This is an interview with Nigel Palmer, head of account management at Agency Republic focused on getting as much advice and information out of him as possible regarding what he thinks about grads, and how they can improve their chances of getting into the industry.
Read it, then check out Nigel's views on the digital industry in the digital section here.
What are the key things grads, or young people looking to get into the industry, need to be interested in?
They need to have an interest in business. Many graduate schemes focus on creativity, but I think creativity is a given for someone entering into a marketing/advertising agency.
You have to be creative but you are there to help businesses (i.e. your clients) become more successful.
If you find the business pages of the paper dull and can't imagine yourself reading the Financial Times then you are thinking about the wrong profession.
Creativity is a given - you need to be able to go further, to analyse the advertising you see or at the very least have a desire to analyse it.
What impresses you about grads coming in to the industry? What doesn't?
You have to be analytical, naturally curious and able to question the advertising that you see and experience.
The nightmare situation is when a grad is asked the inevitable question at interview "Which ads do you like at the moment? Why do you like them?" and cannot answer.
Being interested and prepared is crucial - prepare at least 3 campaigns you think are interesting, either because they are very good, very bad or just unique. Think of reasons for why they are good/bad. You have to have a point of view and also be able to argue that point of view.
Coming to interview with things you want to talk about is very important. Sometimes it helps to prepare with a mate - get them to name brands and you talk about any ads you have seen from them recently.
When analysing an ad, the crucial things are what does it say, what effect does that have, and who was it aimed at. That formula is the same whatever piece of communications you are looking at.
What frustrates you about grads?
When they come to our agency, a digital agency, completely unprepared to talk about digital. If the only websites they can tell me about are google and Ebay, you can pretty much forget it.
I want to talk to people who are passionate about digital, to have opinions about sites and to have thought about why a site has been designed in the way it has and how it could be improved.
The key is to have an opinion - the right or wrong of an argument doesn't much matter.
At a junior level you are more often than not presenting someone else's argument (i.e. your boss') anyway!
In terms of what I love to see in grads, it's the kind of thinking where they think about what they would do if they were Ask Jeeves going up against Google, or an auction site looking to take on Ebay.
As always I would really appreciate any comments or thoughts about what Nigel has said. If you have any questions for him, put them in a comment and I will endeavour to get them answered!
Cheers
Steve
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