Monday 27 October 2008

Tales of Twitter



Twitter is awesome. We love it.

And we're on it.

Check us out at Twitter.com/adgrads

Sunday 26 October 2008

Empty Space? No Problem...

Don't fear it...picture by stringberd, usual rules apply.

It would seem that with application season in full swing, some of you asking questions about the forms you've been asked to fill out.

Seems that the prospect of finishing off the app forms with white space has left you in something of a pickle; that you aren't quite sure of what to put. Well, here's a (slightly pointed) thought about that.

Once you finish University, you aren't going to be mollycoddled any more. Sure, many agencies will talk about their spangly recruitment programmes for grads, and will make good, i'm sure. However, advertising (or comms in general) isn't for those who like to be spoon-fed.

No, it's for those who want to take. Those who aren't satisfied with what they see on TV, in the media or just generally around them. Those who want to grab it by the scruff of the neck and make it all just a little bit better.

Blank space shouldn't be worrisome; so there's no clue as to what they want? Invent your own! There's a lot to be said for trying to make a compelling story about yourself, to explain how you came to be where you are today, and how you'll improve the agency beyond all measure.

Sam has already blogged about how he PR-ed his experiences with Saatchi & Saatchi, and how that directly led to him getting a job. There's a similar story for Anton and sort of a similar one for me (blogging does help, honest). We may not have all been on the milkround, but that doesn't really matter.

What empty space gives you is room to manoeuvre. Make the most of it - it's what you'll be doing in your advertising career.

(NB: For that JWT question - I had the same one waaay back in 2005 - which helped me get to interview/was complimented on how I answered that 'use the space' question - I basically wrote a stream of consciousness using different typefaces. Made them chuckle).

Back..

 
New beginnings and all that, picture by this guy

This is kind of an apology. Cause we've been really shit. Like really. Laziness is gross like something nasty, and I've been super lazy (and so have the rest of the guys) in not updating the blog and replying to emails and all the rest of it. So this is, in fact, an apology to all y'all and a promise that we won't be as shit in the future.

I've updated a bunch of grad schemes with their dates and links on the right, along with links to our posts on interviews, forms and such delightful things. There is more on the way, and we hope to get some more star stories up soon. Also we'll be hitting up universities in conjunction with the IPA pretty soon, if you want us to come visit, let me know.

Also just like last year, we want you guys to tell us your experiences on how applying is going, to be featured in our Diary of an Applicant flavor of posts. If you're interested in writing about how stupid application form questions are, how EVERY agency says they're the best (and they ALL do, and it's impossible for them all to be, so obviously someone's a liar) or anything that you want, send me an email and let's talk.

Don't give up, leave a comment, ask a question or send an email: samismail (at) yahoo dot com
(It's written weird so I don't get a ton of porn and emails from Africa about big bucks headed my way).

We're back and it's gonna be awesome.

Peace.