Executive Producer, Krystal’s Journey
Engineer to Producer/Business Owner isn't quite what I would call a standard career track, but the jump into the creative world as well as running a small company has been incredibly rewarding and fulfilling!
Before moving into the video production world, I was an engineer for 7 years. I graduated with my B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering. I loved the ins and outs of how the world worked at a scientific level and the creativity that came with engineering products to help make the world a better place.
Climbing a wind turbine as a Project Engineer in the renewable energy sector
But after working in it for 7 years, the outlet for creativity just wasn’t what I had hoped for, and my heart wasn’t in it anymore. What I had hoped to be an endless space for ingenuity became a world of constraints, roadblocks, and corporate bureaucracy.
After much internal consternation and fear, I finally decided to take the leap into the video production world. Five years later, I can definitively say it has been one of the most positive live-changing decisions I have ever made.
Last day as an engineer, cutting my badge and credit card 😭
So in honor of my 5 year career-change anniversary, here are 5 skills that translated from engineer to company co-owner and producer:
1. Engineering taught me problem solving for EVERYTHING, which is the number one skill I use to wear all the hats I have to wear in order to run a business! I'm the person who's handling invoicing, tax prep, creating our website and adding special HTML coding on the backend, running our social media, strategizing our own marketing, editing videos, setting up our computer infrastructure systems, figuring out healthcare plans, and liability insurance, etc., I have to be quick to learn and address whatever comes my way.
Producing my first live action shoot
2. Many of our clients are in the tech/engineering space. My base knowledge in the STEM field has been vital in making sure our videos for our clients accurately depict the technology or scientific concepts. This has given Tell an edge over other animation/post-production companies that don't fully grasp the technical aspects of a product, making our turnaround time and revision rounds significantly more efficient, resulting in happier clients.
Dipping my toes into editing our Engineered Products reel (while getting to snuggle my son!)
3. My last two roles before making the jump were in project engineering and program management, which taught me how to handle a lot of moving parts across cross-functional teams. This skill is exactly the same in Producing, with me being the go-to person translating between Clients, Agencies, and our internal team. I love being the translator that brings all of the pieces together!
Winning my first award at a show we did the graphics for!
4. Animation and modeling programs are very adjacent to engineering modeling programs, so grasping the concepts around what our animators need to do and their workflow came quickly for me, making it easier for me to get up to speed with how to be an animation Producer.
On set with crew + talent
5. A new skill I'm happy to hone and use is my creative brain. As a kid, I was always writing stories, poems, and songs. I would write full on scripts and film mini-shows on my parent's camcorder and edit them together on my computer with screen takeovers, effects, transitions, and music. I would draw, paint, sew, scrapbook, knit, and whatever else I could get my hands on. When it came time to find a career, these were all considered "hobbies" by my family and I never saw going into the creative field as an option. Now, I get to create content, creative direct, script-write, mix music/sound effects, and edit.
Me being a lip-sync model for a VFX project imposing lips onto a painting to make it talk 😂
I'm so lucky to be in a job right now that seemingly uses all of my skills technically and creatively and couldn't be more grateful!
Thanks, Tell for the trust to bring me into this small and amazing team of people!
Much love,
Krystal