Getting the most out of your internship...

A part of it...but hopefully not the whole thing.

Hi gang.

We have a guest post for you today (two posts in two days - I'm as shocked as you). The very kind Lauren Ingram has written a post about her experiences as an intern, and offers tips for you lot about how to turn yours into a permanent job.


Getting the most out of your internship
by Lauren Ingram

If you’ve wangled an internship at an agency, make sure you give them a reason to keep you on, or invite you back after uni. It's all about making yourself invaluable.

I was on the IPA Ad School in 2011 in Client Services/Planning, and subsequently stayed on as a copywriter intern – this trial period was worth doing as I’m not quite cut out for Creative! So to distil some things that I learned the hard way…

Know what questions to ask and when to ask them: being curious is a positive trait in adland but don’t be a nuisance. Anything you could find out online – find it out online. Learn as much as you can about what a planner does, what an account handler does, and so on, and get to know your agency's campaigns in detail. This is still important even though you've got the internship now. Many agencies subscribe to Campaign mag as well as other titles, so borrow these during your lunch breaks to stay up to date.

Ask more about the projects your colleagues are working on. You get a better idea of what they actually do all day (and it’s not reorganising the stationery cupboard) and you can offer more relevant help this way. I often found myself asking “is there anything else I can do to help?” and this is fine, but what would be more useful for them is offering help on a specific task. For example, your agency is positioning a brand’s loyalty card, offer to do research into what other brands are doing in this area. Of course, your colleagues might have already done it, but it makes your mentor’s life easier if they don’t have to ‘invent’ tasks for you.

Make good use of empty time: As an intern you probably have more time on your hands than others in the business. Make use of it. Offering everyone tea won't build your skills but it does give you a chance to speak to more people. Also, read your company's blog and decide whether you could write something decent for it. There may be longer thoughtpieces by senior members of staff, but there may also be shorter pieces by other staff members on relevant news in adland. For example, at certain times of year (Christmas, Valentine's Day, around the Olympics, etc) there will be a flurry of advertising activity and you could do a round-up of some of the best ads during that period, or an emerging theme you have noticed within them. Ask who looks after the company blog, then ask them if your submission sounds suitable - they're usually always looking for more content to show how switched on the agency and its employees are. 

Also look at their Twitter feed, find some interesting links that you think would be suited to their style, then find out who manages it (more networking!) and pass on the links with a very short blurb for each. You could offer to manage the Twitter feed - the New Business/Marketing department probably looks after it - but they might say no as many a Twitter disaster is caused by a rogue intern. 

A last suggestion would be to ask to attend as many meetings as possible. Sometimes they will only want to have those who absolutely need to be there, so don't be offended if they say no, but for the most part it will give a good impression that you want to get stuck in.

All in all, it's a bit of a balancing act, making yourself memorable without getting in people’s way (and I still haven’t perfected it) but it might be the thing that gets you a Real Job.

Good luck!

Thank you, Lauren. Much appreciated.

A Grad Scheme & A Marketing Internship...

Hi all.

There's a raft of new opportunities for you lot out there at the moment. Karmarama and What Now are both looking for talented graduates.

So, without further ado, here's more about both:

1) Karmarama


We're on the lookout for four bright, bold and ambitious people who will make good things happen in our Account Management Department.

If you show us that you’ve got some fire in your belly and some stories to tell, we’ll invite you on to our Kadet Scheme, where you’ll compete for a job in Account Management. We will be taking on 4 Karma Kadets for 2 months over the summer, with one of our Kadets bagging a full time role at the end of the internship.

You could be graduating this summer, or you might have got your experience from somewhere else – either way we’d like to hear from you.



Applications are open now, and the closing date for entries is 4th March 2013. 

All the details are at our Facebook page. You can follow us on Twitter at @karmakadets and our current Kadets @karmakadetkatie @karmakadetalex for further updates on the scheme!

2) What Now?!


What Now?! is an innovative new product that aggregates the best local information so travellers can use their smart mobile devices to discover interesting things nearby when they arrive in a new place – all without paying for data roaming.  We were a finalist at the London Startup Weekend last year and are busy helping bring the product to life. Tony, the founder, comes from a background of working in various advertising agencies and marketing client-side, before leaving to study for an MBA and, ultimately, set up What Now?!.  

What Now?! aims to launch in London and Barcelona in the early summer period.  We are currently looking for a marketing intern who can help with the following:

• Manage social media activities – including Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook and Google Plus
• Develop strong links with the travel blogging community (like/dislike, make suitable and valuable comments, make suggestions, engage people)
• Co-ordinate our overall launch marketing activities
• Monitor and report on progress and key findings
• Promote blog content
• Collaborate with our fast-paced, entrepreneurial and fun team

The ideal candidate:

• Is not just familiar with, but also active social media sites and has a strong online presence. In particular, the ideal candidate would be very familiar with Twitter and its partner platforms (HootSuite, TweetDeck etc.)
• Possesses excellent written communication skills, so they can make the right judgements on what to post without damaging the brand. Our social tone of voice is important
• Has top-notch social skills - and a sense of humour!
• Is a self-starter with the ability to work independently and make judgement calls
• Has a passion for travel, culture and all things Social Media

Working in a startup is an incredible learning experience and you would be exposed to a huge amount of diverse business and marketing experiences.  The internship length is flexible depending on the right candidate and there will be a small salary to cover expenses

The internship will be a great opportunity for the right candidate – and, even if your passion is to work in an advertising agency and not take up a full time role with us afterwards, it would look great on your CV.  If this sounds interesting to you, then please email a CV and covering letter to tonys at whatnowtravel.com.

Good luck, all.

So, you want to work in Planning?

Mmm, yellow fats. A classic planning problem.

Hello all.

I'd say about half of the emails I receive about getting into advertising relate to planning.

And, being a planner myself, I'm more than happy to offer advice, especially as it's a tricky line of work to get into. When I was trying to get into it, I read an awful lot of Russell Davies's blog (the planner who did a lot of very good work on Nike and Honda, amongst others) - and, I think, is still a good resource. Additionally, the London Strategy Unit has begun to run a short course for wannabe planners that you should check out.

Planning is always a hard thing to write about, much less explain coherently (though the APG has a brilliant guidebook on it) if you've never done it. And, for most of the folks reading this, the opportunity to do planning is fairly remote.

Now, when you're in the job as a junior planner, there's a post in the AdGrads archives that might be useful. But for those who've never had to write a planning presentation, or want to understand what goes into it, I've written a short presentation to help show how you'd put something together to show your client, and set up what the creative work will be - along with a communications plan, something to  indicate how you'd spend the media money in an ideal world.

I thought it would be a good idea to pick a brand and answer a fictional problem to help folks understand the thought process that goes into a planning presentation - one that's away from the typical sexy brand (your Nikes, your Apples', your Budweiser's) that most think of when they talk about their favourite work. And, after all, the 'yellow fats' category is amongst one of the most traditional planning problems to tackle.


Have a go yourself. Send me your presentations, or put it up on Slideshare, and we can have a Q&A as to how you've tackled it.


Most of this presentation was written with a bit of desk research, some time spent in-store and some time spent chatting to the typical consumers (mums, in short). Check out the ONS, read up on new launches in the category - and see what you think. If I was planner on the business, there'd be a raft of information I'd receive; but in this instance, don't worry about being 100% right when it comes to buying behaviours...just use whatever research you can find on or offline.

The presentation's below, and you can download it (or get in touch with me - william.humphrey at yahoo.co.uk if you'd like the keynote presentation with notes) from Slideshare.

A point of view on Flora margarine.. from Will Humphrey

NB: The business has come up for pitch; it'll be interesting to see what sort of work they come up with.

Ogilvy's 2013 Account Management Scheme..

The man himself, in full mad man garb.

Hello, all.

Another agency has opened its grad recruitment doors in 2013.

This time, it's the turn of Ogilvy, who've just launched their account management graduate scheme for 2013. The page can be accessed here.

This scheme is an amalgamation of the old summer placement scheme and the account management schemes of years previously. To find out more about the structure, have a look here.


Key dates include the closing date - February 18th, the interview and assessment day (the week commencing April the 8th), and when the scheme starts (1st July) and ends (30th August). Assuming all goes well, you'll begin the fellowship in mid-October.

Good luck, gang. You can ask questions of Ogilvy via their twitter and Facebook accounts.

McCann & Ogilvy...

Perhaps not this chap...but someone like him..

Hello adgrad folk.

It's 2013, and given that the dust has settled from quite a lot of schemes pre-Christmas, I thought it might be an idea to draw your attention to a few agencies' successful candidates - how they got on and in.

Who knows, it might help you redouble your efforts for next time, or - if you're due to graduate the year after, provide you with some much needed tips for your first application.

The first is a short video McCann have produced following their 'McCademy' graduate scheme. Find out more here. The video's below:



A successful Ogilvy planning fellow, John Hillier, has written a very good blog post on the topic of his application to the 2012 scheme. Read it here. His twitter account is here, should you have any questions/tweet yourself.

I hope those two are useful. As ever, check the adgrads archives - there are a fair number of posts about how to prepare application forms/interview successfully.

Wannabe and current Planner types, read this...

That's these guys.

Hello gang.

An interesting opportunity, this. I'd estimate some 80% of the people who email me off the back of my witterings on AdGrads want to work in planning.

And, as a planner, I'm delighted to hear that. However, one of the most tricky questions I get asked is 'how do I get a Junior Planner job?' To be quite honest, there's no one clear or easy way into this line of work. It is frequently frustrating, and often requires months/years of interning or being an account handler/manager first.

I was lucky. Through a combination of blogging, interning and being in the right place at the right time, I was able to get into planning without having to do account management for several years. Partly, it was down to one of the dons of planning, Russell Davies (the mind behind 'Grr' for Honda and 'Run London' for Nike, and that's just the tip of the iceberg).

He and his good bunch at the London Strategy Unit have realised that formal grounding and training in planning is fairly thin on the ground, and want to help wannabe (and current junior) planners with some best in class training. Note, this ISN'T just for wannabe planners - it's for those in the business as well.

They're just about to launch a series of training mornings at their place, and have sent the blurb along. Read on:

"One of the things we’ve observed in recent years is how difficult it is for junior strategists, and wannabe strategists, to get a proper foothold into the discipline, particularly agency-side. And by ‘foothold’, we mean access not only to the kinds of people and businesses who can help them on their way, but also to the kind of training and other professional development tools that turn brilliant potential into brilliant performance.

Of course, there are people and organisations out there who have already recognised this, and we have a lot of time for the APGs and IPAs of this world. But they can only do so much, limited (as they often are) by available space, available time, and of course available money. (The money point is also important as the relative paucity of available subsidies often precludes people who aren’t already in successful businesses from getting the kind of training and support that can help them get jobs in successful businesses – ironically enough.)

So, we’ve decided to try and do our bit. Next Monday at 9.00am we’ll have a new Events section up on our website where you can register interest in our first ‘strategist bootcamp’. That’s a working title; we’re beavering away so hard behind the scenes right now that we haven’t quite decided what it should be called yet.

We’ll be running our first event over a couple of days in February next year. It’ll feature interesting industry folk as well as senior LSU people. It’ll be hands-on, practical, and give every participant something of genuine career value. As it’ll be our first one, and we want to use it as an opportunity to try stuff out and learn as we go, we’re going to run the whole thing without attempting to profit from it. That means we’ll be sharing with everyone exactly what it costs us to stage, and simply dividing that by the number of paid tickets available. Tickets will be strictly limited, although to help out those who aren’t currently in jobs we’ll also be offering a few free ones – we’ll leave information on how that works for next week.

It’s going to be brilliant, or at least the start of something brilliant, and we hope that you’ll spread the word and come back to learn more next Monday."

So, keep an eye on their site. It's going to be brilliant, whether you want to work as a planner, are just into planning (also, have a look at this post) or if you want to brush up on your skills.

BMB Ad Scheme - Interviews For All!

BMB'sad scheme has launched..read on...

Hi all.

More gr(ad) scheme bits and bobs to tell you about. This time it's the turn of BMB.

They've been in touch to tell us about their advertising scheme; this time, they're doing things a little differently. Application forms are out - they want to chat, and to chat to everyone, grads and non-grads alike.

Here's what they've got to say:

"We're continuing our mission to challenge the status quo and democratise the interview process, so whether you're a grad, non-grad, martian or womble, if you want an interview, you can have one. We'll be doing it for one day only – November 22nd.

For those who are unfamiliar with how it works, it's simple really. We'll be getting you all to spin a virtual roulette wheel to let pot luck decide which one of our BMBers you will speak to via Skype for a 7 minute chat. Our BMB panel will be changing all the time, so you won't have a clue which one of our top dogs you'll be talking to. And neither will we.

Essentially, you'll need to come back and visit our website between 7am and 11pm on November 22nd (2012 – just to be totally clear). We'll be streaming the ever-changing interview panel live from an agency webcam – and it'll be up to you to spin the arrow to find out who you'll be chatting to for 7 minutes."

To learn more about the interview, and the job that's up for grabs, click here. 

Good luck!" 

Best of luck to each of you.