The dream job.

I got the gig! Was it the crossed fingers? Or perhaps all the chasing I did to catch it. Was seriously starting to get out of breath. 

¿Quién hubiera pensado? Not me. My head was already set for home. Hace un mes, I had already been coping with the thought of leaving Spain, knowing I had given the search my best. And then this happened. Mejor tarde que nunca...Enhorabuena!


There are some amazing signs that Dad has been looking out for me on this one. This one in particular.  To start, I applied for the job because "what did I have to loose?" A question Dad would always ask to put a little pep in my step.


Let's start the story with my move into the piso I'm in now. In March I made the switch from my studio apt to live with four wonderful people from all parts of the world. One of them, straight from Alicante named Yoli, had posted on her FB wall that her company was hiring. Because it was called From The Bench, estaba interesado en saber más. I figured it had to do with sports. "I wasn't born yesterday," Dad would say. 


And not to my surprise,  I was exactly right. The company specializes in the development of sports oriented multi-platform social games for smartphones and the Web. Their main clients: Fantasy Manager, Starscup, La Superliga, and Liga Evolution. All videojuegos de fútbol . For anyone that knows me, they know this is my all time favorite sport. Llevo casi 22 años jugando soccer.

I was asked to come in for an interview. Hurrah! And during it I pulled out my book. The first ad was for women's soccer. Something I did back at Mizzou. We had to pick a product or service that we felt strongly about. Then por casualidad,  I turned the next page to a campaign I did for Amp targeting the gamer-guy. No joke. De hecho, I hadn't looked at my book in días.  It's been years since the J-School. And the fact they were back to back in my book...I take it for a sign. Soccer + video games, where I'll be spending (at least) the next three months digging into the gamer lingo and brushing up on all the hot European soccer players. I couldn't be more stoked.

Another excitement is that there's a huge perk to working here: company soccer matches. My chance to get back on the field. Otro plus: the position I'll be taking on is in my field of advertising. I'll be a community manager writing up and organizing online content for social media networks, básicamente mantiendo la conversación. I'll also be helping with their translations from Spanish to English as a lot of their clients are English speaking.


Now for some crazy connections. Back in high school I told Dad my dream job would be working for Nike doing market research for their soccer shoe line in Spain. 

I'm not working for Nike, nor leading focus groups on their soccer line, but hear this. From the Bench's main clients are soccer franchises, my position is in marketing, and the town where I'll be working, Elda, Spain, is also known as "Spain's shoe making capital."

A person born yesterday could make these obvious links. 

Dad, you remembered this conversation. :)


I'll end with this. From The Bench's philosophy is que solo el que se rinde, pierde. This is to say, the one that gives up, loses.

I never gave up.