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Is Advertising Still Attractive to College Graduates?
Staying Close to Campus Can Keep Industry Brand Alive and Well
Marc Brownstein |
If the executives are correct, imagine what recruiting talent will be like.
My perspective, however, differs from theirs. It's been my experience that 18- to 22-year-olds really do still have a passion for this business. In fact, I've been inundated with requests from friends, clients, friends-of-friends and old acquaintances (who remembered what I do for a living) for internships, job-shadowing and job interviews. I even have people reaching out to me on LinkedIn and Pulse, seeking entry-level employment or just an internship. And my teenage daughter tells me that her friends spend "hours on the Brownstein Group website." Hours? I didn't think that was possible!
But you get the point. Despite what some markets are experiencing, there is still demand for jobs as digital designers, public-relations account executives, copywriters and brand planners.
The disparity between what those CEOs are experiencing and what I am may be a reflection of the markets in which our agencies operate. Our shop is in Philly and Seattle, and those cities are still managing to grow in this slow economy. So agencies remain attractive as career options. Philly, specifically, never took off in the dot-com boom, and therefore, never laid off a generation of young people when the digital dam broke. In some markets, like New York and San Francisco, many young people who received pink slips never returned to our industry.
In addition here are three things we do consistently to connect with college students:
- Speak on campus. We make it a point to visit colleges several times a year to speak on a variety of topics. It's our way of giving back, while recruiting. Each year, I teach an MBA and undergraduate class at Wharton. Our creative director recently gave the keynote commencement speech at Rowan University, which has an excellent marketing program. And I accompanied one of our younger account executives back to her alma mater, St. Joseph's University, for a talk to a marketing class.
- Host an open house. It's tough to interview every worthy entry-level job applicant, so twice a year we host an open house for all those who send us resumes. Our managers lead the event with an interactive presentation of our agency, followed by a Q&A. Students and recent grads love it.
- Connect to a career-placement office. We establish close relationships with colleges that have strong marketing curriculums, so that we stay top-of-mind with career counselors, professors and students alike.
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We work exclusively with agencies to increase their digital marketing prowess and profits, and while most of our time is spent helping agencies figure out how to monetize interactive tactics, using those same tactics for recruiting is extremely important too.
Jason Baer
www.convinceandconvert.com
One of the most important things we can ask from the real world, advertising industry is to help educational institutions determine how to make graduates think smarter than the industry people currently running the show. All though there is a lot that needs to be learned, retained and passed on; one of the worst things we can do to cause a linear progression of the advertising profession is have graduates think near exactly along the same lines as the present.
Jennifer Hallabough
http://adbridge.wordpress.com/
Most advertising and marketing curricula are woefully behind the times even by
today's out-dated industry standards. Few, if any attention is paid to new media innovation and the students whose books I review on a regular basis are firmly
stuck in the pun-filled, cliché-ridden style of the past century. That's at the university
level.
The assorted "Portfolio Schools" fair only a bit better. Strategic thinking is non-
existent. When a student is questioned about why they used a certain visual, more
than likely the answer is, "I thought it was way cool."
Personally, I think our industry is on the brink of another "brain drain" even worse than that of the past two decades
when seasoned advertising practitioners were jettisoned for younger, cheaper
replacements.
Advertising has lost its caché. We stand here at the edge of a
precipice with demanding client imperatives on one side and expectant
marketing accountability on the other.
Few agencies are rising to meet the challenge. So the best and the brightest are passing us by like the sunset industry we have allowed ourselves to become. An $800 billion global industry with no clear-cut
R&D capability. An $800 billion global industry with no clear-cut best-practices
methodology or authority. An $800 billion global industry with no clear-cut product
improvement strategy since the invention of television.
Why would the best
and brightest find this business compelling? After all, most recent college
grads think of themselves as being advertising immune. http://MadisonAveNew.com
but almost any student has an internet connection and a Facebook.
The younger generations believe they have fresh ideas but they also realize these ideas fall on deaf ears. So their solution is to move on to someone, something or a career that will engage with them.
www.multimediaalternatives.com Doug Sartain
Pat Caldeira
Unfortunately, it seems that the recent grads we hire were simply taught to process and repeat existing information rather than being challenged creatively to identify a "better" way or to develop innovative campaigns. There's a huge disconnect between how these recent grads portray themselves online and how they think about making new media tools work for their clients. I'd like to see that shift very soon - a great way to make our industries sexy and appealing once again.
Of course, I can't disagree with Mr. Webber there are a lot of curriculums that aren't teaching the future of advertising. I attend one of the top communications schools in the country at Syracuse and yes I've seen plenty of "inexperienced ideas" from fellow students. But we know that, and DUH! That's what internships are for. What better way to hone and teach the youth of the industry than to take them under ones wing and show them what they need to be?
Instead the only learning experience us students have is a pointless non-paid internship that doesn't involve any passion or exploration in the field whatsoever. No wonder you're afraid of a brain drain, the first experience our young, big-thinking and passionate minds have is being beaten down into the status quo. It's one thing to speak at a university, but once we're reeled in what else are you going to do?
I'm not asking for agencies to shift workload to a bunch of kids in college, but the advertising mantra seems to always center on inspiration, innovation and ingenuity and these ideals come from the passionate. You're absolutely right, the industry is changing and this internet savvy/advertising immune generation has what it takes to evolve it but you have to let the change happen inside the walls of your agency. Because let me tell you, we're busting our humps to get there, but if there isn't any faith in the new, we will either be beaten into the antiquated mold or we will take our passionate minds elsewhere.
Of course, I can't disagree with Mr. Webber there are a lot of curriculums that aren't teaching the future of advertising. I attend one of the top communications schools in the country at Syracuse and yes I've seen plenty of "inexperienced ideas" from fellow students. But we know that, and DUH! That's what internships are for. What better way to hone and teach the youth of the industry than to take them under ones wing and show them what it's like?
Instead the only learning experience us students have is a pointless non-paid internship that doesn't involve any passion or exploration in the field whatsoever. No wonder you're afraid of a brain drain, the first experience our young, big-thinking and passionate minds have is being beaten down into the status quo. It's one thing to speak at a university, but once we're reeled in what else are you going to do?
I'm not asking for agencies to shift workload to a bunch of kids in college, but the advertising mantra seems to always center on inspiration, innovation and ingenuity and these ideals come from the passionate. You're absolutely right, the industry is changing but you have to let the change happen inside the walls of your agency. Because let me tell you, we're busting our humps to get there, but if there isn't any faith in the new, we will either be beaten into the antiquated mold or we will take our passionate minds elsewhere.
I also agree with one of the posts that at the university level students aren't engaging in the most current technological/market trends. This could be due to the fact that their professors are years removed from the agency world and their preception is not current. I also think it depends on the university they attend.
Agencies need to facilitate ways to build the bridge between top excecutive and college recruits. I understand that these execuitives are extremely occupied, but perhaps time need to be taken from a group manger's or a more senior employee's schedule to attend college recruiting fairs to demonstrate the importance agencies see in college graduates. I also think that university curriculums should invole more special/guest lectures by people who curretnly work in the agency world to keep their curriculum relevant and current to today's strategic communication's world.
Advertising is in free-fall. Nothing you learn in class will have anything to do with what you encounter in the real world. It doesn't matter.
Nobody will hire you without a degree.
Use your time at school to build a network of really smart friends who feel as strongly as you do about marketing. They will be
invaluable once you get out.
University is not about what you can learn. It's all about what you can use. Computer time, lab time, reference libraries, mainframe time.
The infrastructure is in valuable. The next thing on your list should be the Alumni. They are the real gold mine. Make the keeper of the list your new best friend.
Track down every marketing major and MBA that graduated in the past ten years and make contact with them. That will be your employment network once you do your time.
Next work the intern office. You want to do as many internships as possible. Go for the largest companies you can find. Do your homework. Intern at agencies and Fortune
1000 companies. Use the same strategy at these companies you use at school. Work the facilities and resources and work the smart guys. Always be building your database.
If you don't have ten new names to add every day you're not doing your job.
Last but not least are the Professors and Instructors. Find out which ones are published
and which instructors work in the real world. If they don't do either, don't waste your time. Work every instructor or professor for at least Three professional referrals each
semester. That is all they will be good for.
There are 204 posts on http://MadisonAveNew.com. Wade through as many of them as you can. Start from the most recent and go back
in time. By the time you are done you will know everything I know. This will make you unstoppable and impress the hell out of your Professors.
It will also help you become a legend at every internship you encounter. BTW Economics and Marketing are both boring unless you really love
numbers. Better to go for your MBA with a minor in Psych. Good luck.
If this helps, pass it on. http://MadisonAveNew.com
I personally spend more than 3 hours a day to looking for job in advertising firm. I apply to almost every single agency in NYC areas and Boston; but I never get a phone call back from any one. I attended 3 difference advertising job fair and drop off 274 resumes, but no one call me back.
I do not think getting into advertising is depending on skill sets alone and it is also depend on who you know. I do not know anyone in mainstream advertising industry. Please help me to get an internship with an advertising agency this Fall, I am smart, outgoing, hardworking, faster learner and I can speak Chinese too.
Please just give a me chance to work in advertising agency as fall intern and I will proved myself that I will good fit for agency life. Please help my dream come true. If you want my resume please email me at Cheng613@yahoo.com
The fact is that it's not glamorous. Is glamor the great work we produce or the free stuff... When I first started the free dinners and endless drinks were mind blowing but the glamor only lasted a few months. Glamor for me is seeing the work out in the real world and the reaction people have.
Yes, it's fast paced and thrilling at times but for a generation of people who want more vacation time than salary will advertising be 'worth' the stress? I personally love my job but I read something today that clicked. Urgency is poison, it's acidic.
Working in a large agency it feels like everything is urgent. I once told an account person that all will be well and that it wasn't the end of the world, her response, "It is for me." To come to work with 50 emails looming and 15 projects to manage at one time is overwhelming. Are two weeks of vacation worth it?
I don't think we will lose good talent but I do think we will find people demanding more personal balance.
We can have our behind the scenes chats with the client telling them how best to work with us, but inevitably, it only last for so long before they are picking up the phone and saying we need it now. Urgency is poison and dismembers good morale. Who wants to sign up for that?
The "glamorous" life that is perceived by many students is being pursued more than you guys pusue us. Although they will soon find out that it's not all glitz and glamor, at least they can get a preview into the business
-Claudia Pesel
DDB Entertainment.
c.pesel@yahoo.com
About sexy.
whatever that means? I assume it means interesting, glamorous, and exciting, thus sexy. And yes, my career was certainly that. I specialized in food and beverage. I traveled throughout the U.S. meeting with large food corporation's Marketing and Sales personnel. I remember one day at Yoplait USA headquarters sitting at a table in their kitchen comparing Danon and Yoplait products and flavors and being paid for it. I remember being tutored in wine by Robert Mondavi because he accused me of not drinking. Which was true at the time -- I asked him how he knew, he said you want only clean labels and pristine bottles -- all you other ad guys want cases of wine.
I had incredible experiences with Pillsbury, at their test kitchens, doing photos shoots in General Mills test kitchens and photo studios and doing research in their company library. I had like experiences at ConAgra, Kraft, Land O'Lakes where I went to Cheese College. oo many to tell about here.
Yes, it was sexy and beyond believable, like out of a novel or Elvis' movie where he was an ad exec. It was like a movie where I was the star. At least they (clients) made me feel like one. I was producing results is the reason I walked on water for a while. One day my feet got wet.
I had two mentors who were senior Madison Avenue executives who told me amazing stories that were the definition of excitement and sexy. One of my mentors talked so much of Jeno Paulucci when he handled that account, that when I pitched him, I called him "jeno," and because I did, the VP of Sales and Marketing said calling him Jeno is why I lost the the pitch.
My experience was glamorous. So for me it isn't a stretch. I had fun, excited to go to work and having many clients, having a new challenge everyday. It was complete with the financial rewards as in millions. I have two ex-wives who will testify all he did and talked about was advertising. So it (advertising) must be better than family life life, because my heart was with my agency. That was the reason I was always there. If it isn't glamourous for you, you just might be with the wrong agency.
Just like the marketing communication materials and promotions you make, life is the same way -- it should be the best, and most creative. It was for me. My experiences were what I made them. My problem is I jumped the fence. To the consumer packaged goods manufacturing business, and it sucks. Work, work and more work, and no fun. What a grind and day to day battle. Everyday there is another fire to put out. Sometimes I feel like I live in Northern California, praying for rain. So I am an advocate for glamor in the ad biz -- make it so. I impressed my clients by growing their sales, volumes, and profits. They liked that, and treated me like royalty.