Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Advertising as a career??
Options
-
09-07-2011 10:31pm#1Hi, can anyone tell me what a career in advertising would be like? All I've seen is glimpses of it from The Apprentice and it seems from that to be something that I'd actually enjoy, or at least consider doing as a career.. which is silly because I know nothing about it!
So basically, any insight appreciated!
Tagged:0
Comments
-
-
Yeah I agree, I think tv and movies tend to glamorise it, that's why I'm slightly apprehensive about persuing a career in that field. I've heard the same about payment but I would be prepared to start at nothing and work my way up if thats what it takes!
Oh yeah and another thing, I didn't do business for my leaving cert but do you think that would matter?
I know your not in advertising but I appreciate your help 0 -
Yeah I agree, I think tv and movies tend to glamorise it, that's why I'm slightly apprehensive about persuing a career in that field. I've heard the same about payment but I would be prepared to start at nothing and work my way up if thats what it takes!
Oh yeah and another thing, I didn't do business for my leaving cert but do you think that would matter? I know your not in advertising but I appreciate your help
which is silly because I know nothing about it!
So basically, any insight appreciated![/Quote]
I spent a couple of years working in an ad agency - is that what you mean?
Advertising is all about selling dreams. The dream car, the dream holiday blah, blah. The people who work in advertising are therefore caught up in this dream world and live in a parallel universe to us mere mortals.
When i was there, it used to be a fantastic career if you were any good. There is something for everyone - the dynamic creative or the super salesman account director, the pedantic media buyer or the nearly down to earth production guy (that was me
)
It is hugely enjoyable, the perks can be great and the social scene is fantastic. But it can also be very, very false.
You get into it by knowing someone, working an internship, or being a potentially excellent creative - copywriter or art director. You always start at the very bottom but can work your way up very quickly if you show promise.
The poor relative works in media - TV, Radio, Consumer publishing or if you want to get your hands dirty, Business publishing (where I spent a further twenty years). Everything advertising-wise is happening online now so internet has huge, huge career potential.
There's also Public Relations or dare i say it, Marketing to consider.
Regardless, they are all pretty hard to break into because they are all very popular career choices.
Your local library will have books about all the above subjects.
What do you think?0 -
Yes, ad agency, thankyou! That's what I was looking for!
It's so hard to know! I think I'm a creative person, but I don't know if I'm creative enough to excell in that work environment? I do well linguistically at school so copywriting could be an option, but as you said, one would have to be potentially excellent to get in.
I do like working with people (to an extent
) so the sales side of it or PR might be something to consider too..
As far as studying business goes though, I don't think I could endure it! I did it for my Junior Cert and it just bored me to tears. But I was younger then I suppose, and if I needed it in order to become actively involved in the adversing branch of business then I guess I could give it another go!0 -
-
Advertisement
-
Yes, ad agency, thankyou! That's what I was looking for!
It's so hard to know! I think I'm a creative person, but I don't know if I'm creative enough to excell in that work environment? I do well linguistically at school so copywriting could be an option, but as you said, one would have to be potentially excellent to get in.
I do like working with people (to an extent) so the sales side of it or PR might be something too consider to..
As far as studying business goes though, I don't think I could endure it! I did it for my Junior Cert and it just bored me to tears. But I was younger then I suppose, and if I needed it in order to become actively involved in the adversing branch of business then I guess I could give it another go!
When I left my agency production job it was because I got a job as a copywriter in another agency. I'd been studying advertising in college and was specialising in copywriting. My tutor thought I was pretty good and when the creative director saw my portfolio I was offered the job on the spot so I thought I was sorted!
First morning in my new job I was given my first brief - a full page advertorial in the Irish Times for a carpet warehouse - 2000 words please by Friday!
I was so far out of my depth it was frightening. I hadn't a clue! So come Friday the creative director was just about to head of for a nice weekend break with her hubby when she asked to see what I'd done. Needless to say she had to cancel her weekend and I was out of a job - with £200 in my pocket. For someone who had been earning £32 a week it certainly cushioned the blow!
So the moral of the story is if you want to be copywriter or PR person could you write a 2000 word advertorial on a carpet warehouse? Another good way into either of these jobs is through journalism. But that is just as hard to break into.
If you think you'd like to get into sales then publishing is they way to go. They are always desperate for good sales people. Head over to London though and work for one of the big publishers who take on trainees and train them up properly. If you're hungry you'll do well and can move on from there eventually. Be prepared to sell your soul though! 0 -
Wow - a carpet warehouse? Really? Yaaawwwn!! Is it even possible to write 2000 words on a bloody carpet warehouse? Haha..
I don't know about journalism. I understand that it would be an advantage in trying to break into PR or copywriting, but still, it may be a bit too much writing for my liking! :P Although I suppose in copy writing you would have much the same words and deadlines to meet... so if I don't think journalism would suit then copywriting probably wouldn't either?
Now this is probably a stupid question, but what exactly is publishing? In relation to sales? I know it's to do with books... but thats about the height of my knowledge on the topic!
And also, you said you studied advertising in college, what was that like? Did you find it enjoyable? Sorry for all the questions! 0 -
-
-
Now this is probably a stupid question, but what exactly is publishing? In relation to sales? I know it's to do with books... but thats about the height of my knowledge on the topic!
And also, you said you studied advertising in college, what was that like? Did you find it enjoyable? Sorry for all the questions!
The publishing i was talking about is magazines - consumer magazines like Vogue or the RTE Guide or business to business magazines which you may never have heard of but there are thousands of them! Sales means selling advertising space via the telephone or face to face. You need to be hungry to succeed because you get a lot of rejection so the hunger pushes you to keep going. It is the easiest way of getting your foot in the door of any of the 'media'. Where you go from there is up to you.
The advertising course was good. I was very, very lucky to get in - something like a thousand applicants for every place. I learnt I could bull**** with the best of them from that point on!
Like everything, the theory you learn in college bears very little resemblance to working life. But you learnt the basics. Out of 25 in the class, I believe only a handful ended up working in an agency. But it was enjoyable and not very difficult. It may be different these days.0 -
Advertisement
-
folks,
its obviously hard to break into advertising, but say for someone who was creative, had good ideas etc with a lot of sales experience but who wanted to get out of sales and more into the creative/ideas side of things, say some thing in promoting business, any suggestions of what may be out there for someone like that? 0 -
The salesman in an ad agency is the account manager/director. He has to get the client to buy the creative/media output from the agency.overthenest wrote: »folks,
its obviously hard to break into advertising, but say for someone who was creative, had good ideas etc with a lot of sales experience but who wanted to get out of sales and more into the creative/ideas side of things, say some thing in promoting business, any suggestions of what may be out there for someone like that?
The best account director I knew sold cars before getting a job in an agency.0
Advertisement