How to Get a Job in Advertising Today

They came at me two at a time, then three and finally one lone bearded guy in a hat. Smiling young people striking up conversation with me as I strolled through the eating and drinking portion of The D Show recently. The first time, it seemed strange. By the end of the night, I could spot them coming. "You're an MSU ad student, aren't you?" Yep. Another one.

It was a brilliant move by some advertising professor at Michigan State. He packed up a bunch of senior ad students and took them all to The D Show in downtown Detroit. For those of you who don't know, The D Show is the annual local advertising creativity awards show. It used to be the CADDY show, once upon a time. Anyway, he told them it was a chance to see some good work and rub elbows with some of the people who might be hiring them soon. They all did a good job of just walking up and striking up a conversation. Inevitably it worked it's way around to, "what do you suggest we do to better our chances of getting and advertising job." In the course of my discussions with them, I came to some conclusions I hadn't really thought about before.

Use Social Media & Digital Channels. One of the hardest things as a young person looking for a job (or anyone really) is to get past the gatekeepers and talk to the person you actual want an interview with. But, just like brands who can use social media to let consumers get to know them before they're looking to buy, job seekers can get their prospective employers to know them before ever asking for an interview.

LinkedIn is a good source for finding out who works where. Once you've researched who are the people you should be talking to within the agency, see how many you can find on twitter. There is no permission needed to follow someone on twitter. unlike Facebook or LinkedIn. Once you're following them. Find comments they've made that you can say something intelligent about and comment back. Also, retweet some of their tweets. The trick is to do enough to get noticed and engage them and not become a stalker-like nuisance.

Also, you can comment on the agency blog or even personal blogs if you find them for the people you are seeking. Again the key is to have something to say and add to the conversations without being there all the time like some overeager cyber stalker. By spending some time and having some online conversations, you can eventually contact them looking for an interview – and they will know you rather than you just being another person on the slush pile. Better yet, once you've built a relationship ask if they will look at your resume or portfolio and give you some tips. Especially if you have a website or digital portfolio you can just sent them a link to.

Portfolios Aren't Just For Creatives Anymore. In talking to the students, I gave the creative types my usual spiel on how to put together their portfolio. But there were  a few students who were looking to get into the account planning/strategy side of the business. Creatives have always had the advantage of having a portfolio of work to show, while the strategy people just had to rely on their resume and interview skills. It occured to me that those who were looking to get in on the account side could absolutely put together a portfolio.

I told the strategists in the group to team up with a creative person. They could take a product or brand that they knew well and develop a strategy for them. They could then write up a whole strategy for what they should be doing, who they should be targeting, what key attributes they should feature, what media they should be using and so on. Then they could team up with a creative person and have them execute the strategy. This shows how you think strategically and also shows how you are able to work with creative people and make sure they execute the strategy – two important aspects of your future job. It's good for the creative part of the team as well – it gives them something to work on and shows how they can execute a strategy creatively.

It's been a few weeks now and only a couple of them have started following me on twitter and initiated conversations with me. None have commented on any of our blog posts. Maybe that will change after this post. Now if only students from my alma matter could start winning The D Show student awards instead of CCS hogging all the glory.

If you're searching for a job what has worked for you? If you're an old ad fart like me, what other advice would you have for our younger counterparts coming up through the ranks?

Mike McClure, Exec Creative Direct & Yaffe Social Media Guy (also @mikekmcclure on twitter)