Four Words That Will Kill Your Job Interview

A really smart co-worker recently wrote a post about four words that will end a job interview. Can you guess what they are?

I've done jail time.

I'm not a reader.

I don't watch TV.

I hate my co-workers.

The answer is here.

Are Award Shows for Losers?

This piece was penned by Prentice Mathew, a senior art director. In the current annual fervor of Cannes, he claims "advertising awards are now for losers." You might agree. You might find it heresy. Either way, it's an interesting read. Anyone agree? Disagree? (And is it easier to agree or disagree based on how many awards you won this year?)

What NOT To Put In Your Portfolio

In this article, Cannes jury members share what they're sick of seeing. If they're sick of seeing it at Cannes, they'll be sick of seeing it in your book.

The two biggest offenders? Vending machine work and case study videos. Just something to keep in mind as you're concepting.

The Lipton Millionaire

Not every project you're asked to produce will be as sexy as a 60-second spot or an interactive microsite. You'll work on table tents, tray liners, 40k online banners that can't handle animation, annual reports and brand standards guidelines. It happens at even the best agencies. In fact, it happens especially at the best agencies. Because clients know they can turn more work over to teams that can turn something mundane into something remarkable.

Most of us couldn't imagine putting a brand guidelines project in our portfolios. But if I had this idea and this case study, it would be one of the first things I'd show off in my book.

 

Trouble viewing? Click here for Lipton Millionaire.

Q&A with Cecilia Gorman

Cecilia Gorman is Director of Creative Services for Oakley in Orange County, and Creative Career Management where she runs workshops and career development for junior creatives looking to break into the industry. With so many of our readers graduating and entering the job market, we though we’d ask her a few questions.

Q: What are you looking for in junior creatives?
A: Mostly I look for Individuality, Conceptual intelligence (lack of cliches and sameness), strength of design style (art directors/designers). I want juniors to be different from one another and allow me the variety to choose from. When they blend into one another, it is hard to make a choice.

Q: What is the most common mistake junior talent makes?
A: Not being daring enough to take a risk and stand out. Being cocky or presumptuous.

Q: What do you see when you look at the job market today?
A: I see a lot of opportunities for folks who are willing to try a different job market or a slightly left of center position. If you are seeking a junior job in Los Angeles with no openness for anything different, you are up against thousands of others. But, if you are open to other states, other related jobs you have way more choices.

Q: What are the biggest challenges facing junior talent?
A: Competition definitely. Portfolio schools are getting stronger every day, graduating very strong candidates every quarter. That is your competition, so juniors need to keep finessing their portfolios and adding new, strong work even after they are graduated.

Q: What advice would you give someone about to take a first job?
A: Be humble. You are new, you are learning, you are at the bottom rung. If you stay humble and remind yourself you are there to learn as much as you can every day, you will climb those rungs quicker than others.

Follow Cecilia on Twitter here. 

2013 Radio Mercury Award Winners

The Radio Mercury Awards have just been announced. Click here to listen to the winners.

Radio is still a writer's medium. It's awesome to have an A-list director and a crew of 100 working on your TV or video spot. It's really cool to see top designers and programers bringing a web site or an app to life. But it's equally amazing to sit down with a small team of a producer, a sound engineer, and some great talent to pull off something like this.

It's hard to promote books on Vine.

Jim and I compiled our most popular posts and a comprehensive review of portfolio schools into The Best of Makin' Ads, now available on blurb.com. Takes a little longer than six seconds to tell you about it, though.

Highlights from the Maker Generation

Last month, I was in Richmond, Virginia for the recruiting session at the VCU Brandcenter. I saw a ton of books - copywriters, art directors, and creative technologists. I continue to be amazed by the Maker Generation. When I graduated VCU forever ago, I left with a suitcase-shaped black portfolio full of double-page magazine spec ads that had been trimmed with an X-acto blade and spray mounted to black mounting boards. But today, if students have an idea, they go make it. Here are three examples from the VCU Brandcenter recruiting session that stuck with me (shown with permission).  

banethatcher.com

After Margaret Thatcher died, Maddison Bradley and Jon Robbins were listening to some of her quotes and thought, "These sound like the kind of things Bane would say." So they created banethatcher.com. I don't know British Conservative politics of the mid-1980's well enough to comment, but I'm amazed that they pulled this together in a couple of days.

Harry Potter Ipsum

When Olivia Abtahi and Christina Chern needed some lorem ipsum, they thought, "Wouldn't it be cool if this weren't just gibberish, but Harry Potter gibberish?" So they created Harry Potter Ipsum. Feel free to accio your own text on their joint Most Auspicious.

Dragon Grips

Sam Cantor, Nick Marx, and Hunter Pechin didn't just go to portfolio school to make spec ads. They came up with Dragon Grips, an actual, functioning product. (That just happens to be surrounded with some well-thought-out marketing.)


"People's Choice Award" Winner: DragonGrips from Nick on Vimeo.

The Amazing Life of Jim Riswold

I got into advertising because of Jim Riswold. I didn't know who he was at the time. But I'd see Nike's "Bo Knows" commercials and their "Mars Blackmon" spots and think, that's exactly what I want to do.

Riswold was recently inducted into the One Club Creative Hall of Fame, and Dan Wieden wrote a piece about him in the recent issue of one. a magazine. I knew Riswold had left W+K, and I'd heard a little bit about his controversial art work featuring Hitler. But I didn't really know his story until I watched Riswold's TED talk. It might be a little disturbing at times. But that's what makes it amazing.

 

Here are some of the things I take away from Riswold:

1. He's still a writer. Listen to how he crafted his talk. It's like copy from a Nike print ad.
2. He's not a very good presenter. You can have loads of talent as a writer and a CD, and still be a bad presenter. That's not a reason to practice presenting. But it's a good thing to recognize and not beat yourself up over.
3. This guy has guts. And I have to think his courage is one of the reasons he was such a great creative. Not only is speaking to an audience when it clearly makes him uncomfortable, he shows himself at his most vulnerable to a live audience. As Dan Wieden says in his article, "The ability to remain vulnerable is the ability to remain creative."

How much should you be paid?

Most of us don't like to talk about our salaries. We're afraid we're making more or less than our co-workers, which could make things awkward. And anyway, we're more concerned about producing great work, right?

The problem is, the leaves hundreds of portfolio school grads entering the interview and hiring process completely in the dark. Making money a huge focus is a bad idea. But being ignorant to your market value is just as bad. So here are my two recommendations to anyone in this business:

1. Check out the salary monitor at talentzoo.com. It's not complete, and it can be fairly general at times, but it's about as accurate a tool as I've come across.

2. Continue to interview throughout your career. Even if you're not interested in leaving your current job, this will help you be aware of what you're worth. So when you finally do want a new job, and HR asks you, "What kind of salary are you looking for?" you can answer with confidence, and not just say, "Um...However much you can give me."