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

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.

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. 

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