GenNext

How the Media Portrays Millennials

4 Stereotypes Gen Y May Encounter in the Job Market and Tips for Making the Best of Them

Posted by Adrienne Waldo on 11.11.09 @ 12:31 PM

Adrienne Waldo

There's been a lot of discussion about my generation, known as Gen Y or the Millennials, over the past several years. As we enter the workforce, we seem to have a polarizing effect and the conversation is sometimes tense. I think it's important for us to be aware of how we're portrayed by the media so we can highlight our positive qualities on the job and disprove the negative stereotypes. Below are some of the buzzwords used to describe Millennials and my suggestions on how to handle them.

Positive

Tap Into the World of Multicultural Marketing and Find New Opportunities

Attend Networking Events Narrower in Scope

Posted by Jeanette Guardiola on 11.05.09 @ 03:34 PM

Jeanette Guardiola

There are many of us looking for jobs out there, and naturally we are encouraged to exhaust our resources. One of those less obvious resources is tapping into the world of multicultural marketing. Being a minority increases your ability to identify with other markets, in addition to mainstream markets, and this ability can lead to opportunities. Pursuing the world of advertising in the multicultural sector can be beneficial because it opens up doors in directions that you may not have thought to look previously.

When I think of multicultural advertising and the people in it, the phrase "it's a small world" comes to mind. Everybody seems to know everybody else personally. By getting into this sector, you are increasing your odds of knowing more people specifically and making specific connections that may lead to other valuable connections.

Why might you want to consider this route? Because recruiters of some advertising companies will actually pay out of pocket for the chance (not even necessarily the guarantee) to get a talented minority professional to fulfill a position, and higher officials in major ad companies are charged with diversity initiatives to increase the presence of minorities in the workplace.

After having spoken to a senior recruiter at a major social-networking website, I came to realize that she was almost desperate to meet young professional minorities to potentially hire. I couldn't fathom how this could be, when I know that there are many of us out of work and looking. Perhaps the connections just aren't being made. It goes without saying that meeting people in the field, in person, at networking events and applying to a post on Craigslist just don't match up. Yet I hear people say, "I've applied to every job on Craigslist and have yet to get a response." Maybe Craigslist should be part of our arsenal of resources, but it certainly shouldn't be a main one, especially when you consider the volume of people who use this resource.

Still, in all, it is true that we just want to be revered for our abilities, not merely for being a minority. However, these opportunities exist and we need to be made aware of and take advantage of them. One of the best ways to do this is by attending networking events and meeting other people, aside from your friends, that is. The best networking events are those narrower in scope. I've been fortunate to meet a ton of brilliant people in the field who may prove to be valuable contacts. The ones I've attended include Adversity, Global Hue events, Black Creatives and She Says. There are more, but these are the ones that I found to be most fruitful.

It is important to make pertinent connections in the field in order to pave a way for you and your endeavors, and often that means stepping away from the computer and heading out to meet people at events that were made for us.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeanette Guardiola is currently employed as a freelance art director for a Hispanic ad agency in lower Manhattan. She is also a recent grad of the Fashion Institute of Technology where she received a B.F.A in advertising design and an A.A.S in communication design. Her professional experience ranges from working in creative departments at ad agencies such as Leo Burnett and Y&R to tutoring college students in Adobe CS3 and doing production design.

Use What You Know

Realize and Leverage Your Best Skills to Up Your Value

Posted by Carly Rullman on 11.02.09 @ 03:35 PM

Carly Rullman

A few weeks ago my co-workers noticed that I have more than 2,000 friends on Facebook. They were shocked, and even I was a little taken back when I realized that my "friend" number had really climbed over the years. My explanation is that, as it did for others my age, Facebook quickly became my social-media dashboard -- the way I kept up with my high school friends and the new friends I met in classes, clubs and social events. Facebook had become a part of my life.

Since Facebook's introduction, of course, Twitter, YouTube, Bloggerspot, others have followed. The how-to just comes naturally to my generation, and it is habit to use these platforms on a daily basis.

But what may seem so simple to us may not be for our agencies and clients, and our value-add as employees is how we can leverage skills, such as our knowledge of social-media platforms, in our jobs.

At my agency, one of our clients asked us to build a website to serve as the central hub for an annual design challenge. The challenge is aimed at designers with fewer than seven years of experience, so we figured the best way to promote participation and voting was through social media.

Here is where I came in:

Just because the website was built, it remained important to check in and make sure everything was running smoothly. I became the point person for the agency, treating it as if I am a user and reporting any user-unfriendly problems.

Next I helped the client set up a Twitter account just for the site. Everything from giving them a user name to suggesting people to "follow" to finding people, I am their girl. I also regularly tweet from my own name about the current and upcoming contests. I also gave the client a list of 25 Twitter accounts relative to the site (designers, for example.) This way, they can follow them and tweet them as needed.

The least I could do is post as my status on Facebook that there is a great site out there available to young designers. It has been great to see the responses from friends who took time to check it out.

I was also able to identify more than 20 design blogs to share with the client and to become familiar with. With these, I can share information about the client's design site with other readers. Finally, I offered up a drafted e-mail blast to a particular audience for the client. In this case, I thought targeting interior-design chapter presidents would make the most sense.

All these things are so familiar to our generation, but I promise they can be used for great client service. So what's my message? Use what you know. Identify the skills that already come naturally to you—like, in my case, social networking, but it could be presentation skills, idea generation, organizational ability, industry knowledge—and figure out how you can best leverage them for your agency or for your client. That's how you make yourself indispensable.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Carly Rullman is a recent graduate from the University of Alabama. She majored in public relations and Spanish and served on the award-winning Advertising Team, as well as the forensics speech team. She worked as an account executive selling advertising space and marketing for UAB athletics before becoming an account coordinator at Scout Branding in Birmingham, Ala.

How to Get Others to Go to Bat for Your Personal Brand

Posted by Ioana Filip on 10.26.09 @ 03:49 PM

Ioana Filip

Your personal brand should be managed as any other brand -- by increasing your perceived value to your targeted employer and thereby growing your own brand equity. Proper brand management will increase your market value or may get you into the right agency. Personal brands don't benefit from brand parity, so you need to manage yours exceptionally.

Will the Transparency of Our Lives Damn Us or Legitimize Us?

Posted by Alex Kniess on 10.23.09 @ 10:43 AM

Alex Kniess

I'm all for living my life transparently. I think that by broadcasting what interests me, what I do and whom I talk to, I create a system of checks and balances. I hear a lot of tips for how to manage your online presence, limit what you broadcast and control who sees what. But honestly, I don't do many things that I would be embarrassed to show anyone. Maybe if more people felt the same way, then there would be fewer actions to hide and it may force people to do more that they're proud of.

Or maybe it will send society spinning out of control. I suppose that I was fortunate that my slow ascension into adulthood mirrored the slow growth of my online presence. I was one of the first people I knew that created websites and started blogging. But I was lucky that I wasn't easily able to do this until I was at an age where I realized to some degree what was appropriate and what was not. One of my friends was expelled in middle school for his website, so I learned quickly the do's and don'ts of broadcasting myself online.

But I feel sorry for everyone entering the workforce who is younger than myself. If I had been able to tweet and stalk people on Facebook in middle school, I'm not sure anyone would want to hire me. I would have left a digital trail wrought with misguided views, ill-informed statements and failed romantic relationships. I'm sure anyone else who has ever grown up would have done the same.

So now that hiring managers are Googling as part of the screening process and everyone's life glows hot under the focused lens of their magnifying glass, what are the ramifications? Personally, I'd love to make hiring decisions based on talent, experience, and ambition as well as personality. After all, I have to work with these people. However, there should be a statute of limitations or something. Maybe some slack can be given when stumbling across college op-eds or forgotten middle school MySpace accounts. But when the middle schooler with Twitter starts his career in the next 10 years, will he even be able to get past the first Googled-search screen? Will our broadcast lives legitimize us as genuine fun-to-work-with people or will they damn us to lifetime unemployment?

As long as you can do your job and you don't piss off your coworkers, does anyone really care? Think of how lame your grandparents' stories would be if they couldn't embellish them with years of glossed-over details and had to instead point you to ancient status updates and blog posts.

We are the lucky generation: Young enough to embrace it all, yet old enough to know where the line should be drawn and how to leverage our broadcast lives for career success. I wonder how those who follow me will fair. I wonder if I'd hire any of them.

Why I Think Zach Canfield's the Zen Master of Advertising Recruiting

I Asked Him Everything I Ever Wanted to Know About Job Searches

Posted by Adrienne Waldo on 10.21.09 @ 11:37 AM

Adrienne Waldo

It didn't take me long after meeting Zach Canfield to realize he's the Zen Master of advertising recruiting. As talent director at Goodby Silverstein, it's his mission to bring the most talented people in the industry to his firm and he takes it very seriously. After an hour or so of picking his brain for my own personal benefit, I knew I had to share his wisdom with the world. So I had the "brilliant" idea to interview him—which, come to find out, Ad Age already did this past summer.

You should read the June interview, in which Zach discusses hiring during the recession and how he goes about recruiting top talent. Then read my interview below, where I asked him some of the questions I always wanted to know during my first job search, but didn't know who to ask. If there's anyone you should take advice from, it's this guy.

What are the most important qualities you look for in an entry-level hire?

The most important qualities I'm looking for are passion and intelligence. Junior talent is incredibly important for shaping the culture and future of this building. While junior people might not have a lot of advertising experience, they bring a fresh perspective and new untainted energy into the building, which is critical for keeping us on our toes. They raise my game and that of all the veteran employees. I selfishly want to be surrounded by the smartest, most passionate people I can find.

In college, we hear a lot (and I mean a lot) about personal branding. How important do you think personal branding is in landing a job?

Honestly, it all comes down to the work for me. I've seen a lot of people who have good personal branding, but their work is painful to look at. Or even worse, their work is okay and the personal branding is way over the top.

I've also seen a lot of people who had amazing work, and they barely know what the word branding means. I'd rather hire that kid. My suggestion would be to focus on the work and have fun with it. If you want to do personal branding because it sounds fun to you, go ahead. But don't because you think you should.

We've all heard the horror stories about people not getting jobs because of inappropriate content they've posted on the internet. Do you Facebook-stalk people before you hire them? If so, what would you have to see—how bad would it have to be—for you to not hire someone because of their Facebook page or Twitter feed?

I do a lot of digging around for people on the internet, but I rarely ever check out people's personal Facebook or MySpace pages. That feels weird to me. But I have introduced myself to people over Facebook or even Instant Messenger if I can't find any other way to contact them. Recently I was looking on a debate forum trying to find some smart junior account management candidates. The forum was for the national debate circuit and most of the people who used it were pretty high-level, nationally ranked debaters. I had been talking with a candidate who I'd recently found and decided to see if I could find him in that forum. I ended up finding all sorts of incredibly shocking and alarming posts by this guy. I was so glad I ran into that site because it saved me a huge headache down the road.

Along those lines, are you more likely to hire someone if they have a strong social-media presence? Do you expect applicants to have a LinkedIn profile, blog, website or online portfolio?

I don't expect candidates to have anything, really. But I will say it's a little weird if you call yourself an interactive art director and you don't have a web page. A strong social-media presence definitely won't hurt—as long as it's not you being a prick in forums.

The most difficult part of finding a job is getting in the door. What makes an application stick out among the countless resumes that go across your desk every day?

I don't think the hardest part is getting in the door. The hardest part is doing great work. That's what we're in the business of doing, so that's what I want to see. If you're a junior copywriter, make sure every word in your cover letter is perfect and you love what you've written. Send me samples of things you've done that you're proud of. If you're a designer or art director, make sure your resume is buttoned up visually. Show me you're good and artistic.

It's cliché to say, but it really is all about the work. I look at dozens of portfolios a day. I look at every single thing sent to me. And ultimately it comes down to the work. Wrap it in a golden foil and have 40 virgins hand-deliver it, or just fold it into a paper airplane and fly it through my window onto my desk: Good work is good work.

Love Advertising? Join the Club

Five Reasons Why College Students Should Consider Joining an Advertising Club

Posted by Adrienne Waldo on 09.28.09 @ 01:28 PM

Adrienne Waldo

I recently got an e-mail from the secretary of my alma mater's advertising club about a campaign they're working on to recruit new members. The plan is to have alumni come speak about the opportunities the club exposed us to and how the skills we learned in the club translated to a career in the field.

As I started brainstorming my talking points, I realized I wasn't just making it up -- the club really was one of the most beneficial things I did in college. I think any college student who's serious about a career in advertising should consider joining or starting an advertising club, in fact. Here's why:

1. You get to be around other people who love marketing as much as you do. A lot of advertising and marketing majors don't really know if this is what they want to do for a living. In fact, a lot of them will decide that we're all insane and they'd rather not. It is so energizing to be in a room full of people who are passionate about marketing.

2. It's the closest thing you'll get to real-world experience inside the four walls of a school. The best thing you can do to prepare for your career is to get an internship or a part-time job in the industry. The next best thing is an advertising club. You're on a team that's working with a real client to create real campaigns. You face a lot of the same challenges you face in a job -- deadlines, teamwork, competition, coordination, organization. It's not always fun, but it's worth it when you see the finished product.

3. The people in your club will be contacts for life. I keep in touch with a lot of people from my group, and they are all doing amazing things. And your group members aren't the only great contacts you make -- my club's adviser was a reference for me when I graduated, and I've since given her students first dibs at various internships and part-time job opportunities.

4. You can use the work in your portfolio. Whatever your club does, whether it be community work, the AAF competition, or even just ads promoting the club around the school, you're creating real work that produces real results. Save everything for your portfolio and make sure to keep track of the outcomes. If you can go into an interview and say "I was on the team that created this campaign for the ad club and we saw a 30% increase in new recruits," you're that much closer to a job offer.

5. You'll get unique opportunities you might otherwise miss out on. Instead of just attending campus seminars, you'll be planning them and greeting the guest speakers. Instead of reading about local advertising events after the fact, you'll be recruited to work them. If you wind up creating ads for the local community or doing the AAF competition, you'll have your work in front of important industry decision-makers before you've even graduated college.

Like anything else, you'll get as much out of a club as you put in. Showing up at meetings once in a while so you can put it on your resume as an "activity" you were involved in probably won't do much. If you really want to benefit from it, get involved. Go to meetings, get creative, speak up, plan events, and I think you'll find it was a very rewarding experience.

Hispanic Creatives Just Want to Be Revered for Creative Ability

It's a Sensitive Topic Discussed in Cubicles

Posted by Jeanette Guardiola on 09.22.09 @ 10:20 AM

Jeanette Guardiola

A good idea is a good idea, is it not? So does this mean a good idea in English is also a good idea in Spanish? And what about Spanglish?

As a creative and second-generation American, I have had the unique advantage of having a personal connection with the Hispanic market. I represent a group of people less visible in the media but ever present in the streets of New York and other U.S cities. The subject of this post is a sensitive one and a topic that I have heard people discuss in their cubicles, but not outside of them.

Marketing to American Latinos is more than merely translating an ad and adding a more Latino-looking figure. It begins with the understanding that Latinos are multilateral and can be spoken to in English, Spanish or Spanglish. I saw many examples of this in the time that I spent working as a creative in a Hispanic advertising agency in New York. There I met Asians, redheads, Venezuelans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans and more who joined together and spoke an amalgamated language of different accents, all with the same fervor and passion for the industry.

The fervor that these people have displayed for their work has also in a sense trapped them. I know firsthand that there is this concern among creatives that they will be pigeonholed into Hispanic advertising if they dabble in it long enough. More than one creative director has "warned" me of this.

I recently spoke with a creative director who is a self-proclaimed "creative who also happens to be Hispanic." He emphasized this only to prove the point that a creative is a creative, and should be admired or respected based on his or her talent, and not just on their ability to cross cultural platforms. To him, the distinction between a creative and a Hispanic creative was laughable. I share this view with him, as I think many a Hispanic creative would. It is easy to get pushed one way or another, when really you just want to be revered for your creative ability.

Still being in the early stages of my career, I am left wondering whether or not pursuing the world of Hispanic marketing would be a death sentence to my career, if I did, in fact, want to advertise to the general market again.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeanette Guardiola is a freelance art director for a Hispanic ad agency in lower Manhattan. She is also a recent grad of the Fashion Institute of Technology, where she received a B.F.A in advertising design and an A.A.S in communication design. Her professional experience ranges from working in creative departments at ad agencies such as Leo Burnett and Y&R to tutoring college students in Adobe CS3 and doing production design. She has a penchant for multicultural marketing and is a supporter of web-infused advertising.

Independent Creatives, Find Your Better Half

There Are Good Resources Available for Hooking Up

Posted by Ioana Filip on 09.18.09 @ 01:57 PM

Ioana Filip

Creative teams are like relationships – some are based on friendship, some on respect and some on pure interest. It takes hard work to make the team work, and every once in a while, one or the other has to give up her own beliefs and follow the other's lead.

Some months ago I wanted to team up with an international art director with whom I could exchange cultural experiences and do some extra work for the portfolio. So I set out to find my creative half.

When it comes to finding a creative partner, the chemistry is crucial—whether you are looking for an art director to collaborate on a shared portfolio after you just finished school or a copywriter to replace the one who just resigned. So where do you start looking?

If you just finished a creative school it's probably a good idea to look to your school's alumni. People who have finished at the same time with you probably have the same interests, plus you've already met during school years.

Of course your first resort when you look for someone new might be LinkedIn. At least this was for me. I started discussion topics about my search for an art director on schools' alumni groups, advertising groups and wherever else I thought I could find the right one. But when you're looking for a creative partner, be sure to be picky.

Up until recently there were no real niche professional networks for creative people. There was no one place where creative people could virtually meet, talk and exchange portfolios. Finally, some have realized that portfolio websites are no more than complex databases, and creative people actually need a real social network where they can meet, get to know each other and team up when the time is right.

After a few months I found about FindYourYang a website powered by Ursa that supports independent creatives in Australia. I thought that the idea of offering creative people from one country a platform where they can get together and share thoughts and portfolios, for the sake of teaming up, is great. It's a new step in social networking that others have delayed doing, it's low budget and highly effective. The idea should be expanded for all continents and localized to each country.

I immediately joined the network considering some creative people may actually consider relocation. After all, the more people you know, the greater your chances of finding the right one.

Recently though, YoungGuns International has also developed a social-networking section where creatives from all over the world can share their portfolios and make new connections. So if you are looking for your creative half maybe you should start from there. Most of the people joining the network are interested in the competition, and whoever is a YoungGun is probably worth giving a chance to. You can look for them based on location; you can share interests and exchange portfolios.

If you are a creative single looking for a better half, don't give up. Everybody's got one.

Agency Executives Need to Get Out on Motorcycles More Often

Why I Hope to Find Greater Work-Life Balance in the Industry

Posted by Alex Kniess on 09.09.09 @ 12:57 PM

Alex Kniess

A few weeks ago, I returned from one of the greatest adventures of my life. With a friend who couldn't care less about advertising, I set out on a motorcycle that I barely knew how to ride for one exciting month. What I found were answers to questions I didn't know I had, a deeper understanding of myself and what I want, and some new critical thoughts on advertising.

First of all, before everyone else says it, I know that I was and still am unbelievably fortunate to be able to take that month to travel. I paid my dues to get there, but there are others who have paid far more for far less. But beyond the obvious limitations of finances and time, the biggest obstacle for others is neither of these things. Instead, I think that what stops most people from dropping everything and taking a break are the internal struggles associated with stepping off the career ladder.

I'm admittedly very inexperienced when it comes to working within the industry. However, I have seen enough to know already that the majority of advertising pros suffer from the worst work-life balance possible. In a competitive marketplace, the hardest workers get the best rewards. I get that. I also get -- and even agree -- that it should always be about the work. But when do you trade the pleasures of family, friends and life for the constant race toward selling products? Why can't you work your ass off and still have time to tuck the kids in at night?

There is life, and there is work. A month on a motorcycle enabled me to live the former to its fullest. But it also left me questioning whether agency cultures are sustainable, and it left me wondering just where the hell are all the old advertising pros?

The best agencies can be the best and still offer careers with balance. I don't think that when you get older you are any less adept at the essential skills that once made you a star copywriter or planner. I just think that you get burned out and realize that there is more to life than selling consumer products. It's time for agencies to create cultures that cultivate the balance. Because isn't it the experiences outside the agency that inform the magic that happens within?