Opinion or Fiction?

I’ve just come out of a reader’s block and it feels really refreshing. Trying to learn about planning I’ve been cramming the latest APG Creative Effectiveness Awards volumes and lately Herd by Mark Earls which is fantastic.

However, I found myself becoming quite unmotivated to read at all as all I seemed to consume was marketing theories to the point of saturation.

Before I left for my recent holiday I was thinking of which new marketing book to read and the thought seemed to almost get me down a bit. So when whizzing through Heathrow I picked this up, The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall, the first fiction I’ve read in ages and MY GOD it feels good to get wrapped in a fictional world again. That and the book is as addictive as Garland’s Beach (before the film came out and everyone under the sun had read it). It’s a truly fantastic read which whips you into a mad psychologically tricky place.

The point I’m trying to make stems from a Paul Arden comment (in his career advice books) that some of the best books to read about advertising aren’t about advertising i.e. I now intend to keep my nose firmly in both current marketing books and the world of fantasy and fiction, just so I keep a healthy balance and a fresh perspective when thinking about whatever I’m thinking about.

All above books I thoroughly recommend. Rambling over.

Anton xx

Diary Of An Applicant

Ok guys, this is the part where I need your help. We know we have readers, because statcounter tells us so, and I've come up with an idea for a regular column/post thing over at our Brand Republic spot. It's ingeniously called the Diary of an Applicant. I could write it myself, and chronicle how the whole grad recruitment process goes, but I'd rather everyone contributes a bit, because that'll make it infinitely more interesting and a ton more readable.

So what I'm after is this: a couple of lines about how it's all going so far, which agencies you've been to see on open days, recruitment events etc, what your impressions have been of the agencies, of the staff, of the application forms..what you like, what you don't and all that. You can email them to me here. And if you don't want to me to use your name/names of people who you really didn't like, let me know and I promise I won't use them in the BR blog.

I really think this could be a really cool thing to get going, I plan on hopefully getting a new post up every Wednesday, I've done the 1st one, but am hoping to get some more good stuff before I put it up on the BR blog tomorrow.

Hope applications are going ok and as always ask us questions if you have any..

Peace out..

Sam

Messing With The Look

Agency application deadlines are now in an easier to spot position. Seems obvious, but I didn't do it until now. There's a lesson in there somewhere for me, like don't put Levi Roots' Fiery Guava Sauce on everything you eat..

Open Day Time

Everyone loves a rainbow, or so Will tells me. Copyright moi.

I'll be at JWT's open day tomorrow, if you're gonna be around say what's up. I'll be the one looking tired cause I'm up late typing this..

Likemind and Deadlines

A bunch of deadlines are coming up, and as well as putting them up on the AdGrads and Advertising Applicants 08 Facebook groups, I thought I'd whack 'em up here as well so y'all know when to get stuff done by:

RCKR: 22nd October
McCann: 4th November - Noon

AMV: 5th November
JWT: 7th November
BBH: 9th November
M&C Saatchi: 9th November
DLKW: 9th November - Noon
WPP: 21st November
DDB: 23rd November

Also I'm going to be at Likemind in Birmingham tomorrow (October 19) from around 8am (!), if you're around come say hi.

busy as fck

Meh, I can not wait until this month is over. In Media Land October is synonymous with planning for the first quarter of the next year. True, it is possibly the most exciting time to be at work, money (client's) is flying around left right and centre, creative media brainstorm sessions all over the place, new media opportunities and following the September intake of grads there may even be some new faces around (Yes I have looked up the grad that I'm getting next week but there are too many under his/her name)..but it is definately the busiest.

As before, not the one to ask what times are like in the fluffy side of things, but the agencies I work with AMV, Publicis, WCRS all seemed to rammed with never-ending-to-do-lists. I'm surprised I'm getting away with posting here to be honest.

So what does this mean for you guys that have pressed send, licked the stamp or signed the cheque for your applications? Time of entering the industry is important.

Personally, I think now (September - November) is a very interesting time to enter. The place has an evident buzz about it, you would be able to get stuck into things right away - thrown in right at the deep end if you like. Which is important for learning fast. Your team will get to see what you are like when under pressure - let's face it, most of the time you are going to be under pressure.

When I joined we did have the option to defer our start date, but I made the right choice entering at September. You get to see how the planning forms and just how much it can change in such a short space of time before things get booked too. Socially - it's a crucial time to mingle with the adfolk in the run up to the agency Christmas party. Make some fucking friends.

And while October and the start of November may be completely manic, the jollies and parties come flooding in at around week 47. The Ivy, Cavas de Gaucho, The Fat Duck, Hakisan, Nobu - the choice will be yours as the media owners (usually Outdoor) thank you for the business you have provided them over the year.

So keep this little piece of info in mind and do not join in August. Adland just shuts down.

This Mad Season

I feel stupid, but I know it won't last for long,

And I've been guessing, and I coulda been guessing wrong,
You don't know me now, I kinda thought that you should somehow,
Does that whole Mad Season got you down?

The first verse of Matchbox Twenty's song Mad Season sums up how I feel right now having ploughed through a variety of agency graduate recruitment applications over the last week or so.

I personally get into a groove with these things and find I can get them done in quick succession if I'm in the mood, but then if I'm not it's useless even opening them up because questions like 'How to sell coal to an eskimo' bounce around the inside of my head and exit rapidly.

And what I and the rest of the guys all agree on is that one of the most important things you can do when filling out these applications is to let your personality shine through. Now that is infinitely easier said than done I agree, but it's crucial to you getting noticed in the piles of applications that will cross any given agency's desk.

So how do you do it? There's no magical silver bullet I'm afraid; if there was someone would be filthy-rich by now by patenting it, so it boils down to this: be you. Personality is something unique to you so don't try to find it in someone else. I would advise against typing 'How to sell coal to an Eskimo' into google and trying to use anything you find as the basis of your answer. To see how other's have attacked the question is of course, great to do. But your answer has to be all about you. Which is what will make you get an invitation to interview as well. So when it asks for your favorite song lyric think of your favorite song, why you like it and leave it all on the page (that's my way of saying that the more personal the answer the better). If you wear your heart on your sleeve in real life do the same on your form, and conversely don't try and be something you're not. Your application forms, CVs and all the rest of it should be extensions of yourself - recognisable as you.

Another thing that could be useful to keep in mind is that when faced with the blank spaces of application forms - especially the questions at the end (like 'is there anything else we should know about you?'), continuous prose may not be the best way to go about a particular question. I'm not saying do the whole thing in bullet points, but think about how to visually differentiate yourself within a written answer. Maybe do a flowchart, a mindmap, a cartoon, graffiti, a picture, maybe import a digital picture, maybe string a couple together to do a montage. Think of how you want to make it you. Graduate application forms should be something that you know you're ready to send off because you're happy you've indelibly stamped them with your personality. A friend should be able to read through your answers and know it's you who wrote it without seeing the name on the top of it.

The 'anything else' or 'use this box as you like' sections on applications are the best sections - they let you give the reader a flavor of what you're like, don't waste them.