Advertising Internships

Advertising And Advertising Internships

What do advertisements have to do with an advertising internship?

Advertisements have a lot to do with advertising internships.  What do you think advertising agencies want out of their interns?  What will catch their eye on your application to make them pursue you?  What is the theme of your advertising internship application?

When you are thinking about how to answer these questions for your advertising internship application, here are some things to consider.

What are some of your favorite brands?  Apple, Nike, Google, IBM, and other top brands will probably pop into your head.  What are the most common consumer touch points for these brands?  What are some words you would use to describe these brands?  Think about these brands and how they convey some of the qualities that you have yourself. 

You may think of the vision of IBM or the innovation of Apple.  What are the media outlets that led you to this conclusion?  If you arrived at this conclusion through using the company’s products themselves, then you should focus on offering the advertising agency something that you have done.  If you liked the simple, attractive image of Google’s homepage, you should focus on making your resume look simple yet eye-catching.

Now, think of the chaotic noise of terrible advertisements and infomercials.  They are obviously cheep and slick, and they are blatantly trying to get you to buy something.  To sum it up, they are shallow.  If you are applying for the advertising agency, and you try to be too much, this is how you’ll come across.  Don’t be a jack of all trades and master of none.  Have a few specialties or skill sets that you can OWN.

And please, don’t make your advertising internship application a plea for advertising internship.  Make them want you!

Advice on Advertising Cover Letters for Internships

Cover letters are important.  Anybody can walk into their career center and find that out.  But how do you craft an effective cover letter?  

The first thing that is important is to stand out.  Chances are, the recruiters for your job or internship are going to see a lot of internship cover letters.  And your cover letter is the first part of your application they will see.  So be creative.  Think about how you can effectively portray yourself in an interesting way, and go for it!  This is a high risk position.  Go out on a limb!  The odds that you get completely cut from the running for your internship or job based on your cover letter is small.  And if you do, you probably wouldn’t want to work for them anyway.  

Here is what you should NOT do.   Don’t be boring.  Don’t be the same as every other student else who is competing for your job or internship.  There are just too many other students out there to throw your name into the hat by creating a boring cover letter.  

Finally, think about your audience.  If you are applying for an advertising internship, this is EXTREMELY important.  You need to view your cover letter as a way to advertise yourself to the company!  If you can’t advertise yourself to the recruiters, how will you ever advertise their products to the general public?  Advertise your creativity, your prowess as a student, and anything else you can think of.  Be creative, take chances, and sell yourself!  The job and internship market is very tough right now- how will YOU stand out? Go make a killer internship cover letter!

Tips For Advertising Internship Interview

Keep it cool in your advertising internship interview

So you’ve crushed it with your resume and cover letter, and now you have an interview for your advertising internship.  Chances are, you’ll be interviewing with an HR person and another employee, probably an account executive.

If you’ve made it this far, the agency obviously want you.  They have an entirely different perspective when they are selecting  applicants to hire and not applicants to interview.  When they’re selecting applicants to interview, they are looking for the smartest and most driven people.  But when they are selecting applicants to hire, they want they want the coolest people.

Everyone they’ve selected for an interview has basically the same credentials and expertise in the industry.  From this point on, the people who actually get the advertising internship are going to be people that you want to see in the office everyday.  The HR person wants to be able to say to their co-workers, “Yeah, I hired that guy.”

Keep this in mind when you interview for your advertising internship.  Make a great impression during your interview.  Convey the right amount of status, but not too much.  Be confident, but don’t be arrogant.  Be eager, but don’t be overzealous.  Convey to them that you WANT the job, but you don’t need it.  It’s key to let them know you’d love the job, but you’re not desperate.

Think about this before you go into an interview for your advertising internship.  Most of the internship advice I’ve come across (courtesy of my school’s career center) gives you  examples of behavioral questions and tells you to research the company.  None of it tells you how to pick up on cues or what body language to have.  None of it tells you what kind of mindset to be in.  None of it gives you exercises or lines to recite to go into the interview with a positive mindset.

If you want to succeed in an interview and let them know you’re a cool person who they’ll love to work with, you need to use a different approach then rehearsing answers to behavioral questions. That’s fine too, but you need to go in there with confidence.

Some people are natural at interviews.  Congratulations to them.  If you’re not, then there is plenty of material out there that will help you act confident instead of nervous.  It really is up to you to take control and get your advertising internship. Best of luck to you in the internship hunt!

Advertise for your advertising internship

What’s a better way to get your advertising internship than to advertise for it?  Think about it.  Advertising is about reaching consumers with a message.  If you’re trying to get an advertising internship, the advertising agency is your consumer.  How can you reach them?  If you can show your advertising skills, you’ll have a great shot at getting an advertising internship.

What can you do to reach the advertising agency?  Make yourself acceptable.  Do something different.  Make an advertisement for yourself.  This could be funny and effective.  Send in some work that you’ve done, or do a sample print ad for one of the agency’s clients.  Even if it’s not a groundbreaking idea, it will show that you are smart and get things done.  It will show that you are driven and that you want the advertising internship.

Another part of advertising is having different touch points for your product.  Have some different touch points for yourself.  Get on twitter and LinkedIn.  Start a blog.  If the advertising agency searches for you on the Internet and sees that you are active in marketing yourself, they will find you to be a great fit for their advertising internship.

Advertising agencies are always looking for innovative, fresh ideas.  This is a huge advantage for you in your pursuit of an advertising internship.  Most students looking for advertising internships stick the traditional model by sending in a cover letter and resume.  If you think of an innovative way to reach out to an advertising agency, you’ll definitely land the advertising internship.

Advertising Internship Cover Letter

Advertising Internship Cover Letter

Writing a killer advertising internship cover letter is very important.  But cover letters for advertising internships are different, because they are the most open to landing you an internship or at least an interview.

What are advertising agencies looking for?  What kind of advertising intern will they want to hire?  Chances are a lot of the resumes they get look the same.  The best way to differentiate yourself is by writing an unbelievable internship cover letter.

You may feel restricted writing a cover letter to an industry that you aren’t an expert of.  But you are bombarded with thousands of advertisements everyday.  Use a little common sense and it’s not hard to

A great thing to do when writing a cover letter for advertising internships is to look up the agency and research some work they’ve done for clients.  Pick a client or two, compliment some of the work they’ve done, and make some creative recommendations for the future.  Any idea that makes them think is fine.   Demonstrate your knowledge of the industry by breaking down the consumers by psychographic or demographic characteristics, and then come up with an out-of-the-box solution for reaching out to them. Write a great advertising internship cover letter!

One advantage you have when trying to get advertising internships is that you have limitless possibilities with your cover letter.  Another advantage you have is that you are one of the few who realize this.  Take full advantage of your internship cover letter and you will have a great chance at landing an advertising internship.

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Want to learn more? Check out some popular advertising agencies:

Crispin, Porter, & Bogusky Internship

Meyock's Grouper Internship

Mullen Internship

Liggett Stashower Internship