kateburley77 Where is the best place to look for jobs within : agencies? Is it mostly perspective applications that are welcomed?

Transcription

1 Name Transcript kateburley77 Where is the best place to look for jobs within : agencies? Is it mostly perspective applications that are welcomed? The best advice I can give for approaching Advertising : agencies is to do your research first. Look at the website to find out what clients they work for. Phone the agency to try and find out who the account director is for that client. Then you can tailor your approach and make sure it gets to the right person. A generic CV won't have much standout - agencies get a lot of these! Try taking a different approach - maybe send in a short presentation on an idea for one of their clients, or your opinion on a recent promotion or advert you know they've done. Or if you've worked on a module in your course that you think is particularly relevant to what they do, let them know about it. The key thing is to jump to the top of the CV pile. Attention to detail's important too. Watch out for spelling errors and keep things short and professional looking. The course you do isn't that important - lots of people from different backgrounds are in agencies. The main thing is demonstrating enthusiasm and a passion for marketing/advertising. kateburley77 Agencies often ask which part of marketing you are : interested in. Could you please explain the different roles or areas within agencies such as advertising vs, client side? Advertising : Agencies tend to be split into account management and creative departments. Account management is like project management - take the brief from the client, do the costs and the timing plans, brief the creative teams, sell the ideas to the client and manage the job right through from start to finish.

2 Different agencies specialise in different things - some do advertising (TV, newspaper adverts, radio) some do online or digital, some do graphic design. Some agencies do a bit of all of these. You can usually find this out from their websites. It's best to approach ones that you have an interest in what they do or would like to learn more. Client side you could be working within a marketing department for a big company like a drinks company or a bank. You would be the person briefing and managing the agency to come up with a solution to your problem. You'd likely work with the product team, the sales team and other marketing colleagues to agree what product to sell, at what price, to what customers. Tom : Richard, What do you like about working in a marketing agency rather than the marketing dept of another company? Variety! Rather than working on one product or Advertising : brand, you get to work across a variety of brands and be really involved in understanding lots of different businesses and challenges. You also get to work on lots of different media - TV, radio,outdoor, digital rather than maybe on one brand where direct mail might be the best and only method used. Plus you get to work in a busy, dynamic and creative environment with lots of creative and inspiring people! kateburley77 How did you initially begin working in a marketing : agency? Advertising : Hi Kate. It was 10 years ago, so believe it or not I actually saw an advert in The Guardian newspaper! I went to Strathclyde Business School and did marketing but I really wanted to go to London to work for some of the big advertising agencies. My strategy was to start somewhere small that would let me get lots of experience really quickly, so that I could spend 2 years learning loads and then approach the bigger agencies with loads of experience already under my belt. From the first job on, it's a lot easier to get other jobs and you start to make friends and contacts in other

3 agencies too. Check out industry bodies like the IPA, ISP and magazines like The Drum for events and things going on where you can get along and meet people too. kateburley77 Thanks that's really helpful, would you suggest : London as a good option then? There are certainly many more agencies in London Advertising : to choose from. The downside is that lots more people want to work there so the competition is really fierce, especially for the big agencies. However, I would recommend it from my own experience, simply because my plan was always to move back to Scotland at some point and having London experience on my own CV helped open doors when I started to approach agencies back home. However, there's a lot of great Scottish agencies too, and moving down to London isn't for everyone, so don't feel that you have to. There are some fantastic agencies throughout the UK - Manchester,Leeds, Birmingham, Bristol or even worldwide so one of the great things is it's a job that can allow you to travel if that's something you're interested in too. Tom : It doesn't suit me to go to London in the short term. What's the Scottish scene like for marketing agencies? Hi Tom. It's certainly been difficult of late - the Advertising : recession has affected marketing agencies as much as any other industry, However, there is a great variety of agencies still doing very well in Scotland, Edinburgh in particular. Why not look at some of the recent industry awards results online - design awards, scottish advertising awards, etc - and see who's been winning what, for what clients? That will give you a good flavour of the type of agencies there are in Scotland and some of the huge and exciting brands they work for. Ryan : I'm not at all work-shy, but I hear you can work crazy hours in marketing agencies. Is that true? How mnay hours in your typical working week?

4 Hi Ryan. Yes - that can be true. It's not that Advertising : glamorous when you start and it's hard work. The best way to progress is through hard work, commitment and learning from the bottom up to prove you've got what it takes. I don't think there's a typical number of hours but it's certainly not 9-5. I would say that early and late evening finishes can be quite common and if there's a big presentation to work on or a pitch for a new client, that can include weekends too. Ryan : Thanks. I don't mind "from the bottom up" as that's the place to learn, but does that also mean really low pay to begin with? Realistically, yes it can do. When I graduated some Advertising : of my friends got jobs for big marketing departments - mobile phone companies, financial services, etc and they were making 5K more than me. But - you can quickly progress in agencies and earn more quite quickly and I would say that you can be on a par with client side companies fairly quickly. Each agency is different in terms of pay structure so it's hard to give an exact figure. Elise : I'm an English student, but I've done lots of promo work for a student society and the restaurant where I work part-time. What chance do you think I would stand of persuading a marketing agency to recruit me? Advertising : That's really great! It shows you've got the 'get up and go' to have ideas, sell things, communicate well with people. The key is to think about what these opportunities have given you in terms of skills - they are all transferable. Then you have a better chance of persuading an agency that you're the right type of person to work there, and will make a difference to their company. Often agencies will recruit based on personality and desire to do a great job. Many of the skills can be learned on the job, but it's difficult to teach someone to have the right attitude and personality. Try and get these qualities across in an application - maybe send in a short video

5 presentation with your CV for example. Elise : Thanks. I'll work on that. What kind of interview might I expect? Do they ask "off the wall" questions to test your creativity? Hi Elise. If you're interested in the account Advertising : management side of an agency, then we're most likely to want to understand what you're like as a person. We might want to know what your strengths/weaknesses are, how you handle difficult situations, how you'll fit in with a team and work with others, if you're good at problem solving, how you organise yourself and your work, etc. You might be asked about specific examples of these from Uni or just in your personal life. Sometimes in interviews you might get asked to make a short presentation or complete certain tasks that give the interviewer a better idea of different skills like communication/presentation skills, etc much like you'd do on your course. Elise : Richard, thanks for all these great tips. Would it help if I somehow managed to get even a week's unpaid work in an agency? Is that a case of "Dream on!" - or would an agency ever agree to such a proposal? No problem. That's definitely a great idea. Showing Advertising : that kind of proactive approach and dedication is exactly the attitude agencies are looking for. It allows you to make contacts, get to see if an agency is the sort of environment you'd like to work in and get some relevant experience to talk about at interviews and in applications. You might not always get a 'yes' but persevere (especially over the summer when there are always staff away on hols) and you might get lucky. kateburley77 In terms of working whilst searching for a job, do : you think the type of work ie. bar work/waitressing or office type employment matters whilst we are in the 'in between' stage? Hi Kate. No, that definitely doesn't hinder you at all. Again, just think about what type of skills the

6 Advertising : job gives you - it's bound to be transferable. Managing others, responsibility of running a shop, financial skills doing the books/cashing up - it can all be relevant. wrightone : is there any way I can make contacts in agencies while I am still at university? A good way is to see if you can get any work Advertising : experience during holidays. Another good way is to try and get along to any industry seminars, talks or trade fairs where agencies will be. Many of the these are free and you can find out about them at industry websites like Or why not try and identify agencies and contacts there that you could phone up and ask advice from? A 10 minute chat with different people, with a specific question on what they do, is a good way to speak to different contacts in different companies. Barbara : Richard, thanks for all your great answers to some really good questions. These will help not only those who signed in to-day, but everyone who reads the transcript.