I graduated a week ago, and I have stretched my job search to both marketing and HR jobs, since I still have a passion for both. I'm a writer, self proclaimed of course, so marketing has never been out of the picture for me. Once upon a time I wanted to be a journalist or an English teacher, but I was discouraged because of the lack of a future I would have. Those are not my words, and while I disagreed, I still went along with it. I've been writing "stories" since I was old enough to hold a pencil. I remember being yelled at by several teachers because my daily class journals weren't for fictional stories, but for my life here and now. Why would I write about my boring life when a fictional tale was so much more interesting? This is where looking into PR came from. I took a PR and Crisis Communication course while in school, and we had to complete several PR campaigns for "fictional" companies. It was like writing stories all over again, but this time they would be worth it to someone.
So back to wine. I'm from New York (not the "city", but part of the BIG state attached to it), so wine has been present in my life for a while. We have the Finger Lake wine region, and I've visited a couple wineries while on camping trips with my family. The one that steered me into the wine direction was Bully Hill Vineyards in Hammondsport, NY (at the southern tip of Keuka Lake). I was far too young to wine taste with my parents, but I could still have fun on the winery tour we were offered; we had a tour guide that was outrageously spunky. He captured my attention the entire time, all while blinding me with his tie-dye shirt. Taking a tour of the vines outside, I was captivated by the enormity of the acres of land required to make wine. I still have my keychain on my keyring from that day.
My career path in undergrad didn't allow me to follow a wine hospitality path, but it never left my mind. Part of me is still kicking myself in the pants for not getting a part time job in a wine tasting room when I turned 21, but I know my psychology research internship was important at the time; I went on to graduate with a B.S. in psychology a year later. Two years after that, I moved to Oregon for my Masters degree program. Living in the Willamette Valley region, I was thrown into the wine scene again. In my first year of the program, we were tasked with creating a new venture project, and my group decided on a joint tasting room for wineries. One of the gals in my diverse eight-person group grew up on a winery that her parents owned and operated; it allowed me to learn some new wine lingo and processes. I should have taken this as a sign and applied to a winery internship between my first and second year. However, sports media marketing was where I landed.
Now that I'm applying to jobs, I find I don't have the experience they're looking for in the wine industry. Isn't having passion and a basic understanding enough?! However, I do want to ultimately end up in a job where I fit. My last job was great, as far as the people were concerned; I didn't fit into the actual work aspect of it. I want to feel challenged, but not enough to want to rip my hair out. I also want to WANT to go to work every morning. I think everyone's dream job consists of one where getting out of bed in the morning isn't a death march. So if my dream job ends up being in the wine industry, great! If not, then I would have absolutely no complaints. I'm not a picky person, despite this pretty detailed post. :-)
