An important post..(updated)

Yes, you, dear reader.

Hello all.

You'll have noticed that AdGrads has been curiously quiet in the last few months; a combination of pitching and clients have kept me from updating as frequently as I'd have liked.

As such, I think it's the right time to ask for a hand.

AdGrads originally consisted of four people writing about how they got into the business.

However, as time's moved on, we've all had gradually more busy jobs, and all dropped off, save for yours truly. And, in truth, it's been tricky, these past few months, what with various new pitches and otherwise.

Also, when we founded AdGrads, the intention was always to help those who were near us in age get in, as we weren't a bunch of hoary old gits who had no idea what was going on at the sharp end. Well, I'm 28 now (a dinosaur in ad terms), and AdGrads needs an injection of younger folks to help it live on.

I'm very proud of what the site's achieved (I still feel absurdly flattered when people email me to mention that AdGrads has been helpful), and don't want it to wither on the vine as I have less and less time.

What AdGrads needs is the following:

• A pool of writers (ideally about 4 or 5) from an account management/planning background, ideally aged between 20-28 (preferably, recent or current grads - you don't have to be on a scheme). Must be able to write well.
• Not creative grads, as the YCC has it pretty well covered.
• An agreement as to who writes what.
• Ultimately, a separate URL (this site, annoyingly, has remained the same as one of the guys I founded it with has the details/I haven't been able to reach him). I'd love for it to become the definitive grad site for adgrads for the foreseeable future.

I will still be involved with the site, but I'm conscious you'll be doing most of the writing

Post something in the comments or email me at william.humphrey at yahoo.co.uk if you'd be interested in meeting up for a coffee to chat through in a month or so's time.

UPDATE: I've been overwhelmed by the number of people who've been in touch. We're up to about 10 now. There's still going to be a demand for more writers, but let's close it for now.

Thanks for reading, folks.

A few (pre-recorded) tips...

But not by me...

AdGrads was never intended to be written by a few people.

So, it's with great pleasure to be able to host a few bits of content written by the lovely Ms Francesca Wilski. She's in the middle of finishing off an MA in Broadcast Journalism, and has set up her site (ADvice and ADvise) in order to also help grads into Advertising/as part of her course. Which is great stuff, especially as she's just had a job offer off the back of it.

The Facebook group's here, along with the twitter. (On a side note, if anyone's interested in helping write her FB page now that she's gotten a job, leave a message in the comments).

The videos are below. I hope they're helpful:

Let us know what you think.

A Point For Awesomeness

Campaign - 14 November 2008

While getting my early morning Facebook on Musa gave me the heads up about AdGrads getting into Campaign for laying the smack down on BMB and giving some love to TBWA. That's awesome, but we won't stop calling it like we see it or let the fame get to our heads :)

And come January, when all the dust has settled from the graduate recruitment stuff, we'll be asking all of y'all to give us your best and worst applying/interviewing experiences so we can do a graduate recruitment report card. By you and for you. I had to put a cheesy line at the end. Whatever.

Diary of An Applicant..

..is now live on AdGrads Brand Republic.

Check it out here.

Thanks to all who have contributed so far, I'm working on future entries in betwix studying. And if you're interested in contributing, fire me an email.

An AdGrads Meetup

Photo courtesy of the photographer

We finally got round to organising a get-together type thing. It's gonna go down next Friday (November 9th) - like the movie, at 7pm at The Green Man on Berwick Street (just off Oxford Street) in London. All are welcome.

We're calling it Gradsphere - inspiration courtesy of Faris.

The Facebook event page thing is here.

We'll see y'all there. If more than like 10 people show up I'll be really impressed - I still can't believe you guys read our stuff!

Brand Republic Ahoy

This picture may have nothing to do with the post. But I took it and think it's damn cool.

After much procrastination on my part, the first post for the Brand Republic edition of AdGrads is up. I'll put the first post up here but for future posts we'll whack the links here for you guys to go check it out over there. That made sense when I wrote it, I swear.

W1, We Have a Problem..

When thinking about what to write about as a first blog post on Brand Republic, I toyed with a few ideas. Maybe a bit about each of us and why we started the AdGrads blog in the first place? Or perhaps we should let one our stars tell their stories about how they got into the industry?

But what swayed me was something that happened today. I walked back into university for the second day of my final year, and was guided to the careers service, where I was informed that this week was finalist career week - and over 100 companies would be giving sessions about their companies to students from Warwick, Aston and Birmingham universities.

After a quick question to one of the staff members, I was told that the number of final year students in these three universities was in excess of 10,000, all who had been emailed details of the week and (hopefully) a good chunk of them interested in what life after university entails.

And guess what? Not one piece of literature, not one prospective employer, not one reference to advertising. 10,000 finalists, more than a hundred companies, and nothing from the advertising industry.

In a nutshell, that is why Will, Anton and Alex and myself set up AdGrads, because as hard as it is for anyone to hear the brutal truth about themselves, the industry is not doing nearly enough to help themselves find the best graduates. Not nearly enough, and today was another example of that. There is a gap in the market for educating students about how amazing the advertising industry is as a career choice and why the often obtuse application forms are worthy of their time and effort. If there wasn't a gap, then to be honest, this blog probably wouldn't exist. We are here because there is a problem.

The reality of the situation now is that the advertising industry is not on a level playing field. Banking, consultancy, accountancy et al are a good way ahead in communicating, educating and ultimately recruiting the cream of the graduate crop. Advertising as an industry now has to try and kick start their drive to get the best talent, and that means doing the things they can do the best: getting creative.

Both individual agencies and the industry as a whole have to ask themselves one question: Do we really want to attract the best? If the answer is yes, then go in wholeheartedly and do it. Utilise all the tools at your disposal and get the word out there.

Brand Republic's online careers fair is a great example of how to get things started, as it acknowledges that the internet and all things digital are media that we have grown up with. As we live and we breathe it everyday, adopting these channels to get to us is a wise move. Agencies; use your talent in creating innovative solutions to your clients' problems to help create a solution to your biggest problem, because the gap will only get bigger if things keep going as they are. That may be a bitter pill to swallow for the industry.

But the truth sometimes is.

FAQs

Jack wisely started some FAQs yesterday that we're gonna put on the wiki by the end of next week. As September begins, the wiki will be fully operational. So keep checking back here.

Baby Steps

So on a strangely summer-like Friday morning we begin. This blog will be, (we hope) the start of some collaborative career related goodness for all of you out there applying for graduate recruitment places for September 2008.

We plan on getting an all star cast of adland together to share their experiences of getting into advertising, as well as giving you tips on interviews, application questions, keeping you up to date with agency deadlines and anything else you want.

A Facebook group will also be set up (who doesn't these days) but the bulk of the good stuff will be here, so check back often.

You guys will drive the content we put up, so any requests, questions, abuse or freebies are welcome.

And good luck to you all.