An interview with Bruce Dennis (CGS’19, COM’21)
What did you do during your gap semester?
I was really fortunate because one of my good friends’ dad owns a clothing company. At that time I was really interested in fashion, I thought that was what I wanted to do, and I worked there for the six months while holding down other random jobs. I worked at an ice cream store. Through the clothing company, one of my coworkers worked for Polaroid so I was able to do a few gigs for them at red carpet events, at celebrity meet-and-greet type things, and conventions. The majority of my time was at the clothing store. Since it was an online store, we would do photo shoots of inventory in the warehouse and then creative design and marketing. When we weren’t in the warehouse taking pictures we were really trying to figure out marketing through social media.
Tell me more about your time with Polaroid and how this opportunity came about.
It was really amazing because when I was in high school I would take my Polaroid camera pretty much everywhere, especially during junior and senior year. I was asked by a coworker at the fashion company I was working at if I would be interested in representing Polaroid for Complex Con. I accepted his offer without hesitation. From there I was able to meet some of the higher executives at Polaroid and form a relationship with them. That opened up opportunities for me to be a brand ambassador for them here. Whenever I’m in Los Angeles or if they have a job for me they’ll reach out.
What was it like being able to work at Complex Con and what kinds of connections were you able to make through that experience?
Complex Con is a huge event put on by the media giant Complex which celebrates pop culture, music, fashion, and art. This was the second Complex Con ever and was held at the Long Beach Convention Center where over 30,000 people from across the world came to celebrate culture through brand pop up shops and concerts. Over 200 brands were represented at the convention, and Polaroid was one of them. I, along with a few other people took polaroids of people and debuted the new pink and blue duochromes. It was an amazing experience that gave me a lot of good connections at Polaroid which then helped me to become a brand ambassador for the future.
What does being a brand ambassador entail?
You’re basically marketing the product. They send you different products and you post about them and promote it to your demographic. It’s showing it to people, how it works, what the new products are like. As a college student, we’re one of the bigger demographics for Polaroid products.
What did you get out of the gap semester?
I got a lot of connections and I really figured out why I want to do certain things and why I didn’t want to do certain things. At that time I wanted to do fashion but I realized as I worked at a fashion company that I didn’t really want to do that. Day to day things– about managing your time and managing spreadsheets and PowerPoint and being able to present to people. Things like that are lessons that I’m going to take when I’m applying to jobs.
Any tips?
If you are going to take a class, please get in touch with the advisor so you don’t take the wrong class. The second one is don’t feel forced to take a class. I would say use this time to really do something you want to do because this is the time when you don’t have the stress of school. So if you really want to work at a clothing company, if you want to work at an ice cream store, if you want to work at Best Buy or something, I would say try and do it—especially if it’s in reach. Just spend time on yourself if you want to read, watch movies, draw, take pictures. If you are an artist and you want to build up your portfolio, it’s a really good time to do it because you have so much free time.
—Interview by Steven Silvio (CGS’17, COM’19)