am i built for this?

"just another day at the office"

As I start to transition to my new job, I begin reflecting on my former one. The one I still love and am sad to leave. But after nearly 13 years of working as a video editor/art director, I thought it was time to try something new. As I look back at some of my most challenging and rewarding projects, the one that really comes to mind is when I got the opportunity to work on the Built For It Trial videos.

The project was not only challenging from a workload perspective, but it was during one of the most devastating things that could happen in my life. On November 17, our house was hit by a tornado. We lost nearly everything. I took a couple weeks off from work, and then stepped onto set in early December to start shooting the first of 3 videos for the viral video campaign.

My entire world was turned upside down, but this project allowed me to focus on something else, it gave me a sense of “normalcy” as we tried to put our lives back together. I spent countless hours going through all the footage we shot. The entire month of December was a blur. But by the first part of January, I had all 3 videos edited and we had closed on our new house in Peoria.

I began to think that I was being put to the test, like I was being run through the same trials we were putting our machines through. But in the end, I will always remember how much fun I had working on this project and how happy I am with the results. And after all of that I have proven to myself that I am Built For It.

Below are links to all 3 videos for the Built For It campaign:

Built For It Trials : Jenga
Built For It Trials : China Shop
Built For It Trials : Gravity




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Brand Bio

Shortest:

I’m an award-winning video editor and art director who recently switched careers to become an Account Manager.

Shorter:

I’m an award-winning video editor and art director who recently switched careers to become an Account Manager. I spent nearly 13 years as a video editor at Caterpillar. I’ve earned several industry awards from Telly and Cine for various programs that I worked on while at Caterpillar. Before that I spent 4 years working at a local news station as the main graphic artist. My background and passion is in art and design, but I recently took a turn in my career to become an Account Manager to gain more experience in project and campaign management.

Short:

I’m an award-winning video editor and art director who recently switched careers to become an Account Manager. I spent nearly 13 years as a video editor at Caterpillar. I’ve earned several industry awards from Telly and Cine for various programs that I worked on while at Caterpillar. Before that I spent 4 years working at a local news station as the main graphic artist. My background and passion is in art and design, but I recently took a turn in my career to become an Account Manager to gain more experience in project and campaign management.

My goal after acquiring this experience is to move into a Creative Director role, where I hope to lead a team of creative individuals for marketing communications. This role fits better with my previous experience and passion for creativity. I’ve used my creativity to develop video communications for tradeshows and events and most recently as part of a viral video campaign that has reached more than 3.6 million views on YouTube.

19 at 19

My professional career started when I joined HOI 19 News at the age of 19, while attending Illinois Central College, a local community college in the area. I was so excited to get an actual job in my field of study, in television broadcasting. Now this was not my “end all, be all” career choice, as I eventually wanted to go into film production and motion graphics at Columbia College, but it paid the bills.

I always knew I wanted to do something related to the art field, as I spent most of my free time as a child drawing, painting or creating designs out of recycled materials, office supplies and really anything I could find around the house. In the seventh grade, I took a television broadcasting class and fell in love. It was at this point that I realized I could combine my love of art and television into a creative profession.

My first position at the news station was running a studio camera for the morning show. Once they realized I was decent at it, they offered me the night shift. Eventually I was employed fulltime as the graphic artist for the station and worked there for nearly 4 years.

After receiving my Associates in Mass Communications, I applied and was accepted into Columbia College in Chicago. After doing the math on the cost of tuition and housing expenses, I had to make the difficult decision not to attend. Instead I began looking for jobs in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to establish residency in order to attend the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD).

Funny thing happened though, I had my resume on a national website (TVjobs.com), and was contacted by a recruiter in Peoria for a one-year contract position to be a video editor at Caterpillar. I knew I needed to get out of the news business, as things locally where going downhill fast, so I took the job. And after a year, I was offered a full time position.

I never saw myself working for a corporation, let alone Caterpillar. But Caterpillar has made it possible for me to finally get the Bachelors degree I had set out to obtain so many years ago, without the college debt.

I never made it to Chicago or Milwaukee for college; instead I visit both cities quite often, as I can now afford to enjoy what they both have to offer.