As deadlines for many grad scheme applications are approaching there are likely to be many young people who will be left disappointed and feeling that it’s an uphill battle to get into the advertising industry. Having gone through the process myself I wanted to offer some advice to those who are now in a similar situation to the one I was in last year.
1. Read about the industry
The world of advertising is ever evolving and if you don’t keep up with the new trends and approaches you will find yourself getting left behind very fast. A good way to keep up is to create an RSS feed using a tool such as Google Reader to aggregate all the news stories from marketing blogs and websites into a manageable list. If you check out my blogroll list you will find a good collection of sites to start your own news aggregator (a lot of them are planning related).
As well as keeping up with the industry you should try to maintain an interest in current affairs; and don’t forget about your own personal interests as well, the industry is fuelled by ideas that are generated outside of the office.
2. Create a social brand
The first thing that I did when I realised that my CV wasn’t enough to make people pay attention was to start this blog. It gave me the opportunity to show my thinking and knowledge of the industry. An agency inbox gets flooded with speculative applications every day, so to try and make yours stand out can be difficult. You need to offer an insight into yourself and your thinking by using the tools that the internet provides. Create a blog and provide a link to it in your CV, updating it as much as you can.
It’s a good idea to create a Twitter account and to try to tweet regularly about advertising and marketing news stories that have grabbed your attention. A large number of people in the industry are active on Twitter, and showing that you have an understanding of social media is something that an agency may see value in.
You should also create a LinkedIn profile as employers often take the time to review this site to see how proactive you have actually been in your job search and using all the resources available to you.
3. It’s not who you know, it’s who you make the effort to get to know
A lot of people will tell you that getting a job in the industry is all about who you know. In a way they are correct, it is very difficult to get into the industry if you don’t know anyone who currently works at an agency. This time last year my connections to the industry were all friends who had recently joined agencies at a junior level, some on grad schemes, others not. Although I knew people on the inside, they were not in any position to get me recognised and help me get a job. Consequently I had to go about networking for myself, creating relationships with people who could help me find an opportunity to progress.
Using social networking sites, attending any relevant presentations and getting into discussions with people in the industry will allow you to create a network. You will find that a network will help you find out about vacancies a lot faster than if you were to rely on job listing sites. Some jobs may never need to be listed due to the level of demand, so it pays to make the effort and get connected.
4. Be creative with your application
As you can expect to be up against a significant amount of competition, it’s important that you make your application stand out. A friend of mine got his job after creating a video CV which mimicked the Nike ‘take it to the next level’ ad (I’ve not been able to find it so presume he has taken it off YouTube).
Alternatively, taking your application offline can actually be advantageous now as so many use email. A paper application coming through in the post is now such a novelty that it may end up being given more time than a rushed email. It doesn’t hurt to throw in a treat, like placing your CV in a box of chocolates; they are bound to be opened after all! At Mason Zimbler we have seen some very creative applications and they certainly get noticed (no food sent through yet though).
The industry is all about creativity so it only makes sense to take the opportunity to show how creative you can be.
As an additional point, always check for any grammatical errors before sending anything to anyone in the industry. Your application will not be taken seriously otherwise (I’m still grammatically inept, but I’m gradually having it beaten out of me by our guys in copy!).
5. There’s more to life than grad schemes
This time last year I had received a number of ‘thanks but no thanks’ emails in response to my grad scheme applications. The days spent answering wacky questions in hope of getting into adland had been for nothing. The grad scheme circuit is highly competitive with tens if not hundreds of applicants per vacancy. Because of this many people will find they miss out and then wonder how else they are going to get into the industry. My advice is to find out about all the agencies that are located around you. If you go to London there are hundreds of agencies, but you may also be surprised to find some smaller agencies with great clients located right on your doorstep.
Getting into a smaller agency can allow you to be hands on a lot sooner than if you go through the grad scheme at a larger agency. You can expect to be working on client jobs from day one and there is a far greater opportunity to make a name for yourself in an agency that is a bit smaller and maybe slightly more innovative in their approach.
6. Offer to work for free
The key to this is gaining experience. Many people complain that getting into the industry can feel like a chicken or egg situation. Agencies want people with experience but getting that experience can be hard to come by. The best approach is asking for a week or so of free work experience.
You can expect to be assigned simple tasks relevant to your discipline, while also carrying out the standard intern duties of making tea and generally helping the agency run smoothly. It is all very much bottom of the ladder stuff, but it is key to getting your first taste of agency experience.
This experience will help you understand the way a job goes through an agency, the various roles that exist and, maybe most importantly, it allows you to find out if agency life is actually what you want (it isn’t for everyone!).
7. Don’t give up
The application process is all about perseverance. I was applying for jobs from October 2008 and only become a full-time employee at my agency at the start of September 2009. I spent 3 months getting experience prior to my first paycheck, firstly via unpaid work experience and then the IPA summer school scheme.
The industry is gradually recovering now following a tough year or so where marketing budgets were cut significantly and jobs were drying up, consequently there are agencies who are growing and looking to increase their staff numbers. You just need to make sure you are ready to be noticed when the opportunity arises.
