Being able to help. TBWA

So I didn't get the account planning work experience at TBWA, but I knew that there might be a lot of other people interested so I posted the link that John Schnieder sent me on the Advertising Applicants 2009 FB page. That's the page where everyone was posting when they were applying for graduate schemes a few months back.

I posted up the link and a few people emailed me and asked for advice. It's always nice to be able to give advice and help other people. I miss that a lot, so I was more than happy to pass along what I learned to others.

A few people sent me emails asking me what the interview was like and what to expect and I wrote them back and stayed in touch. One girl was offered the work experience and that was great. I think it's really interesting how digital social networks are helping people all over the world. Someone from Minneapolis sends me a DM on Twitter about a work experience opportunity, then I post it up on FB and start to communicate with people I've never met before and then one of those people gets the job. It's a wonderful chain of events that wouldn't have been possible before all these social network groups.

Here's our email conversation.

Hi Rhea
Hope you are doing Ok with your account handling search! Getting into advertising is very difficult it seems.

I got an interview with Simon after a bit of pestering. It's coming up soon. Would you mind telling me what he asked you in the interview? Or if have any general pointers based on your experience with him?

Any help would be much appreciated :)

Cheers

From me

Congratulations on getting through to Simon. Pestering does pay off :)

When I met with him he asked me a bit about the things that I had on my CV. I am from America so he wanted to know what I was doing in London. It was an information chat. He was nice and it was easy to talk to him.

He then brought a guy called Toto Ellis. At that point in time Simon was looking for people to work on the Beko refrigerator account. Toto really drilled me. It was pretty rapid fire, question question question. He told me about the company and then immediately wanted to know what my ideas were for Beko. He also asked me to explain I thought planning was about. He asked me about my favorite campaigns of 2008 and what I liked about it.

My advice would be to know everything you can about their current campaigns. I didn't get the work experience, but I really don't want to be a planner. I want to get in the account side and they are just two different things. I am sure I didn't come across as the right kind of person for the job.

I went to an event put on by Blue Skies recruitment the other day. They did an all day workshop thing for students. I heard Graham Fink speak and that was amazing. I would say that if you want to be a planner you need to know about advertising and the history of it. During Graham's talk he kept naming people who worked on certain campaigns and asked us if we knew who art directed it. He was shocked when people didn't know who the current art director at Saatchi was. That kind of thing. You need to know the big players and what agencies hold what accounts.

and of course you've heard it a million times be keen.... although I am trying to work out how keen is "keen" :)

I think these people are looking for people who love advertising, and not just the latest campaign. People who understand how the industry works and how advertising evolved.

Know you're stuff. Know why you want to be a planner and make sure you have things to say that support it. You can't just say I love advertising and I think it's cool.

Let me know if you have anymore questions. I am more than happy to help and I hope you get it!
cheers
rhea

Another person who emailed me was kind enough to share a contact they had with me. They gave me the contact details for a recruiter that they had worked with before and liked. It's true, what goes around comes around. Share any information you have with people and you'll be amazed at what they'll share with you.

**poster by TBWA