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Angel Rivera: An internship, some
kind of experience, maybe like travel, if you've got an
opportunity to travel to a foreign country. I would look
for language skills, if you have a second language, if
you have a third language, that's even better. I would
look for key words. In fact, we were talking about scanning
resumes and us sourcing candidates through these scanned
resumes. How this works is the database is created and
we look for key words. So, in other words, if I get a
call from Foote, Cone & Belding, "we want somebody
who has experience working with a beverage company."
I would look for the word beverage on people's resumes
and the computer would search for that keyword. I could
search for other skills, like searching for resumes of
candidates who speak Spanish. All the resumes that have
those keywords would then be forwarded to the hiring managers.
So, you want to look for and you want to prepare and know
what those key terms are. Brand is a key term. You can
read up on these things through Ad Age or Adweek, weekly
magazines, and you'll see the words and the new terms
and the new paradigm. Those things, all should be part
of your cover letter and your resume, and you have to
sort of think ahead. What is it that people are looking
for and how can I get this on my resume? |
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Patty Enright: I think the other
thing that certainly I always look for is anything that's
going to set you above or apart from someone else. Again,
to the point that he made earlier, we do get lots of resumes,
and we sit down and certainly I look at all of them. But
we're looking at you today for the first job opportunity
but what we're really looking to do is say, does this
individual fit into my organization culturally and do
we see -- hopefully we see all of you well beyond that
first job. So, anything that can demonstrate a team, sports,
leadership, because we don't work alone in this business.
We work in teams. We're in a very collaborative environment.
So, anything that can demonstrate your association with
your university or schools, any sort of participative,
competitive sports, debate, any type of cultural experiences
which are going to have a broadening experience. My favorite
resume is always, I scooped ice cream on Martha's Vineyard
for the summer but I was responsible for the cash register.
You talk to them and they did it for a week, and then
the rest of the time they spent on the beach. Okay, fine.
Yes, you had a summer job. But where are you really demonstrating
responsibility, authority, did you have to go to work
everyday at a certain time? They sound very basic but
at the same time you'd be surprised. So, anything that's
going to demonstrate your ability to be part of something
and committed to something, whether it's a sorority or
a fraternity. Maybe you were the secretary for your sorority
or fraternity or whatever. Anything that's going to help
you, certainly any job experience that you have had, volunteer
activities. Were you a big brother, were you a big sister?
Did you work as a candy striper in a hospital. Anything
that's going to show commitment and sort of stick-to-it-iveness,
and also rounding in terms of your experience. All school
and no play, you know. |
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Rene Bruce: Yeah, just to follow
up on that. Don't be afraid to show your individuality.
I think this is one industry -- I love working in this
industry because I meet so many interesting people with
various backgrounds and all these outside interests. So,
we're not looking for people who are just tunnel vision,
job related. But if you put it on your resume, be ready
to talk about it. |
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Steve Norcia: See, one of the other
things that you can also do is you can read The New York
Times and The Wall Street Journal, as my class does every
week, every day, and also read Ad Age and Adweek, and
if you can't read them because you don't want to buy the
newspapers, get on the web and get on there. One of my
students emailed me and said, what do you mean by business-to-business?
Well, go to the Ad Age web site, go to business-to-business,
100 leading business-to-business advertisers, and Microsoft
at the top of the list. By the time you get finished with
the list, you'll know what business-to-business means.
There's a tremendous amount of due diligence and unraveling
that you have to do on your own. This is not an easy business,
and one of the reasons why the pay may not sound like
what the Wharton guys are getting is because primarily
that's the entry level. And if you prove your worth, your
pay will go very, very quickly, probably quicker than
any other business that you'll ever imagine. But the issue
is you have to have some talent, and you have to have
talent and perspiration. The key I think here is if you're
thinking about how to write a resume or how to write a
letter to an agency and how to get their attention, is
just think about a wheat field out in Ohio somewhere.
And think about every stalk, and figure out why one stalk
is going to stick out from all the others. That's the
way you kind of get an agency's attention. With some bit
of thinking or some bit of experience or some bit of integrity
or whatever it is, but you've got to communicate that
you're a communicator. You've got to read books. You've
got to go see movies. You've got to understand commercials.
You have to listen to what the beat of the industry is
telling you and you have to get it. If you don't get it,
they'll figure it out in about a minute and a half. But
if you get it, they'll also figure it out and they'll
send a car for you. |
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Rene Bruce: Please, this sounds
really basic, but if you get to the interview point, be
able to talk about ads. I always ask the question, tell
me about some ads that you think are effective, and I'm
constantly amazed at how many people can't talk about
it. If you want a job in advertising, you need to be thinking
about it. |
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Anne Melanson: Let me throw out
something, which might seem a little bit at odds with
what we're talking about here, at the risk of sounding
a little less Pollyannish, it isn't about just asking
questions. That can make you stand out, but you've got
to have the goods, too. You do need to know, there are
a lot of people who are applying for jobs. We probably
get 30 resumes for every job that we have, across all
the disciplines. So, while it is a terrific market for
people these days, particularly grads coming out, it is
still a very competitive market. So, I think you do need
to understand that there's a lot of competition. The people
that you're competing against are people who, as Rene
said, know, they've done their homework. They have a point
of view. I have a particular interest in finding out what
people's point of view is, not what they read in the trades.
I want to know what they think about advertising. I want
to know what they like about it, what they don't like
about it? What's their beef about ads? What's their point
of view on First Amendment rights. Somebody may think,
well, what does that have to do with advertising? It has
a lot to do with advertising. There are a lot of things.
I was delighted to hear you say The Wall Street Journal
and The New York Times, because I think people aren't
reading enough of the general interest newspapers and
publications. Because in advertising, we used to say we
want renaissance people, which is a little clichéd,
but you really do because the most successful advertising
people are the ones who know about the world around them.
It isn't just by reading the trade journals or by staying
just in the marketing arena. If you really have a sense
of what's going on in the world, you're going to be successful
in advertising. Think about the internet entrepreneurs,
they didn't get to where they are by just reading technical
journals. They had the technical expertise but they also
saw what was happening in the world and the need for a
different kind of communication. Once having seen these
things, they had the vision to say, this can work. Steve
Case said, I'll bet I can connect all of these people
in the world through an internet connection and keep it
simple and people will come flocking, and they'll even
pay money every month to do it. And, bang. |
