Wednesday, September 24, 2003
Here is a rough plan of my quest:
Getting a Job at an Ad Agency
After slightly straying from my original career goal for several years, I have made the decision to move to a large city and work at an ad agency. Now, I must re-acquaint myself with agency structure to determine my career path. I hope to determine where I could best fit, ascertain the required knowledge and skills to obtain gainful employment, learn about the agencies in my desired location, and then figure out how to market myself to them successfully. I think that my research may be helpful to anyone pursuing a career in advertising, especially those who, like me, may have ended up on a different path and are apprehensive about making a change.
Keywords:
Advertising Careers
Ad Agency Positions
Advertising Agencies
Advertising Schools
Careers in Marketing
Advertising Training
Advertising Career Overview
Web Resources:
Title: Careers in Marketing
Web Address: http://www.careers-in-marketing.com/ad.htm
Brief Description: This web site provides an overview of careers in marketing and public relations, including advertising. Also contains links to other resources on topics such as advertising job banks, approaching an ad agency for a job, how to put together a portfolio, and how to market yourself like a professional.
Title: Advertising Association (UK)
Web Address: http://www.adassoc.org.uk/
Brief Description: Though based in London, this web site is a valuable resource for its Information Centre, which includes a printable Guide to a Career in Advertising. The guide covers topics including descriptions of the business of advertising, explanations of the extremely varied jobs and career paths in it, and ways to help match your aptitudes to the particular jobs.
Title: Wet Feet
Web Address: http://www.wetfeet.com
Brief Description: This web site focuses on helping make smart career decisions, and features tools such as industry profiles, career profiles, city profiles and company profiles. The site also includes resources about salaries, continuing education, and resume assistance. Membership includes access to discussion boards, career-specific newsletters, and discounts on insiders guides. Best of all, member ship is FREE!
Title: Washington and Lee University, Liberal Arts Career Network
Web Address: http://www.wlu.edu/~career/adindex.htm
Brief Description: This web site features a career overview, links to organizations for advertising professionals, links to advertising news via Yahoo!, and list of the World's Top 50 Advertising Agencies.
Title: My Big Future
Web Address: http://www.mybigfuture.ca
Brief Description: This web site features, via advertising, case studies to help understand what agencies do for their clients, characteristics of people that are successful in advertising, and lists of events to attend to pursue a career in advertising.
Getting a Job at an Ad Agency
After slightly straying from my original career goal for several years, I have made the decision to move to a large city and work at an ad agency. Now, I must re-acquaint myself with agency structure to determine my career path. I hope to determine where I could best fit, ascertain the required knowledge and skills to obtain gainful employment, learn about the agencies in my desired location, and then figure out how to market myself to them successfully. I think that my research may be helpful to anyone pursuing a career in advertising, especially those who, like me, may have ended up on a different path and are apprehensive about making a change.
Keywords:
Advertising Careers
Ad Agency Positions
Advertising Agencies
Advertising Schools
Careers in Marketing
Advertising Training
Advertising Career Overview
Web Resources:
Title: Careers in Marketing
Web Address: http://www.careers-in-marketing.com/ad.htm
Brief Description: This web site provides an overview of careers in marketing and public relations, including advertising. Also contains links to other resources on topics such as advertising job banks, approaching an ad agency for a job, how to put together a portfolio, and how to market yourself like a professional.
Title: Advertising Association (UK)
Web Address: http://www.adassoc.org.uk/
Brief Description: Though based in London, this web site is a valuable resource for its Information Centre, which includes a printable Guide to a Career in Advertising. The guide covers topics including descriptions of the business of advertising, explanations of the extremely varied jobs and career paths in it, and ways to help match your aptitudes to the particular jobs.
Title: Wet Feet
Web Address: http://www.wetfeet.com
Brief Description: This web site focuses on helping make smart career decisions, and features tools such as industry profiles, career profiles, city profiles and company profiles. The site also includes resources about salaries, continuing education, and resume assistance. Membership includes access to discussion boards, career-specific newsletters, and discounts on insiders guides. Best of all, member ship is FREE!
Title: Washington and Lee University, Liberal Arts Career Network
Web Address: http://www.wlu.edu/~career/adindex.htm
Brief Description: This web site features a career overview, links to organizations for advertising professionals, links to advertising news via Yahoo!, and list of the World's Top 50 Advertising Agencies.
Title: My Big Future
Web Address: http://www.mybigfuture.ca
Brief Description: This web site features, via advertising, case studies to help understand what agencies do for their clients, characteristics of people that are successful in advertising, and lists of events to attend to pursue a career in advertising.
I must begin this narrative of my quest with a heart-felt admission:
Dear UNC Professor Robert Lauterborn,
You were right. I am not happy living in a small town. I did not choose a career path that allowed me to reach my potential. I have made a commitment to myself to change that.
Shall we play a game?J
Sincerely,
Shannon Ingram
1999 AAF National Student Advertising Competition Team Member
With that said, I can now introduce the topic of my masterpiece.
After graduating from UNC Chapel Hill, I moved back to my small hometown to pursue interests of bartending, surfing and lying around on the beach. Then I grew up.
It has taken four years, and I have made acceptable career strides in the meantime; but now it is time to take the big step and see what I’m really made of… outside of my comfort zone.
Though I have worked in advertising and marketing for the past three years, I have decided to fully pursue the goal that I had in mind when I first declared my major. I want to move to the West Coast and work at an ad agency.
My memory of agency structure is scattered at best, and my knowledge of the skill sets required to succeed is merely speculation. Since I am starting out four years behind, I must conduct extensive research, plan very carefully and work diligently to make myself a desirable candidate.
In my research, I hope re-familiarize myself with the anatomy of an ad agency, determine where I could best fit, ascertain the required knowledge and skills to obtain gainful employment, learn about the agencies in my desired location, and then figure out how to market myself to them successfully.
To elaborate, I have determined that the best way to begin is to take it from the top. Agency-employment has been absent from my top-of-mind for so long, I don’t even remember what I wanted to do in the first place. Accordingly, I want to learn who does what and how within an agency so that I can decide what I want to do. Coupled with raw desire, finding out requirements for particular roles will help me determine where my strengths would best fit within an agency. I will then research how to build on those strengths as well as improve upon any weaknesses or lack of knowledge that may hinder me from excellence in performance.
Once I determine what I want to do within an agency, I will begin research on where I want to do it. All I know now is that I want to go anywhere but here. After I have chosen a location, I will find what ad agencies exist there, learn about their clients, work culture, focus and most importantly, employment opportunities. At that point, it will be time to do what I’m asking them to pay me to do; instead of a client service or product, I’ll be marketing me.
Dear UNC Professor Robert Lauterborn,
You were right. I am not happy living in a small town. I did not choose a career path that allowed me to reach my potential. I have made a commitment to myself to change that.
Shall we play a game?J
Sincerely,
Shannon Ingram
1999 AAF National Student Advertising Competition Team Member
With that said, I can now introduce the topic of my masterpiece.
After graduating from UNC Chapel Hill, I moved back to my small hometown to pursue interests of bartending, surfing and lying around on the beach. Then I grew up.
It has taken four years, and I have made acceptable career strides in the meantime; but now it is time to take the big step and see what I’m really made of… outside of my comfort zone.
Though I have worked in advertising and marketing for the past three years, I have decided to fully pursue the goal that I had in mind when I first declared my major. I want to move to the West Coast and work at an ad agency.
My memory of agency structure is scattered at best, and my knowledge of the skill sets required to succeed is merely speculation. Since I am starting out four years behind, I must conduct extensive research, plan very carefully and work diligently to make myself a desirable candidate.
In my research, I hope re-familiarize myself with the anatomy of an ad agency, determine where I could best fit, ascertain the required knowledge and skills to obtain gainful employment, learn about the agencies in my desired location, and then figure out how to market myself to them successfully.
To elaborate, I have determined that the best way to begin is to take it from the top. Agency-employment has been absent from my top-of-mind for so long, I don’t even remember what I wanted to do in the first place. Accordingly, I want to learn who does what and how within an agency so that I can decide what I want to do. Coupled with raw desire, finding out requirements for particular roles will help me determine where my strengths would best fit within an agency. I will then research how to build on those strengths as well as improve upon any weaknesses or lack of knowledge that may hinder me from excellence in performance.
Once I determine what I want to do within an agency, I will begin research on where I want to do it. All I know now is that I want to go anywhere but here. After I have chosen a location, I will find what ad agencies exist there, learn about their clients, work culture, focus and most importantly, employment opportunities. At that point, it will be time to do what I’m asking them to pay me to do; instead of a client service or product, I’ll be marketing me.
