BMB

I never did end up applying for this graduate scheme for the simple reason I had no idea what it was. I also have never heard of them before. I just think that it's only fair to know what you signing on for. According to their website they are an independent advertising and PR agency in London offering campaigns across a broad range of media. Good to know.

I downloaded the application form off the website thinking that all the information might be there, but it wasn't. I went to the Facebook group Advertising Applicants 2009 and posted under the BMB topic to find out if I was missing something. I thought that I just couldn't find the information, which would have been annoying.

No one else knew what was going on so I decided that I phone them up and ask them what was up. I just told them that I wanted to apply for the scheme and I was wondering where I might find some more information about. The man directed me to the website and told me there was a little link in the bottom left hand side. He said to click on it and it would download a form with information. I told him that I had done that but all it was the application. He then asked me what I wanted to know. I told him I wanted to know when it started, what I would be doing, those kind of important details.

The only information I could get was that they were looking for people who they could bring on for long term and that I should go ahead and apply and then if I was accepted I would find out all I needed to know. He wasn't rude, just not very forthcoming.

I decided to say screw it. I am very determined to become an account planner, but I am not going to waste my time on an agency that can't be bothered to provide some simple information.

Check out what Adgrad Blogger, Sam has to say about, it is pretty interesting.... enjoy.

AMVBBDO

On all the applications they ask you to put down your A Levels and GSCE scores. I went to school in the States so I don't have any of those things to fill in. Since the AMVBBDO application was a friendly word document and not a rigid online form I decided to include the courses that I studied at college in leu of A Levels and GCSE scores that I didn't have. Why did I do this? Well I took some amazing classes and I think the BS Visualization curriculum is pretty unique. Here are the classes that I took during four wonderful years at MCAD.

• Account Planning
  
• Advertising Account Management
  
• Advertising Design 1
• Biological Systems
• Colour Forecasting and Trends
  
• Creative & Critical Thinking
• Cultural Anthropology
• Cultural Institutions
• Design Context
• Experience Gestalt
  
• Flash Workshop
  
• Foundation 2-D
• Foundation 3-D
• Futures
• Graphic Design 1
• HTML
  
• Internships-7
• Introduction to Film
  
• Inventions and Progress
• Marketing Concepts & Analysis
• Mashing Up the Internet
• Persuasion & Negotiation
  
• Presentation & Debate
• Project Tracking
  
• Product Design
  
• Organizing Data Providing Information
  
• Reading for Ideas
• Screen Printing
  
• Senior Project
• Study Abroad Semester London
• Typography
• Understanding Contexts for Internet Communication
• Visual Thinking
• Visualizing Physics
  
• Visualization Studio

In the application form I did put this into a nice neat table instead of long list. I could throw some code in here..maybe later. I enjoyed this application, the questions were straightforward and fun to answer. I talked about the Museum of Childhood Advert. Media channels that I couldn't live with out Print, Radio, Internet. A photo of something that makes me feel happy would have to be from my Las Vegas Elvis impersonator wedding. The business question was a bit of a stumper. To be honest I am not in the market to open my own business. Should I have gone with my gut and said I would love to just work for myself braiding hair on the beach in Mexico? Anything else we should know about you was answered by telling them I was briefly in a tap dance troupe in Minneapolis. The usual.

An interesting fact is that my Advertising Account Management class was taught by Glen Sherling former Senior Vice President - Director of Client Services of BBDO Minneapolis. The class was split up into two parts the first was with Glenn and we would have class at BBDO. That was really cool. For the second half we worked with Shawn Judge on presentation skills. Shawn Judge is an amazing speaker and storyteller. We worked with her for six weeks learning how to speak and give presentations.

I remember giving a speech in that class that went over like a lead balloon. The point of the presentation was to teach the audience something. I had just got done reading Dale Carnegie's "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living" and was going to share his three step method for eliminating worry. We were also supposed to define what kind of audience we would ideally be presenting to. My audience was ideally an incoming freshman class.

I gave the speech in a very dramatic style, imagine an evangelical preacher on speed and that was what I was going for. I must point out that although we got to say who the ideal audience was, in reality we were giving the speech in front of five other students. Ultimately they were the audience, something I neglected to address. There was one guy in the class who was from Germany, who told me afterwards how much he hated my speech and that I should never do that again. I will admit that perhaps the theatrics didn't go over so well, it was like I said a group of five other students so I didn't really need the clip on microphone. Lessons learned, eh? I also decided to chalk up the fact the German foreign exchange student didn't like the speech because he had no cultural context for that style of speaking. To be fair he didn't really even know what salsa was.. I digress..

image credit-Pony/flickr

Sunday Night

It was a long week and it had its ups and downs. I was working on some more applications and I feel pretty good about it. You hear people giving the advice that you just need to be yourself and it's really true. I write all these essays and I could drive myself crazy worrying about whether or not I am giving these people what they want. At the end of the day if you just be yourself than you can't go wrong. 

I had two more rejections from jobs that I applied for. It always stings a bit, but I don't take it personally. The first reaction is usually disappointment, but you have to get over it. I am just so eager to go to work. I graduated back in May and it wasn't until I came back to London in October that I could legally work. To be fair I haven't even been back a month yet, but I just want to start my career so badly. It shouldn't be long now. 

I went to an open day at TBWA on Friday. I didn't book my space in time and decided just to show the day of. It was fine. Generally I would have no problem doing that in Minneapolis, but sometimes these things are pretty strict. If you aren't on the list then you aren't going in. It was a really good open day. I got there and people were just milling about in the reception area looking at the work and getting to know people. The first bit was set up so we could have a chat with people who worked there and ask questions. I had the opportunity to talk to a few people before I went up to the presentation. It was good presentation, the guy leading it did a really good job. I really felt for him it was a tough crowd. One guy in the audience was falling asleep and some people looked down right hostile.

 He talked about the agency and showed us some of the campaigns and explained their disruption philosophy. He then talked about what made a good account person and then opened it up to questions. One guy's hand immediately shot up in the air. He wanted to know what TBWA stood for. Can you believe that someone would ask that question? You show up to an open day at an advertising agency and you don't even bother to know what their name stands for? Or even if you didn't know why on earth would you ask that question? I felt so sorry for him, he looked so stupid. 

It was a good day and it was good for me to get out there and meet some people, size up the competition. I had a chat with one of the account guys who had applied for the graduate scheme and didn't make it. He ended up doing a work experience and got hired on that way. I have heard that doing work experience can be a very good way to get into an agency. I don't know how I feel about it. It makes perfect sense. I did a lot of work experience in the US, over four years I had 7 internships, plus all the class projects. I did over 50 information interviews. On one hand I just want to go to work, I don't want to do anymore internships. Of course I will do whatever it takes. I don't want to come across that I am above doing work experience, it's not that at all. I would think that all that experience would account for something.  

I just wish I had more people here to get advice from. I think I might just try emailing a few people that I know through Facebook and asking for some feedback. I also sent an email to a woman at MediaCom last week and hadn't heard anything back yet, I will contact her tomorrow. This week coming up there are a few more applications to have a crack at and I am going to have to come up with a new strategy. The good thing is I know what it is I want to do, I just have to find the right agency. 

Veer image