By Jennifer Merritt

During the hour it takes to commute to your office, you pass the time: a) listening to ESPN Radio for details of NASCAR’s Ryan Newman’s latest win; b) admiring the visual sensation of the funky cover art for Missy Elliot’s latest CD; or c) catching up on the up-to-the-minute gossip and fashions in Us Weekly.

Not to get too pop psychologist on you, but have you ever wondered if the way you spend those precious 60 minutes is a glimpse into the job you wish you were commuting to? Nine-to-five doesn’t sound so bad when you’re racing the track at NASCAR, photographing A-list celebs, or deciding on the fashion trend of the moment. Here are glimpses of six people with glamour jobs and how they got there. They even offer advice on how you can get there, too.

Glamour Gig: Photographer
Glamour Gal: Maki Kawakita, 2004 Olympus Visionary Photographer
Kawakita first touched a camera during a photography class at Tama Arts University in Tokyo. “Right then, I knew I wanted to be a photographer,” she says, and so began the pursuit of her passion that now has her photographing the likes of Beyoncé, Missy Elliot, and Paris Hilton.

What helped get her career off the ground, Kawakita says, was meeting the right people. While in Japan photographing dancers, Kawakita “started working with magazines shooting covers, and somehow I started getting calls from record companies,” she says. “It shows in my pictures that I love music.”

When she came to the United States, she began working closely with American Photo magazine. “I think the editor there is the person who told Olympus about me,” she says, referring to the award conferred upon her by the camera company. “That really helped in evolving my career,” she continues, noting that in addition to giving her access to sophisticated cameras and lenses, Olympus helps her publicize her work.

Biggest Perk: Like Little X, Kawakita enjoys traveling. “I love traveling and meeting different people,” she says. “It’s universal—you have no border whatsoever and I love that.”

Her Advice: Believe in your talent and be persistent. “I still think I’m a work in progress—that will never end," she admits. "Just keep going. If you have a clear idea of where you want to be, just go on and do it. That’s what I do.”

Glamour Gig: Interior designer
Glamour Guy: Grady Cooley

After a successful career in haute couture, Cooley was ready for a career change. “My hobby was always antiques,” he says. “I would go to flea markets all over the world, and as time went by friends started asking me to help them decorate their apartments. I also had a friend who was an interior designer and he would explain things to me. I took to it naturally.”

Cooley—who graduated from William Carey College in Mississippi with a degree in business administration—says the worlds of fashion and interior design aren’t as similar as they seem. “By the time I left the fashion world, my eye and my fingers could feel what was good and what wasn’t, so I brought that with me,” he says. “There were threads that were there and I pulled them along with me.”

After designing the homes of some of America’s most prominent families, Cooley moved on to restaurant design, crafting the interiors of hotspots like Chapter 8, P6, Memphis Hollywood, and most recently, Suki 7. His next step is boutique hotels. “It’s always good to find something new because it keeps you fresh,” Cooley says. “It was so challenging becoming an interior designer, just as challenging as it was wanting to be a couture designer as a 21-year-old in Birmingham, Alabama.”

Biggest Perk: Knowledge. “After you do something for so long, you become really good at it, and there comes a moment when you realize you’re good and you don’t have to fake it anymore,” he says. “I think this happens to everybody at a certain point. When you stop thinking about wrong answers, you’re there. It’s not conceit; it’s that you’re knowledgeable.”

His Advice: “Looking back, it did not take me that long to get where I wanted to go,” Cooley says. “One of my first bosses gave me a philosophy: ‘Keep your mouth shut and your ears open, and you’ll learn an awful lot.’”

Glamour Gig: NASCAR crew chief
Glamour Guy: Matt Borland, Alltel Team Penske Racing
As the leader of racecar driver Ryan Newman’s pit crew, Borland manages a team of people to build and test-drive racecars. After getting his start at the General Motors Institute, an automotive engineering school in Flint, Mich., Borland worked for the car manufacturer for seven years, then moved on to Pi Research in Indianapolis where he designed simulation software for Formula One and NASCAR, followed by two years with an Indy car team as a race engineer. In 2000, he was hired by Penske to go to North Carolina and lead Ryan Newman and the Alltel team.

Of his jobs with Indy and NASCAR—a racing organization that tends to have more regulations—Borland says, “I like them both; they’re just different challenges. The NASCAR series is more challenging because there are a lot more rules.”

Despite the intensity, Borland is capable of doing what it takes to win, thanks to his education and determination. Under his leadership, Newman and the Alltel team have won four Automobile Racing Club of America races, one Busch race, and 13 Cup races.

Best Perk: “The opportunity to compete and have the chance to succeed—just knowing you beat everybody,” Borland says without a moment’s hesitation.

His Advice: “Get an engineering degree,” he recommends. “Also, do as much racing on your own as possible to get more experience in what it takes to race. Know that this isn’t a 9-to-5 job. You will put all your time and effort into one goal.”

Glamour Gig: Fashion Editor 
Glamour Gal: Sasha Charnin Morrison, Us Weekly magazine

Morrison is no stranger to the pages of fashion magazines, as her stepmother was once the creative director at fashionista bible Vogue. But before Morrison started collecting her own credentials from the likes of Seventeen, Harper’s Bazaar, and most recently, Allure, the New York City native wanted to be a singer, majoring in drama at New York University.

After graduation, however, Morrison says her practical side won out and she decided to pursue a job in magazines. Interestingly enough, Morrison found her drama background prepped her for the competitiveness of the publishing industry. “It prepared me for learning how to speak to people, getting over the fear of having a story idea rejected, and doing whatever I need to do to get that story idea [approved],” she says.  “It gave me such a great spine and the tools necessary to handle what this industry throws at you.”

Landing her current gig at Us Weekly was a dream realized for Morrison, as she’s a confessed celebrity magazine junkie. . “It was a question of just being a fan or working at a magazine I was obsessed with,” she recalls. “I really could not function without getting my Us Weekly on Wednesdays. I had never worked at a weekly magazine or at a magazine that every single person knows and reads.”

Best Perk: You may be surprised to learn it doesn’t involve a closet of free clothes. “You get the reward of knowing that [a vendor] sold 50,000 units of something after it appeared in our magazine,” she admits. “To hear that the magazine has that kind of effect on people is mind-boggling.”

Her Advice: Granted, Morrison had the aid of her stepmother in landing her first job. After her stepmother left the business, though, Morrison relied on her own achievements, something she believes was made possible by immersing herself in every stitch of the industry. “There are no Cliff's Notes on this,” she cautions. “You really have to teach yourself, in addition to everything else you learn in school. The big jobs can come early, but the junior jobs are so important because you get a sense of the history of fashion.”

Glamour Gig: Music video director
Glamour Guy: Julien Christian Lutz, a.k.a. “Little X”

Little X is the man behind the music videos you love, as evidenced by his two MTV Video Music Award wins for “Best Male Video” and “Best Dance Video” for Usher’s song “Yeah.” X has also directed videos for the likes of P. Diddy, 50 Cent, John Mayer, and Alicia Keys. Originally from Toronto, X rose through the ranks by packing his bags for New York and work-work-working. “It was that immigrant hustle,” he says. “I didn’t know anybody, didn’t have any friends or girls to distract me, so I had nothing to do but be in the office.”

But it wasn’t just hard work at his internship under the tutelage of Hype Williams that got X where he is today. It was the painstaking persistence he showed in vying for that internship. X sent a package to Hype comprised of amateur videos and a T-shirt line he created in high school. Then he called, and called, and called … “I finally got the person to call for an internship, but even then they hung up on me: ‘Here’s the number,’ click,” he laughingly recalls.

On a trip to New York City with a summer program, X rang up Hype’s offices. “I said, ‘It’s the guy with the package,’ and they said, ‘Who?’” he remembers. “That really broke my young optimism, so I went to the office to get my stuff and I told them I wanted to work for free. They told me to come on back and work.”

Even then the fate of X’s internship had yet to be sealed. “I was spending the summer in my hometown, doing nothing, and something told me to leave,” X says. “I went to New York City a week early and it turns out the girl who hired me was leaving that week. If I had waited, they wouldn’t have known about me and I never would have had a job.”

Lesson learned? Persistence pays off. X has no formal training—“College was on set,” he says—but he helps foster the creativity of other aspiring directors through a seminar at Hunter College in New York and by teaching at Usher’s Camp New Look in Atlanta. “At the end of the day it’s an art form; there’s a level of talent you should have,” X says. 

Best Perk: Traveling. “I’ve been to Africa, India, Japan, England, Los Angeles, Brazil, Mexico, and I’m based in New York,” he says. “I’ve seen a lot of places and I’m there taking pictures. Shooting on location is always a leadership lesson. I’m a director and I need to set the tone.”

His Advice: “Do as many internships as you can,” he says. “Get on set, pick up a video camera, show it to everybody you know, and get your hustle on. No one’s going to say, ‘Hey, you look like a talented guy—want a job?’”

Glamour Gig: Author
Glamour Gal: Karen Salmansohn (www.notsalmon.com)
Salmansohn took a big risk when she left her successful advertising career to write books. Pegged by critics as “Deepak Chopra meets Carrie Bradshaw,” Salmansohn is the author of such tongue-in-cheek illustrated books as “How to Change Your Life By Doing Absolutely Nothing" and “How to Make Your Man Behave in 21 Days or Less Using the Secrets of Professional Dog Trainers.” Her new book, "Gut: How to Think From Your Middle to Get to the Top" (How Books, 2006), hits stores in September. Salmansohn also hosts a motivational series called “Thrive” at New York City’s Soho House, teaching techniques to increase creativity, productivity, communication skills, and daily job fulfillment. 

In what seems to be a recurring theme in Salmansohn’s success story, her career jump-started when she got an unexpected lift. “I was working at MTV doing freelance writing for the filmettes that go on between videos,” explains Salmansohn, who counts Jon Stewart, Madonna, Jay Leno, and Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Graydon Carter among her fan base. “This guy I barely knew got on the elevator with me, and he said, ‘What’s new?’ and I said, ‘I just finished my first novel.’” By the time Salmansohn arrived on the first floor, she had scored a book agent’s name and number. “I always joke that if MTV had its offices on the third floor instead of the 24th, I might never have gotten a book deal.”

Salmansohn learned that “Mom is wrong—it’s OK to talk to strangers,” and continued to find support for her new career in such diverse places as Playboy magazine, the youth-oriented clothing store Urban Outfitters, and Grey Goose vodka, mostly through persistent cold calls, and as she puts it, creating her own good luck.

Best Perk: A life of reading, writing, and no arithmetic. “I get to sit in cafés all day and drink coffee,” says the Emerson College film studies grad. “Even if I went on ‘Oprah’ and became a million-dollar writer, I’d still be doing what I do today—I’d just be doing it in more expensive clothes.”

Her Advice: “Create a career pickup line,” she says. “Know what you can say in 30 seconds to sell yourself quickly. It’s all based on what your unique selling point is.”

Author bio: Jennifer Merritt is a New York-based writer focused on education, travel and health issues.