So you really think it would be cool to live in California?

"Why do you love her?"

"Because she lives in my town." 

This is one of those posts that makes me worry I'm going to come off as some cranky old coot. But I still think it's good advice.

If you're interviewing with an agency, and the person asks you what you're looking for, as in like a job, or what you're seeking in life, that's really another way of asking "why do you want to come work at our agency?" So please don't let your first answer be, "I really want to live in California."

That may be true. California has its perks. But there are 1400 ad agencies in California. There are 26,000 creative companies. And there are 12.2 million available jobs, not including couch surfing. So answering that you want to move to California, while it's a fine lifestyle choice, isn't what your interviewer wants to hear. It's one step above a shrug and a mumbled "Dunno."

Maybe say something work related, for starters. You're looking to go to a place that does amazing creative? You want to learn and grow? You just want to make cool shit? That at least narrows it down a little. It implies something about the why you and the agency you're talking to are a good match beyond its physical location.

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.

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. 

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."

Everything I Say May Be Wrong

Last fall, I visited the fine students at the University of Texas to look at portfolios and chat about the industry. I'm quite flattered that they asked some follow-up questions for their blog. Many of the questions are about the same topics Greg and I discuss here, so I thought I'd share.

Here's the interview.

Thank You

You probably know this (hopefully) and you hopefully already do it (probably) but, if not, this is something you need to know and do.

If you interview at an agency, write thank-you notes to everyone who interviewed you. 

Just a simple card or email (cards are nicer, emails work) that thanks them for taking the time. Maybe you mention something you talked about. It goes a long way, and it reminds them of you.

This means that when you interview with people, you might ask if you can have a business card or at least write down their name (spelled correctly).

Three Intangibles

Aside from a great portfolio, here are three things I look for when I'm interviewing someone:

1. A curious mind. I get suspicious if the person I'm interviewing doesn't ask any questions. Our most recent hire, when he interviewed, asked me about our strategies, wanted to see a strategy, asked about the worst part of my job, wanted to know about the structure of the place, the process. He asked me about our client relationships. He asked me what was my favorite work out there. He talked about the kinds of classes he likes to take and his philosophy of always trying new things once. It said he was interested in growing and learning as much as he could.

2. Drive. I like to know that the person has had to work really hard at something. Maybe there's a project that the client killed but they executed anyway because they loved it. Or a side project. Maybe they run a successful website or have started a business or invented an app. Maybe they run marathons or wrote and directed a full-length film. All of those things tell me that this person has the will power to accomplish things. 

3. Enthusiasm. Some people are more low-key than others, but occasionally I'll have someone sitting in my office for an interview and I'll want to reach over the table and feel their neck for a pulse. Creative businesses run on the energy of the people. You don't have to be loopy, but it's nice to, as my little league baseball coach used to shout at the outfielders, "look alive." 

Are You Part of the Talent Crisis?

I think the interviews coming out of Cannes are just as interesting as the winners. They might be more important, too.

Here's an interview with Ali Ali, the CD at Elephant Cairo. You've probably seen his "Never Say No to Panda" work.



He's got some interesting things to say on talent. Granted, it's an Egyptian view. Not everything he says will translate to job markets in Chicago or New York or LA. Or will it? Here's one of his more interesting quotes:


"Agencies need to downsize...You can't have a creative department of 40 people. I think that immediately means that 30 of them are not good."


What do you think of that?

Interview Questions to Ask

Yesterday, Ad Age reported that BBDO Detroit will be closing in January, and is laying off 485 employees. Yikes. I don't know any of them. But I feel for them.

Yes, the economy's bad. But here's the thing: BBDO Detroit is closing because is lost Chrysler. And that was its sole account. 485 jobs. Poof.

So when you start interviewing, remember: make sure you ask about the agency's current, paying clients. Not just the fun pro-bono accounts and side projects they use to enter award shows. Ask everyone who the most important clients are and why.

Even if you're winning Gold Lions, anyone who feels comfortable in a one-client shop is delusional. Even Wieden has lost part of Nike on more than one occasion.

Don't Be That Guy (or Gal) #2

I feel like I shouldn't even have to post this. Maybe it's not a lack of common sense but just naive misunderstanding of how "laid back" and "cool" the ad industry is. When you're looking for a job, or applying for a job, or interviewing for a job, or heck, anytime--don't be an idiot online. Almost every company will do a background check on you, by which I mean Google your name. And while ad agencies might be more forgiving of those wild party pics on your Facebook profile, why chance it?

If you're going to blow a job opportunity, do it the old fashioned way--in the interview. Set your profiles to private while you're looking. Or better yet, don't put anything on any site ever that makes you seem like an idiot. If a friend of yours tags a photo of your bare ass hanging out in their "Fun Times At Albany Bowl Sat Night" album, kindly ask them to pull it down. This goes for interns too. When you work at an agency and become BFF on FB with all the folks there, then return to school, a year's worth of drunken photos and mobile status updates about how wasted you are at In 'n Out can start to undo a summer of responsible hard work. Just the way it is.

Here's a fine example. Job offer --> Stupid Tweet --> Poof! No job offer anymore.

Interview Questions

Peter posted a great comment a couple posts back. He asks “how to kill in an interview” and posted a short list of questions he had so far:

• What's the creative dept like, working with partners or mix and match?
• How often do you do new business pitches/what accounts do you go for?
• Where do you see this agency in 5-10 years?
• What's it like working here? (best asked to juniors)
• What's the best and worst work that's come out of here in the last year?

I think all of these are great questions. I might add these:

• What will your expectations of me be?
  
• Specifically, what will you expect to have seen from me within the first six months?
  
• What are the biggest challenges the agency faces right now? What are you doing about them.

All these questions are good to ask. But questions alone aren’t going to help you in an interview. That’s all personality. You’re either going to fit or you’re not.

When Mark Figliulo hired me, he admitted I might be the last nice person he’d hire. He’d already hired too many nice people, and thought it might be good for the agency if he hired a jerk. I don’t think he ever did, but it was probably in the back of his mind every time someone came in. Maybe he just never met the right jerk.

Point is, don’t fake yourself. Don’t be who you’re not. Don’t try to be bubbly Mr. Personality if you’d really rather be listening to darkcore techno and brooding in your office. Maybe brooding fits the agency.

Portfolio Night Recaped on the East Coast

Dan Jordan was a student of mine a couple years ago at the Chicago Portfolio School. Since graduating, he’s interned at Crispin Porter + Bogusky, and taken a full-time job at Hill Holliday working with powerhouses like Ernie Schenck and Tim Cawley. He’s also been honored by Archive and the One Club. Not a bad start. He reviewed books at Portfolio Night 6 in Boston, so I decided to ask him about it.

Greg: How was judging Portfolio Night in Boston?



Dan: As far as judging the event, I would have to say it was enjoyable. I like looking at work and we had a decent amount of topnotch Boston creatives on hand.

Greg: Generally speaking, what were the best and the worst things you saw 
that night?


Dan: A constant pitfall I found in pretty much 100% of the books I saw was produced work that was bad. Just because it is real, does not mean that it's good. Another terrible trend I've noticed both at Portfolio Night and in my Creative Concepts class is that art direction seems to have gone the way of the dinosaur. I see design books that look great, but have no conceptual ads, and art directors’ books with concepts that look horrendous. 
Also, students are rarely teaming up. I know that at ad schools they will make sure they pair you up, but if you're not attending a portfolio school, I feel the book really shows it.

Greg: Why do you think art direction is suffering in so many student books? Is it experience? Resources? Too much reliance on "concept-is-king"?

Dan: I'd like to believe that it's still possible to break into advertising without portfolio school, but I don't think that's the case. I think that good art direction stems from a solid grasp of the Adobe tools, yet a keen knack for concepting as well – skills that are almost impossible to obtain from anything but a two-year portfolio school. I still think that concept will always be king. A polished turd is still a turd. However, you must be able to make things look as visually appealing as something you'd see in Archive or CA.

Greg: What's the secret to going from portfolio school graduate to working at Hill Holliday and being featured in Archive and the One Show in just a couple of years?

Dan: The secret to making a successful transition from portfolio school to junior creative isn't really a secret at all. It's hard work. And I think it's imperative that you genuinely love advertising. There's a part in Comedians of Comedy when one of the comics (either Patton Oswalt or Brian Posehn) talks about how they both lived together in a crappy apartment and would write jokes every night for hours. And that was just them having fun. When I was creating my book, I was fortunate enough to have a phenomenal art director who liked creating ads. When we finished school, we had enough work to fill 3 books. That's a fantastic problem to have. 
Creating ads is the best part of advertising (besides for expensing overpriced meals). Everything that comes afterwards (the meetings, the presentations, the tweaks, the shoot, the edit, etc.) are merely necessary evils to ensure your creation lives.
 So work your ass off and make sure you enjoy it. And you'll be a successful junior.

What Getting A Job Looks Like

In very general terms, this is what you will go through when you get your first job out of school:

1. You'll send out your minibooks and try to meet with as many people as you can.
2. Many of those places will not get back to you because they are not hiring.
   
3. After a while someone will send you an email or call your mobile and ask if you're able to come by for an interview. Sometimes this includes a plane ride and a hotel room provided by your host agency.
4. On the specified day, you arrive at the agency and spend the next several hours being ushered from creative to creative. Sometimes they'll ask to see your book. But this is just a formality. Most of them have already seen it and liked it. That's why they called you in. They really just want to give you a personality check. You'll be taken to lunch. Probably dinner/drinks afterwards. Everyone's still trying to see if they like you or not.
5. You shake hands and head home.
6. You immediately send thank you cards to everyone you met with. I'd send a card. Not an email.
7. You wait. In fact, you wait longer that you had expected. Why haven't they called back yet? Did they not like you? Should you call? Maybe you should call. No, that would seem desperate. But they did fly you out right? Seriously, why the radio silence? (The agency, by the way, is interviewing a handful of other candidates.)
8. Anywhere from two days to a couple weeks later, someone from the agency calls you back and extends an offer to you. They'll give you a salary and probably a start date. Feel free to ask them for a couple days to think this over. They're probably not expecting an immediate answer. If you have any additional questions, now is a good time to ask them.
9. You call them back in a day or two and accept the offer. Everyone's happy.
10. You go on to a successful career, never forgetting to mention the Makin' Ads blog each time you're featured in the One Show Gold on Gold section.
    

Shhh!

Portfolio Night is almost here. Can you feel the power?

One piece of advice: When you sit down with the person reviewing your book, feel free to exchange pleasantries, but once they open your portfolio and begin perusing the fruits of your labor, resist the urge to speak.

Do not talk. Do not explain. Do not comment.

Enjoy the awkward silence that is the interview process. If the reviewer has questions, by all means, answer them. After they've gone through your work, ask them all the questions you want. But during the review, it's quite time. Don't even preface a campaign with, "The strategy with this one was..." The strategy should be apparent.

This isn't protocol. It's just common sense. When you talk as someone is trying to look at your ads (even the purely visual ones) this is what happens:



Thursday night, let your book speak for you.

Interview with Mike Gorz

A brief interview with Mike Gorz, Director of Creative Services at Y&R Chicago.

GRC: What do you tell a student who wants to get a job?

MG: I’d tell them to be smart about it. And by smart, I mean they should send a link or a PDF of their work.

GRC: Not a minibook?

MG: Not a minibook. A minibook is going to get lost or misplaced. Or a creative that I leave it with will lose it or get a burrito smeared on it. It’s so much better and easier to share electronic work with people. And with more people at once. You get some quicker reads. And if they do get the call and they do get the interview, they can bring their book and give us a little deeper dive and really spend some time on each of the ads, and explain things. That’s the time to bring in a book.

GRC: Is it more effective to send a link [to the recruiter] or to an ECD or a creative?

MG: It’s probably advisable to send it to both. Send it to me as the director of creative services, and to maybe a creative.

GRC: And what happens if they send a link and they get radio silence? Should they take that as a rejection, or should they pursue it?

MG: No. A little bit of persistence is always good. It is a busy business, and we don’t always have time to answer every email and talk to every person who calls. But a little polite, efficient persistence is always appreciated. Don’t stalk me.