My friends, I have a personal note to share.
After 8 awesome years, Friday was my last day working at Mattel Toys. I gave my notice about five or six weeks ago, and have been in preparations ever since to leave my corporate dream job.
I should probably emphasize those last two words…dream job. Mattel was, by any metric you’d like to use, a dream job. It was fun, it was creative, it was energizing, it was filled with talented people from every field imaginable, it spanned the world in scope and travel, and it tapped into abilities and skillsets I didn’t even know I had. And at the end of the day…what you made…were toys! For kids! To make them happy!
Not too shabby, all things considered.
Eight years ago, I started with the company as a fresh-faced writer, naming toys and creating background stories to help light up kids’ imaginative play. Then I became involved with Mattel’s blue-sky creativity initiative, Project Platypus – eventually helping to run the weeks-long brainstorming programs. And in my last stage at the company, I dove into the pure joy of toy design, working on some truly amazing stuff.
I won’t discuss the details of the work itself (not only because of NDAs, but because I still genuinely love the company and want to see its ideas succeed). But I will tell you the one thing that truly matters: I will miss that place, and those incredibly creative people, very much. For 8 years, it was everything you could ask for in a job.
But now, I’m on to a new job that I have been dreaming about for literally decades: Cartooning. Full-time.
So! Tomorrow: less of me waxing nostalgic for my old rad job…and more of me talking about my new rad job.