Interviews

A few weeks ago I got a Twitter DM from a MN colleague, John Schneider giving me a heads up to a work experience opportunity at TBWA. I was really touched by that. I met John a few years back at a Marketing Conference. He was the first person that I gave my business card to and we've stayed in touch. He sent me this email and believe me he's a great creative thinker and a heck of a nice guy. Here's the email he sent me.

Hey Rhea,

It's absolutely no problem. I knew that you've been on the hunt via your updates on Twitter, and am always happy to pass on information that might be helpful to a contact of mine, we're all in this together after all. I hope the internship at TBWA turns out to be something that you want, and if so that you get it. As an MCAD grad you're too valuable to not be utilized by a good agency. Let me know if I can help in any other way and good luck.

Best regards,
John


I followed up with the link that he sent me and got in touch with Simon Law at TBWA and I had an interview the next day. Now, I don't and have never wanted to be an account planner. This was for planning experience, but I thought that it might be a way to get a foot in the door. One of the guys I had met with, Will, had nothing but wonderful things to say about him and knew him. Will is a planner at Lowe, who I met with before Christmas.

I was excited, it seemed like it might have been the chance I was looking for. I was also looking forward to meeting Simon and true to Will's word he was a nice guy. I spoke with him for a few minutes and then he brought in Toto Ellis to speak with me. I wasn't feeling very good about the interview at this point. It was hitting home that this wasn't a work experience that I even wanted and I am sure it showed, even though I tried to hide it. We had a chat about what I thought planning was about and my favorite ad campaigns at the moment. That was also a bad moment for me I totally blanked out, which is bad. I had done tons of research, but it all flew out the window. Not good during an interview. I left the interview feeling just, blah about the entire thing. I felt a bit bad that I had wasted their time, since I don't have any desire to be a planner.

I got the email the next day that they decided to go with someone else, a chap who was very keen. It makes sense, and it wasn't right for me. I am just trying to figure out what is right for me here and how to get a job doing it. I want to be an account manager so I should stick to that. Simon was kind enough to tell me that he was going to send my details to the Account Director, we shall see.

Every experience is bringing me closer to finding a job and this experience helped me to figure out what I don't want. I am happy for that. I also got to go back to TBWA, I really like that agency. It was inspiring.

I also had my first interview with a recruitment agency. I met with a woman from Blue Skies last week. I have zero experience using a recruitment agency so it was something new for me. I had attended an D & AD event and ended up chatting to a fellow who is a creative director at EHS Brann and his wife works for Blue Skies. There are a lot of recruitment agencies out here so it is always good to have a recommendation.

The interview went well. It's interesting seeing someone going through your CV and how they interpret your experiences. She said that there might be one role for me and I am waiting to hear back. Again I got the feedback that she wasn't quite sure how to market me. I am not your typical recent graduate. First off I am not 22 years old, I am 30. I have had significant internship experience where I was doing actual work. She told me that I am not at the very jr level, but at the same time I am not at an experienced level either. It's a bit frustrating. The position she was thinking of for me was a jr position, but with potential to move up quickly. That would be ok.

What I did take from it was that I definitely need to come up with a better strategy of what kind of job I want.

Saatchi Interview

I had my interview yesterday and I was very happy with how it turned out. I felt more excited about it than nervous, which was nice. I found out by letter last Thursday that I was invited for a first round interview. I heard that there were around 1000 people who applied and that they did a first pass of around 100. They then do a second interview with 25 and narrow that down to a lucky 5. 

I enjoyed getting ready for the interview and doing the research online. I found out there is so much that I don't know about Advertising as a business. There is a lot to learn, which is exciting. I went down to the London College of Communication career center on Monday to have a look through all their industry magazines. I thought it would be a good idea to bring something to the interview to make something that might help me to stand out and be remembered. I decided to make a little set of interview flash cards to help me remember my stuff. It turned out to be useful to help me remember what accounts they are working on and campaigns that I liked. I am glad that I did, I found it to be useful and fun.

The interview was yesterday at 3 p.m. I decided to get down there early at about 1 p.m. I wanted to first make sure that I could find the place since I wasn't able to fit in a dry run. I did get a bit lost so I am glad I left when I did. My plan was to find the place and then head to a Starbucks for a nice gingerbread latte and prepare. Luckily there was one right on the corner and I could see people coming and going from the office. I felt a bit like a spy. It helped to a get a sense of the place. There were also other graduates coming into the Starbucks holding their acceptance letters. I struck up a conversation with a guy called Nick who was on at 2 p.m. It was nice to have a chat and get to know who else is applying for the schemes. Nick was a nice guy. 

So after waiting a few hours and do my last bits of preparation I decided it was time to go in and wait in the lobby. There were four of us in total waiting. We all introduced ourselves and a chat. Who applied for what and had anyone heard back from any of the other schemes. Then it was time to begin. I was interviewed with another girl called Michele. Anna and Alex came up to us in the lobby, they were going to be interviewing and then we were whisked away. The interview was split up into two parts. For the first part I talked with Anna and she just asked me about why I was in London and what I liked about it. She asked some questions about some of the experience that I put down on my CV. It was a nice friendly chat and I liked her a lot. Then Alex came in to talk to me more about the role of an account manager. He was a bit more serious than Anna and I am not sure how well I came across to him. He asked me about my favorite ads of all time and ads that I didn't like. He was harder to read, but was it was all right.

Then they interviewed us together. We looked at print ads and basically they just wanted to hear our opinions. It was a bit daunting because you wanted to have your view, but yet you couldn't help wonder what they were thinking. After looking at the adverts we were then given some ads and had to pitch them to the other person. We had two minutes to look over the ads and then we had one minute to pitch. It wasn't too bad. I tried to make it as lively as possible. I wasn't sure what they were expecting and I have never pitched before, so we shall see. Overall I had fun and it was a cool experience. I should be hearing back within the next few days.