There are many fundamentals when approaching the study of an entirely vocational subject through the eyes of academia, the first being ‘fundamental’ is now your favourite word use it as often as possible and in every essay you write.
Rule No.1 – Know Stuff
When beginning your advertising degree, whether it be solely creative, business driven or as mine was half advertising half marketing (whatever that meant) it is helpful to know a little about the basics first. As with our course it began extremely broad giving us an overview of marketing, advertising and PR in its most vast sense and throwing in a few scholarly extracts for good measure. However that’s not as important.
I have to admit as a complete media student before University, the whole marketing, 4p’s malarkey completely baffled me. I remember my first marketing assignment actually scraping 40 would you believe; but as a creature of repetition and with the help of living in a world surrounded by such an industry, I soon got the hang leading to a 70 in my marketing exam and a switch in me that can never be turned off.
Rule No.2 Love It
There’s no faking it, everyone who is in advertising is in for the long run. I like to think of it as a long term relationship; sometimes you fall out and it can be difficult to see the right solution, but your love is unconditional and consequently you will never be able to view the world in the same way once you’ve truly clicked (hence the switch reference earlier). You notice it’s face much more than ever before and that face never leaves far from your mind. Constantly thinking there’s a way to improve this relationship and be a better partner in this exchange often occurs and for me personally, I am always curious to find out what it does next. If you have not experienced at least one of these feelings then perhaps you haven’t fallen in love just yet but keep going it may just happen. Don’t force it though sometimes things aren’t just meant to be.
Rule No.3 Never Shut up
I have to admire those on my course who were always heard and always making themselves known, I have to say they are in a better position than I am in now. Employed and such. However for me I am a chatterbox in other ways; I know it’s fundamental (there you go again) to be heard and network but I find all that a bit fake. There’s a word this industry doesn’t hear enough – if you are a big faker you may get far go try you could be a good creative! Being inquisitive and always learning is how I like to make myself heard.
Being naturally social helps a LOT. I don’t know if you ever heard this but students drink a lot and Advertising students drink even more; it’s good practice for them in the real world you see? I remember a nice lunch we went on in Smiths of Smithsfields at Chancery Lane, London courtesy of Facebook and the best way to do business here is to ply poor placement students with wine then send them back to work for the afternoon. Interesting.
Do believe the famous old saying “work harder, play harder” it couldn’t be more true of any other industry or degree.
Rule No.4 Make Friends
As with the above rule this should come naturally to those destined for a life in advertising related jobs, network network network you know the saying “It’s not who you know, it’s..” hang on I mean it IS PRECISELY who you know. I must have applied to hundreds of positions for placement and the one I got was through University, through tutors being amazing and using their networks cheekily.
The tutors really are fountains of advice and knowledge here, they have lived the lives you are so eager to pursue so talk to them they are actually pretty interesting and love to help out baby advertisers anytime they can. Hopefully I wish to return to Uni to be one of those pretentious “I was a student just like you, now beg me for a job” type people to give a talk and feel like I have achieved a mini personal goal!
Rule No.5 Mr Motivator
BE MOTIVATED. As someone who this doesn’t come naturally too I have found ways to defeat my inner lazy and stay focused on the task in hand. Here are my top tips to stay motivated.
-Have many scheduled tea breaks with optional chocolate biscuits
-Walk around every 30 minutes (or when procrastination kicks in)
-Ban Facebook (or use as optional reward for so many words work)
-Listen to music (this works well for me but for others silence could work)
-Allow for mini daydreams about the elated feeling of handing the work in and/or the celebrations which follow
-Separate work from home (dedicated area of study e.g. library etc)
-Work with friends (this may sound contradictory, but my days and nights spent in w403 with some fellow course mates really spurred me on)
-Exercise (the only acceptable excuse for not working)
Those are the main ones which for me personally really helped with those feelings of “oh god I hate this, let me go home”. Hopefully they will help other fellow inner lazies to push on and get them 1st’s that I only dreamt of.
Rule No.6 Make a Plan Stan
When it comes to planning I am a bit over keen, sometimes my over organised ambitions are hindered by my inner lazy as mentioned above but I know for a fact that those who started early and really worked on there stuff rather than cranking it out last minute did better every time. Promise. This is a personal failure on my part and something I need to work on however give me something more interesting my inner lazy usually cooperates (honest!)
Rule No.7 There’s no advertising in team
Clearly this statement is total rubbish, advertising is built on teams people teaming up doing teamwork in different agencies also built in teams. Therefore it is inevitable that group work forms a huge part of your advertising degree (assuming it’s as good as mine!) and during this you will learn a lot about yourself, other people and what a good team needs, especially regarding advertising.
The main lessons learnt through succeeding and failing throughout group work on this course are as follows;
-Know your strengths and weaknesses
This can help you immensely with deciding on roles and can probably only be discovered through trial and error, it is a process which everyone on this degree will go through. Some realising they are made for copywriting others planning it’s just a matter of putting your natural flair to what fits best in industry.
-Choose the best people for your group, not just your friends
You may get along just fine but get put into a group situation and you are suddenly dependant on each other for a good mark and ultimately your degree education, not mentioning the skills you need for industry. So CHOOSE CAREFULLY I know first hand what this can do to friendships if you rely too much on the friendship bit and not the work bit it can be really quite devastating.
-Don’t underestimate time needed for group projects
The most time spent working (and not sleeping) and group projects only means the better you all understand it and consequently a better result is obtained. My house mate and her group probably spent a good 12 hours a day everyday for a couple of weeks leading up to their pitch, she was physically exhausted (another perk of advertising) but they got a mark of around 80 so it was all worth it in the end.
Rule No.8 Be Optimistic
It may have sounded all gruelling and a bit down in the dumps so far but trust me there’s a reason that this industry is still so sought after and apart from the long term relationship commitment, the true enjoyment of seeing a whole pitch come together and go well is so accomplishing. Even better I have heard when the agency wins it! There are long hard hours but they are fun also and the perks and playtime easily equates it I am talking now about the degree and also in real life. Optimism comes naturally to me but to others just hang in there you’ll see it was worth it eventually.
Rule No.9 Breathe Advertising
Knowing campaigns, political opinions and points of view about advertising can express a true interest to an interviewer; reading journals and endless text books is all part of the syllabus but any extra you add to that are all really good to talk about in interview situations. They love hearing about what you read in marketing week or what you have seen in the trade press about their agency and “ooo isn’t it doing well” chances are if they are hiring you then yes they are doing well so research it.
Knowing things about anything relevant that they don’t which you can really talk about is a big thumbs up and it proves to them you have that long term relationship with advertising and they will employ on the basis of that.
Rule No.10 Be You-nique
Stand out. So cliche but so true, there’s so many grads applying you want to be there with them but also to be the one better than all of them. I have heard of applications and CVs being delivered on cakes, obviously that was for some fancy creative job but just don’t let them forget you.
Also hope you noticed the pun but I severely believe you don’t need to be fake, often you’re hired because the interviewer likes you and that’s all down to you. Be different but don’t be something you ain’t lover!
