How to Get Your First Job in Advertising

Chuck Anderson

Getting started is the Big Question and there is no formula, but somehow thousands of people manage to do it. To improve your chances, think of yourself as a product -- or more appropriately, a service -- that you are trying to sell.

Develop a strategy for promoting this service. You will need to create a message -- whether it is a c.v., a telephone call, a personal presentation or a mail shot. The following is offered as a 'creative discipline' to help you formulate an effective personal message:

1. You are talking about...

You are selling yourself, of course. But it is not your ego that prospective employers are interested in. They want to know what you can do for them. The hoary marketing analogy is: you are not selling a power drill, you are selling holes.

Advertising agencies, their clients, and the auxiliary organisations they use view the industry in a highly structured way. Their world is divided into strict disciplines: creative, account management, media, account planning, research, production etc. Though some large agencies may accept general trainees, the only successful trainees are those who quickly attach themselves to an existing power structure.

So, it is vital that you really define what you want to do and sell yourself as a nexus of skills and potential in one of these specific roles. The demands of each discipline are different. You must determine what these are and adapt your personal presentation accordingly.

Think carefully what suits your talents and ambitions best, because it will be difficult to change horses later -- until you're running the show.

2. You are talking to...

What is your target group? Make a list of the organisations you might like to work for -- advertising agencies, marketing organisations, ancillary companies. Find out the names of the individuals who do the first-stage interviewing within them. It's easy to contact the larger IPA agencies (http://www.ipa.co.uk), however the competition will be less keen at smaller agencies and ancillary companies. These can provide a toehold in the industry and experience which you can merchandise elsewhere.

3. They need/want...

It's clear what you need: a sale -- a job. But what do your potential employers need? Advertising agencies, for example, universally want new business, a quality reputation and the people who can make that happen. It is unlikely that you will walk in the door with a new account or the next award-winning campaign in your pocket, but your presentation should reflect their perspective, rather than your personal need for a job.

Consider, too, the poor soul in charge of recruiting. Except in the largest organisations, few people are specifically trained as recruiters. Yet, it's one of the hardest jobs in advertising. They may have to choose from hundreds of applicants, all of whom look jolly good on paper. What is the recruiter's anxiety? Making a mistake, of course, and hiring the wrong individual. Or missing the right one. Most of all, recruiters have to justify their recommendations to their colleagues. There are crutches they will use to assist their judgement:

Connections: As ever, it helps to know somebody who knows somebody. Why? Because it endorses the recruiter's own judgement -- the responsibility is shared.

Experience: The fact that you have helped produce something practical in a working environment is another form of testimony. Student experience in communications media -- say, the university newspaper, or a hospital radio station -- puts you in the frame. Even a lowly role in a relevant environment -- say, a part-time job sharpening pencils at a local art studio -- earns respect because it shows you've been exposed to the business. For non-creative jobs commercial experience of any kind involving selling or management can carry a lot of clout. I once hired a young lad because he had run a hamburger restaurant franchise. He turned out to be a first class account handler.

Demonstration: If you're looking for a creative job you must show your book. For a tyro it scarcely matters if the work was ever produced, so long as you can cogently explain how it fulfilled the brief and why it would be effective. For non-creative positions you should be able to show a project you have carried out -- ideally one with a communications theme, even if it was only a local charity event.

4. They already know/understand/believe/feel that...

All recruiters will have a mindset formed by their own experiences and prejudices. Usually these will reflect the Weltanschauung of the organisation they work for. You will not shake these preconceptions, so identify them and build upon them. It is fascinating, for example, to compare how variously advertising agencies display themselves on their websites. These tell you a lot about how the organisation sees itself -- its ambitions and its paranoia.

5. You want them to know/understand/believe/feel that...

Your message will have both a rational and an emotional content. Of these, the latter is overwhelmingly the most important. E.g., candidate X: is personable/resourceful/brilliant/empathetic/drop-dead gorgeous.

But you must provide a rationalisation as well. If only so the recruiter can explain and defend an emotional preference to peers. E.g., candidate X: was a DJ/ went on a cave-diving expedition to New Guinea/conducted a multiple regression analysis of the impact of on-line shopping on local food shops/helps out in a local hospice/dresses well.

6. You should avoid...

Now that you know how they think, what is really going to get up their nose? Think about it and steer clear of it.

7. You are going to reach them... where? when? how?

We all receive unwanted mail shots every day. Why do the buggers persist? Because, just occasionally, we're in the market for a new car, or a pizza, and the timing is right. The more hits the more chance of success. To get a job the trick is to be there when there's an opening, which means widespread and -- until you're firmly rebuffed -- repetitive exposure. There was a helpful, inoffensive rep from an art studio who seemed to hang around the production department of our agency most of the time. When a job came up, he often got it. Because he was there.

Consider, too, different ways of making contact which will set you apart from the pack. Suppose, for example, an advertising figure were to take part in a local event. You should approach him or her during the coffee break. Given a person-to-person encounter in a social context, most people in the industry are inclined to help if it's not too much bother.

8. Your distinctive personal style is...

This contest is about people, and it is personality, not penmanship, that counts. The attraction of the business is that it can accommodate many styles -- from geek to showman -- so long as they are exercised in the appropriate role. Develop your natural style, make it memorable, and stick with it. You are a brand.

9. Simply stated, the major impression I am trying to make is...

What is it about your personal presentation which will stick in the mind and set you apart from the crowd? That you are innovative and bold, perhaps? If you're the candidate who told the agency how and why they should redesign their reception area, you may be offered a job or shown the door. But you are unlikely to be ignored.

10. Good luck

As the Beatles should have written, "All you really need is luck". Chance is often the crucial factor in anyone's career. But to some extent you can make your own luck. And if you develop your campaign through a 'creative discipline' along the lines described above, at least you will know how an Advertising Strategy is put together. Even though it doesn't always work.

Thanks to Chuck Anderson for writing this for my students - Daniel Chandler. Chuck Anderson's book, The Big Lie: the Truth about Advertising, may be found on http://www.randomthoughtslimited.com

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