Griffs Jobs

Within less than an hour after walking out of the meeting I got a phone
call from an Ink Salesman Rick. Rick was a young man like me in the
Printing Business probably because of his Dad. Rick said to me hey Jim
my Dad is the Sales Manager at Welsh Graphics in Pasadena Ca and he
would like to meet you.
Since my 2nd wife was pregnant with our 1st child I was eager to continue
to get a paycheck so I followed up on Ricks advise and the next
morning met with Ken the Sales Manager at Welsh Graphics in Pasadena.
The meeting was cool I recall. Ken met me in the lounge and walked
me up to the Sales Area which was on the 2nd Floor of the Printing
Plant. He said let’s go outside since he was a smoker and he lit up one
of his non- filters, took a drag and said when can you start. I said how
about tomorrow. That was it short and sweet. I was grateful for Rick introducing
me to his Dad and the good news was I had a job. It was not a
passion. It was a job. I knew how to do and it paid the bills somewhat.
The career job boat was a patched temporarily.
Job#7 Welsh Graphics – 1983-1985 Print Salesman
I guess you can say my time at Welsh Graphics was not the worst experience
but in a nutshell, it was a temporary fix for a problem called wrong
career choice that I was now riding in the can’t get off bus due to family
obligations. I did remember that I made some good connections during
my time at Welsh and sold enough printing to keep my job. My biggest
Fish I caught being the Ralph M Parsons Worldwide Engineering Firm
where I worked with their Corporate Communications department and
ended up getting the contract to print their annual report. I was also
able to land a few more accounts to justify my seat including World
Vision based in Monrovia a global Christian Ministry which printed a
boatload of pamphlets and direct mail which was a print salesperson
dream account. The welcome mat at Welsh Graphics started to wear out
for me in my second year and I wanted to move on. The opportunity
presented itself when I met a colleague an old friend of my Dad who
worked at Typecraft a well respected Printer in Pasadena, CA. I knew
nothing about Typecraft but I liked that my colleague Carl knew and
respected my Dad. Carl brought me in the door at Typecraft for an interview.
The interview was not as warm and fuzzy as the Welsh Graphics
interview but the owner of Typecraft Harry did say the company was
growing and had just bought a new 6 – color press and needed sales to
feed the monster.
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