Meet Joe. Or Joe Mama, Ho Bag, Hobo, call him what you want-we do. He's our copy editor, or least he's supposed to be when he can find time away from all the import forums. Anyway, Joe is an avid Import Tuner reader-recently-turned-employee and this month I asked him to explain to his fellow army of readers just what it's like to work on the Import Tuner editorial team. Sort of straight from the reader's mouth so to speak (he's still only a reader in my book until he survives double probation). I've tried several times over the years and never really felt I got it across. After all this time, you sort of forget.This is what he wrote:
I used to work at a bookstore, but was fired for stealing copies of Import Tuner. Ironically, here I am working for the same magazine that I resorted to shoplifting for, writing to its readers.
I applied for an internship after college with the Street Rod division of Primedia. The job description seemed easy-all I had to do was read and edit all these stories about Jed and his 1950-something Camaro, not really my thing, but at least it was cars and a start. As an import car enthusiast, I would read Import Tuner and think, "If I could someday do what I'm doing now for this mag, that would be a dream come true."
When my internship hours were done, I began to worry about where I could obtain a real job. It just so happened that right around the same time a copy editing position became available at Import Tuner. Thinking I had little chance I applied anyway, managed to get to the interview process and, somehow, ended up getting the job. Now I'm living my dream. It was a rough start, the job training was rather intimidating and I had to learn a lot of it on my own. I was overwhelmed with having to meet the people I would be working with on a more permanent basis. Getting to know names and personalities was difficult; Feature Editor Joey Leh and Tech Editors Scott Tsuneishi and Ryan McKay were an odd bunch, not to mention the tense personality that Editor Jason Mulroney exuded. For the first few months, it took some time to get used to their witty and sarcastic sense of humor, but after numerous lunch outings to consume what seemed like endless bowls of Pho, I got used to it. Jason turned out to be a really cool guy as well. I figured his tough personality and hint of mysteriousness were all part of some kind of faade-it's not.
After getting used to it all, my days in my cubicle consist of trying to keep as much of the editorial flow in order as I can, fending off more than my share of abuse while cleaning up the usual suspect's work. I often think of myself as "the word janitor." I stare at the computer screen and read their stories about do-it-yourself alignments and die-hard readers with their feature-worthy cars. As a reader, I always wished I could have a flashy car like those guys, but now I seem to be content on getting paid for reading about them.
Reminiscing about the days of picking up Import Tuner at the local grocery store, I find that now I have more of an understanding and tolerance for cars other than Hondas. I've even had a few opportunities to meet the feature car owners and a couple of the cover models. This made me realize that what you read in these magazines is the real deal. Unlike myself, the owners of these feature cars don't mess around and are truly serious about what they do to their cars and the final outcome. After I came to this realization, I began to look at my own car in a different way. I finally understood that when it comes to modifying your car, you have to do it right, or don't do it at all.
Thus far, working here has been everything I hoped it would be. I'm part of a good team that works hard to put out a great magazine. I worked hard to get here and I'm proud of it. Guys... Sorry if I forgot to mention why I left my last job during my interview.