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Q: What is your job description?
A: Account Coordinator at an ad agency that specializes in travel tourism and entertainment. I am an entry-level member of the account service team, whose primary job is to coordinate with the media, creative, and interactive teams to manage clients’ advertising needs.
Q: How did you choose advertising as your occupation?
A: After seeing a student-developed advertising plan presented in an intro Marketing class, I knew advertising was for me. After working as an Advertising Representative at my school paper my junior and senior year in college, I felt I had a flair for working with clients — so I was on the track to account service from there.
Q: What does it take to be successful in this field?
A: Personality — you need to be able to laugh, entertain, and bond with the client on some level. Flexibility — things are always changing: what the client wants, the way media works, it could be anything. Roll with the punches. Detail-oriented — this is probably the most crucial for an entry-level person. In school, you learn so much about how to deal with the big problems, but in the real world you have to start out small.
Q: What is your dream job?
A: I’d love to do research, write and maybe teach in communications research. I’m very interested in the spending economy we’ve evolved into post-WW2.
Q: What real world experience did you get during school?
A: Working part-time at a couple of jobs. I didn’t think baking biscuits at a fast-food chain or working in a pharmacy would really benefit me except for a little money in my pocket. But, I learned how to manage my time, work with people much different than myself, and appreciate the skills I was given.
Q: What advice can you offer to students?
A: Be confident in yourself. You can pretty much go anywhere and do anything if you set your mind to it. See yourself succeeding. Make the most of every opportunity — even if it doesn’t seem like it is in your plans, don’t give up on it.
Q: Is it less competitive to receive a job with an advertising agency, or to open your own agency?
A: Well if you ultimately want to open an agency, I would suggest you start by working at an agency. You’ll need to learn several crucial points such as how an agency runs, how relationships with clients are managed, the manner in which new clients are prospected, the way media is coordinated, etc. You’ll also need to establish a track record of success and make important industry contacts.
Getting into an agency can be competitive but launching an agency and competing with other agencies that have well-established employees and clients will be difficult if you’re fresh out of college. Opening your own agency is a great goal and you should go for it but you’ll want to use an established agency to gain experience and make a name for yourself.
Q: Seeing that advertising is a very competitive job field to be looking into, do you think it wise to receive a Master’s degree in advertising/communications/marketing after you have received your Bachelor’s degree?
A: I completed by master’s in advertising following undergrad and I’m happy I went for it. However, it’s not a requirement and you will likely start in an entry-level position, similar to one that you would take after completing your bachelor’s.
If you have aspirations to work up to a major position in marketing (such as a brand manager), it’s helpful to have a master’s degree (especially an MBA). Or if you’re considering pursuing a career on the academic side of advertising, it’s beneficial to pursue your master’s to give you a taste of the field. After working for some time, I plan to ultimately get my doctorate in advertising and teach/conduct research at the university level.
My master’s program gave me a good preview of what life will be like in academia. My two pieces of advice: 1) If you’re considering doing your master’s, go straight into it after undergrad (the longer you wait, the harder it is to go back). 2) If you plan to work in the industry (rather than go the academic route), find a program that focuses on the practical side of advertising (as opposed to the theoretical aspects).
Q: What are some entry-level advertising jobs, and what are the different sides of advertising one can choose to be in?
A: There can be some variance between agencies but these are the main departments:
- Account management: the points of contact between the client and the agency — ‘they interact with the client to determine their goals, devise a strategy, keep them posted on the progress of the agency’s work, etc. They also are the ones that coordinate and ensure that the different elements of the campaign are coming together.
- Creative: the people who actually create the ads, whether it’s writing the copy or actually designing the visual elements.
- Media: they plan where ads will be placed (i.e. in which media, at what time) and they negotiate the purchasing of the space.
- Account planning: This area is still fairly new so it’s not clearly defined but essentially, account planners are in charge of making sure that the consumers’ perspectives, needs, and wants are kept in mind throughout the campaign’s creation.
- Research: researchers help measure consumers’ beliefs and motivations as well as like/dislike of an ad. They also study the success of an ad campaign, consumers’ perspective of the brand in relation to other brands, consumers’ behavior, etc.
There are typically entry level positions in all of these departments except account planning (account planners have usually worked in the business for some time and then transition into an account planning role).
Q: Is it more competitive to receive a job at an advertising agency or at an in-house agency at a major corporation?
A: In general, ad agencies will have more entry-level positions available than an in-house department at a corporation. Job opportunities at a corporation will depend on the size of the in-house department. Some in-house departments tend to be on the smaller size and therefore they try to staff it with people who have experience.
Some people will use an agency to gain experience and then venture over to working on the client side. When first starting out, you can look for positions at both but you’ll probably have the best luck with an ad agency.
Q: Is an advertiser’s portfolio or education more important in their career?
A: It depends on the type of position that you want. If you’re looking to work on the creative end, your portfolio will be key. They’ll be interested to see where you received your training (and some schools are more reputable than others), but your work will be more important. For all other positions, while they’ll be interested in your university and the degree you pursued, they won’t be make-or-break you factors.
Many agencies are most interested in experience and a demonstrated track record of success — did you intern? What did you achieve through your internships? What did you do in school that you’re particularly proud of? What you really need to prove is that you have a genuine interest in advertising and you’re able to handle its various demands. And don’t apologize, it’s great that you’re interested and asking valuable questions!
Q: Was your college course load difficult?
A: In my program, two courses that some students found challenging were quantitative research methods and audience analysis (which were both statistically based–a lot of students weren’t prepared to encounter math in advertising). Some other courses that were deemed somewhat challenging were largely theoretically based–i.e. the social/cultural context of advertising, persuasion consumer response, consumer communications and the public.
Overall, I wouldn’t necessarily classify most courses as “hard” but “time consuming” is probably a more appropriate term. I think most students were surprised at how much reading and paper writing was required. The concepts aren’t hard to grasp as long as you put active effort into learning them…if you don’t do your readings or pay attention in lecture, it’s easy to fall behind and at that point the material might become hard (as you’re trying to learn so much at once to prepare for an exam or write a paper).
As far as calligraphy, you probably won’t find much of a demand for artists specializing solely in calligraphy (as there isn’t a huge need for it). However, any artistic talent can carry you a long way. If you’re good at calligraphy, I’m sure your creativity and talent will transfer to other areas of art–test them out and consider a career as an art director if you’re interested in advertising.
Q: How would one become an advertising sales director?
A: To be successful in sales, you need a strong business acumen. I would suggest majoring in marketing in college (an advertising curriculum is more focused on just promotional aspects whereas a marketing curriculum provides you with a broader business background). And with sales, practice makes perfect. Get as much real-world experience as possible. Any sort of publication or media outlet will have an ad sales team.
In college, check out job opportunities at the local newspaper or television and radio stations. Communication (and simply being able to talk with people) is key. Do whatever it takes to strengthen your communication skills–take courses in speech communication, talk to random people, etc.
