This 22-year-old once dreamt of becoming a software engineer—instead, she just directed her first TV commercial

Ash Xu once thought she'd grow up to be a software engineer just like her dad. Instead, the 22-year-old is fresh off directing her first TV commercial.

Xu, who grew up in the Bay Area and now lives in New York City, got interested in film during middle school thanks to a steady diet of YouTube and Buzzfeed videos, but she always thought of it as a hobby.

After she took an advanced placement computer science class in high school and hated it, she redirected her energy into making short films with friends.

Xu started posting her own videos online in 2020 during her summer between graduating from high school and starting college at Northwestern for film, just as the pandemic led her and many to shelter in place. Later that year, she landed her first paid gig to film a commercial for an online brand. It paid $400.

That's when she realized she could make money "doing something that I absolutely love," she tells CNBC Make It. She also started to realize "my dreams of becoming a commercial director aren't as far away as I thought."

In the years since, her stylized videos that she posts to TikTok, Instagram and YouTube have gone viral several times over and eventually got the attention of Taco Bell.

In September, the fast food chain sent her an email. They wanted to pay her to write a concept for a commercial, and if they liked it enough, they'd pay her to film it, too. Xu looped in her management team, whom she's worked with since March 2021. Her team negotiated her rates for the project, and Xu got to work.

Xu declined to share how much she was paid for the commercial but notes that it was one of the highest-paying gigs she's taken on so far.

Being selected for the project and filming the commercial "gave me a lot of lot of confidence in my abilities," Xu says. It was her first time directing a larger team of six people, including a food stylist and marketing managers, for a brand, rather than a group of friends making a personal project. The commercial debuted in November.

The experience has taught her that you don't have to be "perfect" to be qualified for a job.

"When I was in film school, I thought you had to be a genius or a prodigy just to land your first directing gig," Xu says. "In my mind, the barrier to entry to creating anything was just really high, and you had to be perfect, otherwise, you wouldn't be chosen."

Her TV commercial directing debut taught her "I don't have to be the most knowledgeable or perfect person in the room," she says. "As long as I trust my own creative process and can convey it to the people around me, I'm worthy of the projects that I've been working on."

Success is a mixture of your experience, creative vision and how you market yourself, she adds, but ultimately, "everyone has something to offer."

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