In the last post, I mentioned my visit to a university and the nostalgia I felt about old times. But somehow that nostalgia does not confine itself to one particular period of university days only; rather, it has provoked a whole spectrum of memories. The more specific one is the beginning of my career in advertising and media marketing back in 1991/92.

This will be a sort of series of professional biographical notes about the days of my first job and whatever I can recall about the media market of that time. Being a student of philosophy, I will try to keep it simple rather than abstract, and I will also try to avoid the emotional circumstances that everyone passes through at the start of a career. Remembering now the saying of Bertrand Russell that “reason by all means remains a slave to the emotions.”

This seems to be very true, and even pure career moves and professional life appear to be based on emotional choices and decisions. What else has prompted me to write about this work-life journey is the process of aging—when you cross 50 and new events and happenings keep adding on, older times start fading away. Penning things down is, in a way, “earlier the better.”

Skipping educational background from an account of work biography keeps things incomplete. My educational background, my struggles to obtain many degrees and completing only a few, and the conflicting choices of studying subjects poles apart have had a huge impact on the start of my career. These contradictory studies, socio-economic status, and many other factors require another series of writing that may not be in the same tone, yet are still needed to understand my professional journey.

Trying not to get distracted by multiple avenues, I will now start in some order of events.

After giving FSC exams twice and not being able to reach the merit required for university admission, I ended up taking admission in B.Com at F-8/4 Commerce College, Islamabad. Before final exams, I felt interested in journalism and appeared privately for BA exams with journalism. Later, I felt I wanted to study philosophy as well and passed BA exams twice—one with journalism and one with philosophy—while also completing B.Com.

After that, I could not continue as a student only and took admission in ICMA in the morning and Law College in the evening. I cleared only one year of ICMA and left, and later completed two years of law before leaving that as well.

All this law and ICMA started with my struggle to find a job towards the end of 1991, and at the age of 21, I got a job in a Yellow Pages firm as a Sales Representative—3A Advertising—selling ad space for the Yellow Pages directory.

That company, 3A Advertising, became the beginning of my career journey, and the story of my work life starts from here. I recall the name of the CEO, Mr. Tahir Shah—a slim, tall, energetic person who wanted to create something outstanding in the Yellow Pages industry of that time. The leading company then was Jamal Yellow Pages, and he wanted to build something more comprehensive and bigger than that. I cannot recall the building name, but the office was in a two-storey building in Blue Area, possibly Ittehad Plaza—not sure.

My job description was to go door to door and sell advertising space for the upcoming directory, with rates varying according to ad size. I remember locking my first deal on the fourth day of my job—a 10 cm by 10 cm ad.

At that time, even landline phones were not very common. My job involved knocking on doors, walk-in sales calls, and facing rejection. Initially, maybe one success out of twenty walk-ins, but gradually the probability improved once I started identifying the right clients.

Since even the first part of the series is a lengthier read, however the comments and feedback shall motivate me to write more in an episodic way.

To be continued…