Advertising Internships

Advertising Case Competitions for Internships

Why run a case competition to evaluate candidates for an internship? This will allow companies to evaluate how passionate a student is about the internship or job, case competitions allow candidates to showcase their ideas, and an employer can evaluate the student based on their work. Case competitions are becoming popular tools, as evidenced by Google, Starbucks, and others running contests.

Case competitions are a great way to recruit college students. College students from almost every university do case competitions of some type. Most are done through their school with other schools, or with a type of case competition format that rewards the winning school. Case competitions are also a great way to recruit candidates for internships and entry level jobs.

Why should you run (or compete in) a case competition?  There are several reasons for both sides.  Companies get to see what students can really do.  They get to see real work product  rather than a resume and an interview, which oftentimes don’t tell you a whole lot.  It just makes sense that they will hire better-suited candidates.

Students, looking for an internship or a job, also have incentive to compete in these.  First of all, it levels your playing field.  You are judged solely on how well you perform in this competition.  Suddenly, that D in German sophomore year isn’t coming back to haunt you!  The company gets to see you tackle a real-world problem.  Lets be honest- we all know people who might not have the most impressive resume, but they are smart as can be and you know they are going to succeed.  And we all know people who have great resumes and can charm in an interview, who really bring nothing to the table.

Equal the playing field.  Go out and run a case competition, and let the best job candidates come to you.

Competitive Advertising Internships

Competitive Advertising Internships

Do you have what it takes to intern with an advertising agency? The world of ads and branding is much different than it used to be.  It is a completely different game than it was as recently as fifteen years ago.  Advertising is much more than coming up with catchy billboards and magazine ads.  Success completely depends upon standing out among a sea of pop ups, banner ads, and commercials.  Companies are willing to spend endless amounts of money every year just to get into our heads.  If we even recognize a certain brand logo, corporations consider that to be a huge success.  Though companies spend exorbitant amounts on advertising, they want the best for what they are paying for.

Advertising Internships are amongst the most challenging positions out there.  Students who have worked very hard to stand out and land the internship in the first place are then expected to come up with the next big thing.  Every day is a constant battle to think outside the box; to figure out what hasn’t been done before.  Advertising Internships serve the purpose of providing companies with insight into the demographic of college students and the teenage demographic.  Ad firms have a never ending demand for new ideas, and they expect those innovations to come from the very minds they are targeting each and every day.

If you anticipate getting an advertising internship in the near future, brace yourself for high levels of stress.  You will likely be treated as any other idea generator in the firm.  It is expected that everyone an ad agency brings into the organization will offer some value in terms of innovation.  Be ready to live up to the expectation, or the experience may turn out to be rather unpleasant.