Thread by @bhartzer

"Dress for the job you want." This is literally is how my father broke into the television industry. When he graduated from Michigan State with a Masters Degree in Radio/TV, the only job he could get was as a janitor at @WGNTV in Chicago.

@WGNTV His father (my grandfather) insisted that he "dress for the job he wanted". And so my father dressed up (suit and tie) for work every day, got to work, and then changed into his green janitor's uniform.

@WGNTV My dad literally took out the trash and swept the floors, but had time to watch the live TV broadcasts.

One day he got his opportunity: one of the guys who ran the camera didn't show up and apparently was sick: the only other person on the set was my father.

@WGNTV They had seen him dress up every day and then change to his green uniform. They asked him to change into a suit and tie (which he did) and he was literally took the place of the cameraman that didn't show up that day. He got lots of good experience as a cameraman there.

@WGNTV A few years later, in New York, he applied for a TV job and they hired him when he told them he had been a cameraman at @WGNTV. Later on in his career he went on to be the stage manager on the Ed Sullivan Show and produce TV shows like Sesame Street and the Electric Company.

@WGNTV He probably would have done well in that industry anyway, but dressing up for the job he wanted, in this case a suit and tie, got him his big break. Even though when he got to work he had to change into his work uniform.