that process––you do that when you're a journalist. So all the skills that I built in my time preparing to potentially be a journalist have really helped me out in my career now.
Is there anything that you miss from being a page designer?
Not really. I had the experience when I was interning at The Wall Street Journal where there was this sort of old, cranky copyeditor, who I was interning for and he pulled me aside one day and said, “Business school, business school, business school, go to business school.” I think he was one of those guys who was like, “there's an opportunity out there, explore it.” I've now gotten to explore it. Now, I meet different kinds of clients all the time and I get a window into different industries in the country, in the world. I find that [aspect of my career] phenomenally fascinating.
“Whenever you’re making a job transition it’s always about understanding what you really want and how you can be better in that and pushing through. And for me, it was understanding the things that I had experience in.”
Can you share a time where you might have felt stuck and how you overcame that feeling?
My career pivot overall was really just sort of a grind. Even when I was working to make a move from my past agency to Wolff Olins. When I was doing that, I had to do a very large job search. Most of my job searches that I've done have taken a massive amount of time, like applying to 80 different places, reaching out to everyone in your network and all of that.
It sounds like you were very resilient in your search.
Yeah, I think whenever you're making a job transition, it's always about understanding what you really want and how you can be better in that and pushing through. And for me, it was understanding the things that I had experience in.
“There are a million career paths that you can take that can use your skills in unique ways. You shouldn’t be afraid of trying to figure out what is the best option for you.”
Did you ever have an experience that you perceived as a failure, but it was actually a helpful redirection for where you are now?
Everything that I've done has helped me become a different person, and grow into the next person. I can look back to a particular time in my career and say, “well, it wasn’t the best cultural fit there,” or “I didn’t manage the client correctly in that situation,” or “I misjudged how long something took to create” and then had to learn that a certain decision might hurt your team or hurt you. Those are all things that you learn from as you progress forward and grow.
Do you have any final advice for individuals that are seeking a career pivot of their own?
What I would say is, especially if you're in a big city, there are a million career paths that you can take that can use your skills in unique ways. You shouldn't be afraid of trying to figure out what is the best option for you––what will make you the most happy and what will be the best thing for you as you're building an interesting career?