Knowing that the editors of NRF’s STORES Media choose fascinating — and often quirky — folks to be interviewed for their monthly “Retail People” feature, I asked if NRF Foundation could start adding a few career-related questions to the mix. (They said yes.) So, our first STORES-NRFF joint interview is with authors, Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson, who wrote a buddy book on typographical errors, The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a Time. Did I mention that STORES finds unusually quirky people to interview? And they sure make for a fun interview. Read on to hear what these two guys say about pursing passions, working in bookstores and what the future has in store.
—–Q&A WITH JEFF DECK—–
who lives in Portsmouth, NH, enjoys speculative fiction books, role-playing games and drawing comics
Two days away from your twenty-eighth birthday, you embarked on the Great Typo Hunt. You’re quoted as saying: “This could be the last opportunity I have both the time and the funds for such a ludicrous adventure, before I go and really wreck my career for good.” Did it occur to you that this journey could become your career?
Ha, no, when I set out on the Typo Hunt Across America, I was just looking for a way to make a difference in the world using what skills I had. I’d decided to keep a blog so that people could follow my typo-hunting adventures, but I never imagined that the mission would become so high-profile — or that a book would come out of it!
NRF Foundation, the education and research arm of NRF, promotes retail as an exciting career destination. We think it is an industry where your passion can be your work. Can you talk about pursuing passions?
Life’s too short to not be pursuing your passions. Sometimes you’ll find an opportunity to get paid for that pursuit, sometimes not. I think we should do our best to find jobs that match up with our interests. In retail, people who are interested in what they’re selling will make for the most effective and content employees. Barring that, at least being able to feign interest is a plus.
As we move toward more and more online purchases, companies and corporations will scale back their workforce. If you’re someone looking to get into retail, it’s important to identify which employers will have truly longterm opportunities, in light of the shift to the online economy. It’s also important to figure out which retail employers will offer a livable wage and benefits and treat their employees responsibly.
Where do you see yourself in five years? Ten years? What would you like to accomplish, career-wise?
These days you have to be an armchair futurist just to figure out your own future. Economic and technological shifts ramp up certain careers and endanger others. I’ve had experience as an editor, but with the decline of print media, many editors, copy editors and other journalists have been given the boot, so I don’t see a promising long-term future in editing. I now have my name on a book cover, and certainly I wouldn’t mind seeing it on another one, but what’s the future of the publishing industry itself?
I may have to go rogue, upload myself to the internet and become the next Max Headroom, because the future seems to begin with an “e.” Whatever that manifestation, though, I would still like it to involve words and language, since I can’t imagine playing around with anything else.
Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson, Authors of “The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World,
One Correction at a Time.”
—–Q&A WITH BENJAMIN HERSON—–
who lives in Beaverton, OR, is an Eagle Scout and a fan of science fiction
I read that you and your girlfriend once worked at rival bookstores. How did you like working in retail? Any words of advice for others?
We still do! I work at Borders and Jenny works at Powell’s. You know, a lot of people take the “sales is sales” philosophy and try to extend it to retail, but I disagree. Sure, if you are a salesperson at heart, then selling is the part you enjoy. For the rest of us, it’s about the product.
Not all retail is created equal, and I strongly encourage those who are seeking retail jobs to really consider their interests. Make sure whatever you’d be asked to sell/represent is really something that’s you. Think of it this way: Are you going to use your employee discount often? If you don’t answer YES!, you’re at the wrong store.
NRF Foundation, the education and research arm of NRF, promotes retail as an exciting career destination. We think it is an industry where your passion can be your work. Can you talk about pursuing passions?
My girlfriend and I are book people. Together, we chew through more than 100 books a year in our apartment. So we love work because we’re around books all the time. We constantly get to see what’s new so we’re mentally adding to our reading lists while at work. We spend our days with employees who are also book people. Not only that, but when it comes to time on the floor, we get to sell our favorite books to people. We can help someone out who comes in wanting X, Y and Z in a book but doesn’t know where to start because we already know this stuff anyway.
We’re working with something we already love, and that’s what makes it fun. I couldn’t do this with the same passion if I was selling art supplies or clothing. There’s nothing wrong with those kinds of stores; they just aren’t me. Stores can train you for the technical aspects of the job, but they can never really prepare you to help people find what they need when you aren’t already engaged with that type of product.
Where do you see yourself in five years? Ten years? What would you like to accomplish, career-wise?
I’m sorry, but this question is unintentionally hilarious. Due to the state of the publishing industry, both of my careers are in such incredible flux that I’d have trouble predicting next year. I’ve really enjoyed the book tour and the whole experience, so I’m hoping I’ll continue as a writer. I also expect (contrary to constant predictions) that Borders will still be around, though maybe not in the same form as we know it. Basically, as long as there are books, I expect I’ll be nearby, but I can’t offer much more of a guess than that.
Want to know more about common typographical errors? Read the full STORES magazine interview with Jeff and Benjamin.
