’80 percent of life is just showing up.’ – Woody Allen
When you are invited to an interview, 50% of the work is in showing up. On time. Dressed appropriately and well prepared.
Filed under: 1. Getting Started
May 10, 2010 • 9:21 pm 0
Applying for an agency job – Part 1
Here’s a typical advice for anybody applying for a job:
1. Research the company you’re applying for
2. Write a cover letter and resume to showcase your skills and talents
3. Send them to HR
However, applying for a job at an agency requires to do a whole lot more. The reason is simple. The agency’s business is about marketing, communication and branding. It’s about influencing people to buy products or services and turning them into advocates and fans.
When you’re applying for a job at an agency, you have to understand how an agency would evaluate you. You are essentially selling your brand and you’re trying to influence the hiring agency that you are worth being a fan off.
Doing what everybody tells you do – the cover letter, the resume, etc – will not get you very far. You can count on at least a few hundred people doing the exact same thing. In fact, almost 9 out of 10 applications we receive at BRANDTHINK almost follow a similar pattern. It almost felt that everybody bought the same book on applying for a job and use the template provided by the book.
To stand out from the crowd, you need to look at the whole application process like a marketing campaign – and advertising, direct marketing, social media and PR will be your tools.
Filed under: 1. Getting Started
May 7, 2010 • 1:08 pm 0
Action speaks louder than words
Finally, you’ve landed a job!
Everything went well in the interview. The agency was impressed with your past experience, your credentials and your background. But is that the end?
Those who are successful at agencies are quick to learn that the interview is just the first impression. The starting point that got you through the door. But how to stay there, survive and even thrive at agencies will depend less on what you have done in the past or what you say and more to what you do.
Because of this, you must always remember that it is not enough to want to do this and that, or talk about growing and improving or wax lyrical about “when I get promoted”. Action matters.
If you want to be the top dog, you need to act like the top dog. You need to get results. You need to prove your worth and get beyond the first impression and build lasting impressions.
Talk will get you only so far, and talk without the backing of action is just talk.
In the words of Master Yoda “It’s do, or do not.”
Filed under: 2. The First Years, 3. Going Up
May 5, 2010 • 1:27 am 0
If you want to succeed, do anything, everything
Once upon a time, we hired a young graphic designer to join the team. He had no experienced whatsoever in print graphic and was considered fresh in the advertising line.
The art director at the time gave our young hire pretty much everything that he didn’t want to do. All the seemingly lousy assignments, boring layouts and clients that were deemed “too difficult”. The art director chose only to do things that he wanted to do.
How did the young designer react? In most cases, anyone in his position would have resented it, build a negative attitude and simply complained how unfair the whole thing was.
Instead, he took upon every assignment gladly. Every assignment that came his way, no matter how big or small was seen as an opportunity to learn. Our designer created layouts. Build concepts. Made revisions after revisions. He took on difficult clients and learn how to adapt to them. He took boring work which turned out to be cash cows at the agency. Pretty soon, he has done enough variety of work that he began to grow in ability, knowledge and experience.
Our graphic designer soon became an art director.
Moral of the story is: if you’re just starting out, or even if you’ve already gained some experience, never be too arrogant to believe that you are not meant to do the dirty work. Only through the small and hard things can you learn and grow. Only through growth can you succeed.
Filed under: 2. The First Years
