Advertising Internships

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

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.