If you can afford tuition to an ad school, go.

Frank Anselmo, of the School of Visual Arts, advises anyone seeking an ad career to enroll in a school:

There's no way to replicate being in a room with peers who are all hell-bent on kicking each other's butts every week. It's like ballplayers competing for the same position midseason before playoffs. Part of what's great about being in a class is the requirement to come in every week with new ideas. That constant expectation of your brain to keep pushing, it really makes you step up your game.

As of this writing, the top-rated professional schools on my list are the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Brigham Young University in Provo, the Creative Circus in Atlanta, Miami Ad School, NYC's School of Visual Arts, the University of Texas in Austin, and Virginia Commonwealth University's Brandcenter in Richmond.

Up in Canada, my friends Nancy Vonk and Janet Kestin say they're seeing good students come out of Ontario College of Art and Design University, and Mohawk College in Hamilton. My friend Anthony Kalamut runs a good ad program at Seneca College. And with Suzanne Pope at Humber, they must be pretty good, too.

In the UK, most people seem to like the School of Communication Arts 2.0. It's not a degree sort of university, but during the one-year course students work off actual briefs and are tutored by working creative directors in London. Also well-respected is University College Falmouth and Central St. Martins College of Art and Design. There's also the Watford Course at West Herts College.

In Europe, there's the Berghs School of Communication in Stockholm, who seem to kill it every year in the One Show's student competition. Insiders tell me the Miami Ad School's best campuses are in Madrid and Berlin. In Australia, check out the AWARD School as well as RMIT University; for New Zealanders, there are the Media Design School as well as the Auckland University of Technology. In India, sources tell me the top two places to look at are the Mudra Institute of Communications in Ahmedabad and the Xaviers Institute of Communication in Mumbai.

If you're more of the tech type, it's hard to beat Hyper Island (nestled in the Swedish town of Karlskrona). Here in the United States, our version of Hyper Island is Boulder Digital Arts. There's also a funky, informal place in New York a techy friend told me about called the School for Poetic Computation.* They do a lot of remote learning. I'm sure other good digital schools will appear after this book goes to print.

Don't beat yourself up trying to decide which of these schools is the very best. They all offer various degrees and they all rock in one way or another. Find one where you like the vibe.

If you simply haven't got the money and can't attend a school, don't give up. You'll have a much steeper hill to climb, undoubtedly, because you'll be competing with students who've set aside a year or two of their lives to fully concentrate on putting together a terrific portfolio. In the end, however, it all comes down to the work you can put together—your portfolio website.

To get a job in the creative side of this business, you'll need to create a website that holds eight or nine speculative campaigns that show how you think. If you can put together that many great campaigns, the top graduate of the best school has nothing on you. However, if you're still pounding the pavement after a year with your homemade book, maybe it'll be time to think about enrolling in one of the creative schools. This is particularly true if you want to be an art director. Unlike copywriting, even junior art directors must have certain graphic, production, and digital skills to get in the door.

Before you start on the journey, be ready for the possibility you may not be cut out for this business. The creative schools are aware of this fact and, after a few unproductive semesters, students who clearly demonstrate they're not cut out for the creative path will often be gently redirected. Many students figure this out for themselves along the way and still go on to find fulfilling careers at agencies as strategists, media planners, or account people. Until you know for sure, keep all your options open.

If, however, you are—at your core—creative, then it becomes a matter of immersing yourself in the crafts of writing and art direction, storytelling, and creative tech. These are just skills, crafts; they're something you can get better at with practice.

Once you decide to go for a creative career, give your portfolio your everything. Your book will be the single most important piece you work on in your career. It is your foot in the door, your résumé, your agent, your spokesperson, and a giant fork in the road to your eventual career. And like a good chess opening, the better it is, the more advantages you'll discover through the rest of the game.

Ad agencies aren't the only creative game in town anymore.

Today, good creative people have more than just ad agencies to choose from. Take BuzzFeed, for example. This is a company that loves ad students and hires them by the booth-at-Starbuck's-full. What do they do at BuzzFeed? “We work with marketers,” reads their site, “to produce sponsored branded content, articles, and videos designed to be shareable on social media.” If that sounds like a job description for an agency creative person, well, it is. Facebook, too, has an in-house creative unit and Google and Apple offer similar opportunities.

“We're no longer competing just with other advertising agencies,” says Bob Jeffrey of J. Walter Thompson. “Now there's also Facebook, Google, Vice, Maker Studios, and a whole bunch of other content players we compete with.” Amy Hoover, president of recruitment company Talent Zoo, says almost half the creative jobs out there today are not at agencies. They're at big Silicon Valley powerhouses and little start-ups. They're also at in-house agencies at the big-box companies: your Lowe's, your Targets, your Staples. Their money's just as green as any agency's, and I know a whole bunch of people who've had long, happy, wonderful careers in the in-house industry.

If you're not exactly sure yet what job you want in the industry, no worries. You don't have to know right now. Many people enter the advertising field knowing only that they dig it. They like the creative vibe and the range of challenges and opportunities they see there. As you enter college or an ad school, it's okay to keep your options open for a while. Eventually, when you create your final website, you'll have to declare a specialty, but for now, just learn.

Maybe you'll lean more into art direction, maybe copywriting, or creative tech. There's room for all kinds in an agency. Well, room for everyone except “Idea Guys”—you know, people who gesture with finger guns and go, “I just do the ideas, babe.”

So, where to start?

If you're a writer working alone, your ideas will have to shine through your so-so art direction.

Concept comes first, then execution. At the end of the day, ideas beat art direction. That should be comforting news if you're a writer having to art direct your own work. Ideas beat everything.

Here's an example of an idea so good, even a bad drawing doesn't get in the way. I am right-handed. With my left hand, I have rendered a famous Nike ad from a British agency (Figure 17.2). With a concept this great, any recruiter or CD can see past the rough execution to the brilliance of the idea. As ugly as my drawing is, if you could put together a string of ideas this great, you'll make the team.

Given the rise of the advertising schools out there, the way your work looks is more important than ever—even for us copywriters. Books with good ideas that are poorly art-directed will simply not get the same attention from agencies. (Come to think of it, it's no different from when I was in high school, and the good-looking kids got all the attention, with all their cool clothes and their daddy's car and … oh …, I digress.)

Bottom line: the competition is fierce. Look your best.

If you have a partner, why not apply as a team?

Big agencies, in particular, like to hire young creatives in pairs. They know you and your partner, together, are likely to hit the ground running. Pre-matched teams also help an agency avoid the risk of randomly pairing a new hire with just anyone in the agency. Pairings don't always click.

One other thing. As the world rights itself from the effects of the pandemic, many agencies are a little slower at hiring on-ground creatives. Agencies have found the whole remote-working thing costs them a lot less. Unfortunately, it costs the creative process more. Concepting over Zoom? (Not that I would know, but it sounds a little like phone sex.) Better to have your partner working in the room with you.

Apprentices study the work of masters.

Go to the ad blogs. Go to oneclub.org, dandad.org, and Lürzer's Archive. Perhaps the best site for studying work is lovetheworkmore.com, created by Quynh Tran and Toan Mai.

Design fads come and go, but the classic advertising structures endure. See what makes the ideas work. Take them apart. Put them back together.

Study the sites of other creatives.

My friend Anthony Kalamut from Seneca College told me,

I tell my students “know your competition.” In the agency world, we do competitive analyses of other brands, and you need to do the same. Google a creative person you admire, check out their website, check out their work. Visit other ad school websites; look at their student work. This is the best barometer to check your work against.¹

Like he said, every ad school out there has a website. Somewhere on each one you'll find a section showcasing the work and the websites of their graduates. Go study them.

Study also the formatting of these websites. Obviously, you can't copy the ideas, but if you like the format of a particular website or how it flows, adapt it for your own.

Come up with monstrous ideas, not just monstrous ads.

“The best way to impress a CD,” says Frank Anselmo, “is to show something they've never seen the likes of. An idea that's more than just another print or digital piece but one that defies or even reinvents the medium. An idea so new it defies being categorized.” He goes on to say, “When you have work this good you become more than ‘that one kid with the great portfolio.' You become ‘the one who did the—fill-in-the-blank—thing.'”²

Do something big and marvelous and wonderful. Be inspired by the ideas you've seen in this book. IKEA's “Human Catalog.” DNA Discounts for AeroMexico. Heinz's “Draw Ketchup.” Velocity's “The Billion Point Giveaway.” Burger King's “Burn That Ad,” “WhopperFreakout,” and “Moldy Whopper.” These were all way beyond ads.

Of the many CDs I've talked with about junior books, all of them remember hiring kids who had a piece of work so good, it made them actually gasp. Looking back on my own years of hiring, pretty much every kid whose work gave me one of those OMG moments, I hired.

Do not show just ads. Show mind-roasting campaign ideas executed in a variety of media.

Almost anybody can do a decent ad if they work at it long enough. But skilled ad people think in campaigns and so should you. Fill your portfolio with eight or nine great campaigns. And remember, campaigns aren't three one-shots strung together by a common typeface, but one big fat idea executed across a whole range of different media.

Keep in mind it's not a campaign to simply resize one idea to fit newspaper, then outdoor, then online. Trying to drag a print-based idea kicking and screaming into the digital space is no good—by the time it gets there, it's dead anyway. You need to show us how muscular and flexible your core idea is with different executions across a variety of media, tailor-made for each medium and leveraging the medium's strengths. This is why it's best to go into each project with no particular medium in mind. Let the idea drive the media you choose.

In an interview, Rob Schwartz of TBWA/Chiat also encouraged ad students to think in big campaigns: “It's not just ‘I can do one good print ad.' It's ‘I can do a holistic, fully integrated, major, big chunky thought that's media infinite.' It can run on TV, it can run in print, it can run in someone's dinner conversation, and the public relations people can work with it.”³

“Show me an original voice.”

That quotation is from Susan Hoffman, ECD of the mighty Wieden+Kennedy. She did a Zoom visit to my class one day, and this was the point she closed on.

Clever is good. Digital is great. Beautiful design, yes, gotta have it. But the most important thing she looks for is an original voice. For somebody who sees the world in a unique way.

Now is not the time to play it safe.

As you put your book together, err on the side of recklessness. It's the one time in your career you get to pick the client and write the strategy. If you're not pushing to the edge now, when are you going to start? A junior book should be the most fun thing a recruiter gets to look at all day. There are no clients or CDs telling you what to do. Swing for the fences.

Nor is this the time to be clueless and naive.

Don't fill your book with outrageous ads that would have no real chance of ever being approved. Swear words in the headlines, sexual jokes, stuff like that is all fine when you're working with your partner and messing around. But when you include stuff like this in your book, what it says about you isn't flattering. (“Hello, I'm a clueless young creative with no business sense whatsoever.”)

Do stuff that has a real chance of client approval.

Round out your portfolio with a variety of goods and services.

Don't try to add your take on the latest, award-winning Nike campaign. It's tempting to do so, but you set yourself up for a harsh comparison to work that's extremely good.

Just pick some products you like. Start a file on them. Fill it with inspiring ideas you see in the One Show and D&AD. Fill it with bad ads you gather from everywhere else. Start jotting down every little thing that feels like it could be an idea. Don't edit. Just start. You like mountain biking? Great, start a file; maybe do a campaign that pitches the sport to joggers.*

Make sure to also choose some boring products—products without any real differences to distinguish them (besides the work you're about to do). A sporting goods retail chain. A mid-priced hotel brand. You figure it out. Find a way to make them fascinating.

Pick real brands that are actually advertising, but doing it poorly. Your ideas for the local bakery, your brother's auto shop, and the dry cleaner simply aren't as impressive as work you do for an airline, a brand of clothing, a food processor. Take on real stuff.

You might try concepting for a product you've never used and never will. If you're a guy, write subscription ads for Brides magazine. The fresh mind you bring to the category may help you get to some interesting places.

Jamie, my agency recruiter friend, told me, “My favorite books are the ones which come from agencies with crappy clients. If a person can make something good from some of the godawful products I see … that is someone with brains and drive.” My friend Bob Barrie concurs: “Do great ads for boring products.”

And, finally, take a shot at a campaign for a packaged good. Like lipstick, soup, or bouillon cubes. Don't touch Hot Wheels toy cars or Tabasco sauce. Everybody in the space-time continuum has a campaign on those.

And finally, I implore you, please, no pee-pee jokes, potty humor, and for the love of God, no cheeky condom ads. All these things have been done to death. You won't just be beating a dead horse. You'll be beating the dust from the crumbling rocks of the fossilized bones of an extinct species of pre-horse crushed between two glaciers in the Miocene Era.

And a quick note to you guys? Please give the dick jokes a rest. I swear, I see so many guys come into class with offensive ideas about dicks and hotties and boobs and I just want to weep for humanity. (I may stop pointing out this failing to these guys, knowing as I do most recruiters are women.)

Now, back to getting started. To help you think about the kinds of products that might make for a good student book, I provide the following list. It's by no means definitive, just stuff I've seen over the years. Generally, you want your portfolio to feature brand names your best friend's mom would recognize.

When you're done, your book should show the ability to think creatively and strategically on goods and services, both hard and soft. It should show conceptual muscle, technological savvy, a unique point of view, and stylistic range.

Your portfolio should show a variety of styles.

Not all ads, not all websites, not all headlines, not all visuals, but a good mix of everything you're capable of.

This advice applies particularly to aspiring art directors and specifically to page design, whether the page is in print or online. Show work that demonstrates your ability to handle type. Show work that's all visual, or all headline, or ads with a lot of elements that require great design. Flex a lot of muscles. The same advice applies to writers. Show a range of voice. I've seen portfolios written entirely in one voice: snark. Vary your writing voices: gothic, emotional, high luxury, street, whatever's right for the brand.

One last thing to watch out for. Many student books show ability to think conceptually but demonstrate little mastery of craft. Too often I see a photo pulled off the web with a headline slapped on top of it and some copy below. There's no layering, no texture, no artistry. But to be hired as an art director at a good agency, they'll expect you to know how to fire up Adobe's Creative Suite and make it beg for mercy.

The Virginia Holocaust Museum poster shown in Figure 17.3 (from The Martin Agency) is an example of extraordinary craft. The black-and-white image here doesn't do the campaign justice. Google a hi-rez image of this and you'll be able to get a better look at the craft of high-level art direction: The headline spray-painted on a rusty scrap of old tin, with a drop shadow. The grain of the wood in the vintage clipboard. The period typography of an old typewriter, and the elegant design of the objects on the page.

Susan Hoffman, ECD of Wieden+Kennedy, said it very plainly: “I think the craft of design has disappeared. For an art director position, I'm not interested in a conceptual art director only. I want a conceptual art director who knows how to design.”⁴ That's Susan Hoffman talking, folks. Executive creative director of Wieden.

Whatever you make, make it way better than it has to be made.

Let's pause here to discuss the importance of polish in your executions.

Remember how it felt the first time you held a new iPod or iPhone? Remember the delight you felt with every detail? The texture of the metal, the precious curve of the housing, the click of each button? Even the box it came in was amazing.

I doubt I'm the only one who thought these angelic details made those little devices from Cupertino feel perfect—not just good, but perfect. At Apple, they call this design ethos making something “insanely great.”

Apple isn't the only place you can enjoy the benefits of fanatical attention to detail. You can hear it in the slam of a new Audi's door, feel it in the delicious weight of a Waterford crystal glass; hear it in any Beatles song. (Well, I hear it anyway.) Point is, all of these things are made way better than they have to be.

We've discussed the crafts of art direction and copywriting. I want to emphasize the importance of employing these crafts to the very best of your ability, the importance of doing work that is insanely great. Because in the end these skills are all you have at your command to get a reader or viewer to lean in. And this leaning in is the goal for any artist, especially us advertising artists.

Let me describe what I mean by “leaning in.”

Over the years I've judged many advertising award shows, and for the print portion of these competitions (back then, anyway), thousands of ads were laid out on a series of long tables: rooms filled with thousands of ideas. The advertising judges (usually slightly crispy from carousing in the bars the night before) wandered up and down the aisles looking for creative work they thought worthy of recognizing in the final cut. While judging the work, I also watched the judges judge. Invariably, I witnessed a magic little moment—when the judge stopped, bent at the waist, and leaned in to more closely study a particular piece. What is it, I wondered, that made the judge lean in?

Over the years, I've come to believe the operative element is subliminal, not “subliminal advertising,” the way Vance Packard complained about in his ’50s conspiracy book, The Hidden Persuaders. No, the operative element we're talking about here is subliminal quality.

The very word sublime helps explain this point. Limen is Latin for “threshold.” Subliminal, then, means below the threshold of awareness. We're talking about baking quality so far into a thing that people perceive its quality subconsciously. They know they're looking at something of quality before they're even conscious of the realization. When a thing is made way better than it has to be made, its quality comes off of it in waves.

Craft is what makes us lean in to get closer to any beautiful thing, be it a painting, a store window, or a poster. Many in the industry worry about the future of craft given the speed at which modern agencies have to make things. In an interview, Ignacio Oreamuno, considered the question “Whatever happened to craft?”

Art and craft are the only things setting us apart from clients. If a commercial message of any kind is going to stop me, it's going to have to be absolutely arrestingly beautiful. The products we buy, the commercials we see, and the stores we go into need to become more and more beautiful. To do that, art directors, designers, and copywriters have to slow down, take a deep breath, and go back to the roots of our business. An online campaign can't be just interactive and funny. It has to be gorgeous. A banner can't just be clever, it has to have beautiful typography. The photos we use have to be good enough to make you want to lick the screen on your brand-new iPad.⁵

Unsurprisingly, this involves work. But it pays off, as my old Fallon friend Bob Blewett wrote in his self-published book, Paste-Up. “I believe the effort and struggle to create simplicity and grace live on in the work like a soul … and as the ad leaves the agency, your effort and care stand over the ad like a benediction.”⁶

Blewett's benediction is the force I've been trying to get at here, the force that makes someone lean in to study a creation of beauty. There's no shortcut around Blewett's requirement; it takes “effort and struggle.” It means sweating the details of whatever ad or script or site you're working on and going to any length to get it right. It means not letting the smallest thing slide. If a thing bothers you, you work on it until it doesn't bother you, and then you keep working on it until it pleases you.

What you get for your trouble is described by Dave Wallace in his book on creative theory, Break Out. He likens the final approach toward a perfect idea to the sounds different kinds of glassware make when you tap them. A so-so concept is like an ordinary jam jar. Hit it with your fingernail and you get an uninspiring tung sound. A tap on a nice wine glass might give you a more pleasing tang. But a Waterford crystal idea, where you've done a thing perfectly, when all the molecules march in step and the stars align, there's that unmistakable ting.⁷

Tung. Tang. Ting. Don't stop until you get to ting.

Curiously, poet William Butler Yeats also used the metaphor of sound to convey perfection in an idea. He said the sound a good poem makes when it finishes is like “a lid clicking shut on a perfectly made box.”

This unwavering attention to detail will not only improve your craft and your client's fortunes, it will improve you.

Freed minds can think. Trained minds can execute.

Your portfolio has to have strong digital or interactive ideas.

The chief criticism most recruiters and CDs have about student portfolios is a lack of strong digital and interactive work.

I've heard some students respond to this criticism by pointing out they have, for example, a couple of Twitter posts as the “digital part” of one campaign and a video made for YouTube in another. Although such executions are in fact digital, this isn't what such criticisms are addressing.

To compete with the best junior portfolios out there, you're going to need several digital-only campaigns. At the center of each of these campaigns should be a digital engine that defines the campaign. A tent pole that holds up the whole idea.

As an example, consider this Iceland tourism idea from M&C Saatchi titled, “Looks Like You Need to Let It Out.” Airing as it did right when the pandemic lockdowns began to ease, it leveraged the intense frustration people had from months of take-out food, Zoom meetings, and face masks.

The country's tourism board offered a website where you could record your scream and have it released into Iceland's beautiful echoing landscapes (from speakers placed in a few spots in the distant tundra). Along with the interactive part, the site also featured beautiful photography and relevant information and links for people planning their first post-pandemic vacation.

As you can see, there is no “digital part” to this idea. It is all digital.

Don't do an app, unless …

Do an app only if you have some monstrously cool idea that meets an unmet customer need.

If you do have such an idea, don't try to show the user path with a series of teeny eye-chart phone screens. Build a prototype. Building apps has never been easier. Being a Mac person (and most people in the business are), I'd go to the Apple Developer Program.

One great example of how effective this kind of ingenuity in a student book can be is the “Avoid Humans” app. While still at VCU Brandcenter, Matt Garcia (and his partner) created and built a web app that reversed the check-in data from the then-popular Foursquare. It showed users the restaurants/bars/coffee shops with the fewest people. The CDs at GSD&M were so impressed by the utility of this piece, they hired Matt and then helped him improve the app. It turned out to be a big hit at the (extremely crowded) SXSW Interactive in Austin.

Remember, don't make things for the internet. Make things out of the internet.

Client work that's been produced isn't a good enough reason to have it in your book.

The work must also be great. Yes, it is great you've had some real-world experience, perhaps in an internship or freelance. And it's cool you've tackled some real-world problems. But if the work isn't great, don't put it in the main part of your portfolio's landing page. Give it its own page, perhaps in the extras section. (More on the “extras” section later.)

Nobody expects your first book to include TV commercials.

If you're young and just trying to get into the business, don't try to put a TV commercial on your site. Note I'm saying TV commercials, not videos. There's nothing wrong with including a cool video you made, videos that could appear on a client's site or YouTube. But actual TV commercials usually require a budget and a polish that's beyond the capabilities of most beginners.

That said, if you happen to have a mind-roastingly great TV idea and it's something you can shoot with your phone, well, okay, go for it. Generally, though, it's better to address television by including it as one part of an integrated campaign; describe the spot in a sentence and, if the idea needs it, throw in a key frame.

Same thing with radio. Recruiters don't expect junior books to have finished radio commercials. And whatever you do, no TV or radio scripts. If you think you must, put them in the extras section.

If you're looking to land a copywriter's position, show some writing, for Pete's sake.

As a junior copywriter in an agency, your first 500 assignments are likely to be writing headlines for some airline's 500 destinations or pages of content for social media.

Show your writing. A lot of it.

Show me some muscular, intelligent headlines. In Breaking In, creative director Pat McKay says: “It's good to have … a headline campaign. I want to see if [you] can spit out great headlines, crystallized clever distillations of the main idea.”⁸ For a reminder of what crystallized clever distillations look like, revisit The Economist headlines listed in Chapter 5.

In addition to short bursts of brilliance in headlines, also show me you can write something longer—some long-form content for online, a brochure, or maybe a brand manifesto. The format doesn't matter as long as the writing nails a tone, is intelligent, and flows like buttah.

Just before you put the final book together, cut everything that isn't great.

Novelist Elmore Leonard had a great line about his creative process: “I try to leave out the parts people skip.”

That's good advice about writing as well as for assembling your final book. If you have any doubts about something, cut it. Leaving even one weak piece in your book can make a creative director doubt your judgment. It's weird, but people often judge your talent based on the weakest work in your book, not the strongest.

The two prime directives: Speed and clarity.

Take to heart what one recruiter told me about student websites: “Make me fall in love with you in three seconds.”

Recruiters should be able to fly through your site, starting with your best campaign upper left (that's how Westerners read anyway), then click on the center campaign, then click on the right, and just barrel along clickety-split with nothing to slow ’em down.

Do not stop people at your landing page just so you can put on some sort of jazz-hands video and then require them to hit an enter button. When a recruiter clicks on your URL, they want to see your work now. All your campaigns should be represented right there, above the fold. Don't make them click yet again or have to scroll down to find a reason to hire you.

Once a reviewer opens a campaign page, show the pieces in large enough images so viewers can see the details, including body copy. Keep the layout of your pages spare and don't let clutter distract from a clean click-through of your work.

As the pieces in a campaign transition from one medium to another, clearly label each change in media: OUTDOOR, SOCIAL, IN-STORE, and so on.

If you loved your creative partners' contributions, list their names right after the very last piece in the campaign. You may even wish to insert a link to their site.

Finally, at the bottom of each campaign page, give the viewer every option for where to go to next. In a row along the very bottom, list all the brands in your book as links to their respective pages and below that, two final buttons: BACK TO TOP and NEXT.

“The bottom line is this: make your site user-friendly,” says Seneca's Kalamut. “Concentrate on the UX. The recruiter needs to flow through the work with ease, seamlessly from campaign to campaign … with a quick way of getting to your contact info. Make sure your site also includes connections to your LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and make sure the links work and are ‘live'” (lower left in Figure 17.4).

There's one last version of your portfolio you'll need before you take your show on the road. Interviews can sometimes take place in places without wi-fi and so you'll need a Plan B. The solution is an offline portfolio. Having your best work ready to show in a keynote presentation can be a lifesaver. You can also arrange your work in the form of a long scrollable PDF. (Remember most PDFs will be viewed in a landscape orientation, so maximize the images and minimize the scrolling.)

Put name and your job title at the top somewhere.

Say up-front whether you're a writer, art director, or creative tech. And please, don't forget to make your contact information easy to find. Most people put it either in the ABOUT page or have a special CONTACT page.

Give special love and attention to your “About Me” section.

CDs and recruiters tell me this is the section they go to first, even before checking out the work.

Typically, the ABOUT ME button is placed somewhere near the top with the other important navigation buttons all in a row: WORK, ABOUT ME, EXTRA. You may give these buttons any names you want as long as it's clear what a user can expect to see when they click on it.

“This section,” says CD Ryan Carroll, “is an opportunity to make me like you; really like you. It's almost as important as your work, so don't blow it off or half-ass it. If you purport to be a writer and you can't make me like you with words or entertain me for 10 seconds, well, that's kind of a problem.”

One hint for getting started on the section about you is to use that question about truth we learned way back in Chapter 3: “What is the truest thing I can say about me?” Give it some real thought and craft five or six sentences to give recruiters some authentic insight about you—how you think, how you look at the world. Remember, agencies don't hire books, they hire the people behind the books. So, it's kind of a big deal to make sure you come across as a likable, interesting person with a unique voice.

The ABOUT ME page is also a good place to put your picture, as well as the button that downloads your résumé. And don't vamp or pose in the picture. Just be authentic.

Note at bottom right of Figure 17.4, I've labeled one of the page thumbnails OTHER STUFF. It's that EXTRAS I've been talking about. You can call this any number of things. I've seen “Fun Stuff,” “Potpourri,” “Other,” even “Junk Drawer.” Whatever you call it, this is where you put cool stuff you've made that isn't advertising; stuff that demonstrates your creativity in other places. Maybe you design jewelry. Maybe your side hustle is greeting cards. Maybe you're in a band. Great, drop in a video of your best song.

Think about the order in which you want your work to appear.

The illustration in Figure 17.4 is for discussion purposes only. Your landing page does not need to feature three rows of three boxes. Your design should be totally and completely you.

Because it's the first thing a reviewer sees, it's vital your design is unique—it's your digital fingerprint. Think of it as the home page of “you.com.” Think of this as your brand. Which means you should extend this design over to your résumé and business card.

As for the number of campaigns a portfolio should have, ask around and you'll get a lot of opinions. My opinion lines up with one of the recruiters I interviewed, who said, “Here's what I think a student book ought to have: three or four integrated campaigns, plus two digital-only campaigns, a couple of 2D campaigns (print/outdoor/etc.), plus a few things that are just … cool, you know, like inventions, new products or services.”

As for the order you put your campaigns in, I have a fairly strong opinion but I'll let my friend Ryan Carroll kick it off.

Start with your very best campaign. Next, put your second strongest. I know, some say put the best campaign first, second best campaign last. “Start strong, finish strong,” and all that. I disagree. This is a boxing match. Knock me out with the first punch. The first campaign in your book needs to floor me. If you don't, you may never get anyone to check out your second campaign. Put your simplest, most compelling idea first. Simplicity and power are key.

I numbered the campaign thumbnails in Figure 17.4 to illustrate Ryan's point. Start with your best campaign, number 1, and work your way down.

Here's the next important point. I urge you to land two fast punches by having campaigns 1 and 2 both be simple 2D campaigns—mostly print and outdoor. I know, the whole industry is predominantly digital, but the core skills of writing and art direction are best demonstrated in the flat form characteristic of print and outdoor. If you have two great campaigns a reviewer can take in quickly, start off with those. (“Make me fall in love with you in three seconds.”) Posting two quick wins makes it easy for a recruiter to click on campaign 3.

Then, at campaign 3, you should show you can take a brilliant concept and execute it over a variety of media. It's critical your multimedia campaign 3 features some great digital or interactive applications. In number 1 and number 2, you've shown you know how to write or art direct, but now it's time to amaze reviewers with some brilliant digital work that's part of a multimedia campaign.

If you can really knock out a reviewer with your top row, it's likely you'll automatically move to the second round. Back when I was hiring, if I saw three great campaigns, right up front on somebody's site, I'd copy their URL and paste it on a separate document I'd call my shortlist. The list usually grew by one or two names by the time I'd gone through the rest of the portfolios I had to look at. Then I went through the short list again but this time I went deeper into the content with an eye toward how long a candidate could keep up the level of quality I saw in their first three campaigns.

Put a one-sentence setup in front of each campaign.

In a dedicated area at the top of each campaign's page, I recommend you have the brand logo next to a single sentence that quickly describes your main idea. Many people list the business problem, the target market, and then the idea. Don't. Just say the main idea.

Another effective setup structure I've seen is posing a question your campaign then answers. A good example I once saw was: “Citi Bike: How do you take an activity New Yorkers already do and turn it into something that does tangible good?”

Use videos sparingly and only if they're the fastest way to show an idea.

I've heard many recruiters complain about videos. When I did interviews with 25 recruiters, remarks like these were common.

“My god, those videos! They take way too much time. Don't they know I have 10 books to go through and 20 minutes between meetings to do it?”

“If it's longer than a minute, forget about it.”

“Include a video only if you absolutely, totally, and completely cannot show your idea on flat paper.”

The reason many recruiters grumble about videos is they see them as speed bumps, particularly when one of the first two campaigns are represented by a single video. Recruiters are experts at going through portfolios very quickly, and a PLAY button means they have to cede control of the speed at which they're reviewing your work. I kinda get it.

But there are times when a video is indeed the best way to show an idea. If you have a video, make sure it's no longer than 45 seconds. Don't waste time on a long setup. Dive right into the interesting part as fast as you can. And when you you're ready to load it into your landing page, pick an interesting frame for the thumbnail. Caption it with one sentence (perhaps in a rollover) that makes somebody want to press PLAY.

Do a clean, simple résumé.

First off, just so you know, CDs never look at résumés. Résumés are part of the usual paperwork required of any job applicant and it's for the HR department files.

Keep it simple, clean, and branded. By branded, I mean your résumé's look should line up with the design of your website. And please note, if you're an art director, your résumé's design should rock. Think of it as an all-type print assignment. Don't half-ass it.

After your name, be sure to indicate whether you a writer or an art director, and state plainly if you're skilled in After Effects, InDesign, whatever. Obviously, include all your contact information, mailing address, and phone number.

As for your work history, don't get bent out of shape if it doesn't look long and impressive. Recruiters expect this. But do them a favor and don't go on and on about every job you ever had at summer camp, Burger King, and Home Depot.

When you upload your finished résumé to your site, do not title it “resume.doc.” Your résumé may be the only one you work with, but if it downloads onto a recruiter's desktop as “resume.doc,” you'll just irritate your recruiter. Label it: “YOUR NAME resume.”

Learn how to use LinkedIn.

If you haven't made your own page for LinkedIn, it's time. I've had many students land jobs using this powerful tool and nothing else. You can opt for the free version if you want, but I recommend paying for the premium. It's great as a search engine for jobs. It's expensive, but if it lands you career, who cares? Later on, you can revert back to the free version.

There are many tutorials on YouTube and LinkedIn Learning that can show you the ins and outs of using LinkedIn. For instance, did you know there's a little button you can switch on which says, “Hey, I'm looking for a job right now”? (Your current employer can't see it but recruiters can.) The best tutorials have great information on optimizing how high your page appears in recruiters' search results, a lot of which depends on how well you write your LinkedIn headline. Take the time to watch as many of these lessons as you can. Inside LinkedIn are a ton of smart controls to help get your page in front of recruiters—and this platform attracts recruiters in hordes.

Prepare your search strategy.

In class, I've always characterized a successful job search as World War III. If you agree finding a job is the most important thing in your life right now and that failure is not an option, it's an apt metaphor. The first step in winning a war is to have a plan of attack. Here's mine.

Make a list of the top 100 agencies where you can see yourself working. The most reliable resource for searching for agencies used to be Redbook, but they were bought out by Winmo and now the site isn't nearly what it once was. On top of that, Winmo charges a hefty fee to subscribers. But if your school library subscribes, you have access to its best feature: the agency contact list, which has email addresses for their recruiters (sometimes listed as “talent acquisition”) as well as for other members of the creative department. Don't bother with the addresses of big shots like the chief creative officer or executive creative director. They don't handle inquiries about job openings. But grab the addresses of recruiters. Also grab the addresses of some junior writers or art directors. (I'll explain why in a minute.)

If you can't access Winmo, there are free lists online. Adforum.com has a pretty good one. AAAA.org has their “Agency Search” feature but its UX may drive you buggy. The very best way to add agency names to your list is to identify the ones doing work you love, and you can see the work in the previously mentioned oneclub.org, dandad.org, and lovetheworkmore.com.

For every agency you put on your list, make a note of their top five clients. You'll need it when you contact them.

Next step is figuring out how to organize your list. You may decide to carve it into regions of the country where you'd like to live. Or by city. Some students cut it three ways: dream agencies, good agencies, and well-I-need-a-job agencies. Use this list throughout your search as a contact management system so you can keep notes of when and whom you wrote to and what happened.

Great, so now you have your plan of attack and the order in which to do it. Next, it's time to contact every single agency recruiter on that list. You don't have to write 100 emails, just one. But you'll need to customize this one email for each agency you send it to. You can be lazy if you want and just send out one mass-ass email, but what it says to any agency person reading it is you have no specific interest in their agency whatsoever. This is why you made notes about each shop's client roster and their best work—so you can customize part of your email for each agency. By way of example, here's my idea of a good opening:

1. My name is Luke Sullivan, and I just graduated as an art director-copywriter-creative tech from your-school-here.
2. I'm writing to your agency because I love the work you do on insert-your-favorite-agency-campaign here.
3. If you could take a few minutes to look at my portfolio your-URL-here, I'd be grateful.

So, you've introduced yourself, noted why you've come calling, and presented your credentials. All that remains is to give your reader some human reason to click on your website's URL. One or two more sentences should do it, but they're important ones. Use these two sentences to show your unique voice. Maybe think back to that question, “What is the truest thing about you?”

Don't take yourself too seriously and whatever you do, don't write in “business speak”—you know, that overly courteous formal voice: “It would be an honor to be considered for a position at …” Just write the way you talk and let your personality show.

Sign off politely, include your name, all of your contact info, and attach your résumé as a labeled document.

Take care as you customize each email making sure the recruiter's name in the salutation lines up with the agency name and the campaigns you've mentioned. If it takes a few days to prepare all 100 emails, fine. You're making a customized, targeted email campaign and prepping for the day you send them off all in one blast. What we're shooting for with this one-launch strategy is to have any responses come back to you in as tight a time frame as possible. Because, ultimately, the best-case scenario is to have several interested agencies responding at about the same time. To have several job possibilities to weigh against one another is the main goal.

Once your portfolio is polished down to the last pixel, hit “SEND.”

“Networking.”

I once swore I'd never use the word as a verb, but nothing else seems to fit here—networking. If you don't have relatives working in the business, networking's what you'll have to do. You must send out feelers far and wide.

Obviously, the social web is where you'll do much of this work. Use all the platforms and don't be shy. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram—they all have their strengths. There are also sites dedicated to hosting portfolios of all kinds. Find them and put your work up there, too.

Remember, this is World War III. Send in the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and maybe some spies. Tell every living person you know you're trying to land a job in the business. You may find the friend of a friend has a name. And a name is all you need to start building your contacts.

So, you ask around and get a name. Maybe this person doesn't even work in the creative department. It doesn't matter—you call. Even if the company is not hiring, you call. Ask for an “informational interview” or maybe just a little email advice on your book.

Another avenue of approach is to target a creative person whose work you admire. Frank Anslemo of SVA says: “Agencies aren't what they were a decade ago. It used to be the best people worked only at the elite agencies. But today, talented people are everywhere, in big cities and in the heartland. Getting hired to work for great people, regardless of the agency … that is what'll get you producing great work and launch you on a great career.” You'll find these people by perusing the award shows mentioned previously. Follow the great work.

Follow the social feeds of creative people you respect. And don't just retweet or repurpose their stuff. Add your perspective on the material. Many students connect to industry people this way.

When you do meet this person, be your usual charming self. Listen more than you talk and before you leave ask if he or she knows where you might look next. Get the name of another contact. Ask if you can use your interviewer's name to land another interview somewhere. Keep this up and over time you'll slowly build a list of names, numbers, and contacts. One day the phone will ring.

Attend industry events.

Seneca College's Anthony Kalamut has this advice: “The number one recommendation I give my students is attend advertising industry events. Attend events from the local ad club, travel to New York if you can for Advertising Week or One Show Week. Also, the New York Art Directors Club (ADC) organizes global ‘Portfolio Nights' where you can get your book reviewed by creative directors.”

Kalamut also suggests you volunteer at these industry events. It'll look great on your résumé and shows you are doing stuff

“If you don't have money,” says Kalamut, “invest your time.”

Establish a phone or an email relationship with someone working at the agency.

If you can't get in to see the general, talk to a lieutenant.

There are plenty of friendly and helpful creative people in the business willing to coach you along and who will go out of their way to “pay it forward.” What you're looking for are current employees who are a little further down the totem pole, mid-level and junior art directors and writers. These are the people most likely to help you and it's why I suggested grabbing the email addresses of an agency's copywriters or art directors when you're doing agency research on Winmo or LinkedIn.

Write to them. Tell them you're trying to get into the business and ask if they could take a look at your work and give you advice on how to improve it. Don't ask them for a job because they can't give you one. Ask them about what life in the agency is like or about the account they work on most. Once you get a dialogue going, there are two important things to do. One, take any advice you get. And two, don't stalk the person. Keep a respectful distance.

There are other agency people who can be helpful. Most creative departments of any size have a person called either the “creative department manager” or the “creative coordinator.” In Chew with Your Mind Open, ad veteran Cameron Day describes how important these individuals are: “[One] smart tactic for getting your work seen is to befriend the creative director's right-hand person. Admins, creative coordinators … often hold the keys to the higher-ups' kingdoms… . They also know when there are openings and can share your work at the exact right moment.”⁹

Remember, you don't have to get an interview with the creative director to get your foot in the door. If you have a great book, see if you can get 15 minutes of time with an associate creative director (ACD) or just a senior creative person. These people will know when the agency is hiring even if they're not the ones doing it. If they like you, they may find a time to slide your name under the creative director's nose. If you come on board and do great work, it reflects well on them.

It may happen for you this way. If it does, one day you'll have the opportunity to return the favor and pay it forward.

Study the people and the agency before every interview.

Get some intel on the people you'll meet, the agency you're walking into, and its culture.

Google the names of the people who created their best work and check to see if they still work there. Know which creatives you're going to be talking to, the work they've done, and what agency clients currently keep them busy. This isn't hard. Just ask the recruiter. CD Ryan Carroll says, “The recruiter wants you to get hired, too, so she can stop searching for your position and get on to the next four positions that need to be filled.”

While you're online, refamiliarize yourself with the agency's best work. Memorize the names of their top clients. Of course, none of this is for the purposes of brownnosing. (“Gee, Mr. Russell, I thought your work for Spray ’N' Wipe was so meaningful.”) It'll simply help you be able to ask smart and relevant questions. It'll also show you're a student of the business, you're serious about getting into the agency, and you've done your homework.

It may also pay to do a quick culture check by looking up the agency on glassdoor.com. Employees rate agencies on a number of metrics and the site does a good job of organizing remarks into columns of pros and cons.

Deciding between big and small agencies.

They both have their strengths and weaknesses.

Some of my favorite years in the business were at a small agency. You'll know pretty much everybody in the building and there's a built-in sense of team. Because most of the clients will be local and regional, with smaller budgets, you will have to outsmart their competitors rather than outspend them.*

It's likely you'll be able to work on every account in the agency and will have a better chance of getting client contact and presenting your own work. Best of all, your ideas won't have to run a gauntlet of account people, planners, associate creative directors, group creative directors, and executive creative directors to make it out alive.

The first thing the big agencies have over small ones is brand recognition. Every recruiter in the universe knows the big agency names. The other good thing about big agencies is they have many more job openings. The reason, of course, is they have more clients, some with big Super-Bowl-TV-sized budgets. You'll get more at-bats than someone working in a small agency and when you hit a home run, your mom will probably see it on national TV.

Okay, first thing. It's probably a pretty good idea to show up for your interview on time.

I continue to be amazed by the number of young people who think showing up 10 or 15 minutes late for an interview, or any business meeting, is somehow “okay.” Please, get out a yellow highlighter and highlight the entire next paragraph.

Yes, advertising is a fun and wildly creative business. But it is also a business, one with lots of money on the line, tight deadlines, and clients who expect their agencies to run a tight ship. Once you start your job, remember you'll tick off your soon-to-be-ex-employer by missing deadlines, by not filling out time sheets, by being flip, by having to be reminded to go to meetings, and by playing fast and loose with any company policy. If you think you can start gliding into the office at 10:30, don't bother renewing your subscription to People Who Have Jobs magazine.

As Cameron Day reminds his readers, you are not God's gift to advertising.

Let's not pretend you have a clue. When interviewing, be honest with yourself and others about your skills and don't bluff about your abilities or overstate your skillset. Never overstate what you can do. Pretending won't impress anyone for long, and it could rightfully result in your ass being handed to you.¹⁰

Do not give off even a whiff of arrogance. Be humble. Be grateful. And be there 10 minutes early.

In the interview, don't just sit there.

Advertising is a business requiring a lot of people skills and it'll help if the creative director sees you have them—that you're personable, that you can handle a business meeting with confidence, and that generally you aren't a stick-in-the-mud.

My friend Ryan says, “Be prepared to talk about you. Again, this is like a date. I'm trying to figure out if I like you. So, if you're boring, shy, or give one-word answers, you'll give the whole interview an awkward vibe. The best interviews are the ones where the interviewee can take the first question like ‘How are you' and we find ourselves talking for 30 minutes before even looking at the portfolio.”

One famous creative director I know told me he's more interested in a person's hobbies than anything else. And Andy Berlin told me hiring often comes down to chemistry. “A lot of people could probably do this job,” he said, “but what it's really about is … who would we wanna go have a beer with?”

Also, bring a notepad to the interview. It says you're there to listen.

Before you start, ask if they'd like running commentary from you or not.

Some recruiters and CDs will say, “Yes, I'd love to hear you present your work.” Others just want to silently click through your stuff. Be ready for either. If a reviewer says, “Just let me read,” take no offense. They may want to see if your work has a quick “get” factor.

As you watch your interviewer page through your book, resist the temptation to explain anything. If you ever feel the slightest urge to explain something in your book, cut that piece. That urge means the piece isn't working

As someone once said, “If your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt.”

Be ready to speak with precision about every piece in your portfolio.

When you're finally in the CD's office and clicking through your site, he or she might ask, “So, I like this campaign. How'd you come up with it?”

“Aww, man, I just, you know, thought it up. Just sorta … poof! And I went like, whoa, duuude, this rocks.”

Don't be that guy.

Before you walk into an interview you should have rehearsed a crisp setup for every campaign. The setup should be one sentence, maybe two. And by rehearse, I mean do it aloud a whole bunch of times.

This is important. You're being considered for employment at a company where they sell the intangible. Agencies sell ideas. Your ability to precisely articulate how you created an idea and to pitch it persuasively to a neutral (and sometimes hostile) audience is a key skill.

How you talk about your work says a lot about you. The CD is judging your work, yes, but often they're trying to picture you in front of an agency client. “Could I put this person in front of the IBM people?”

Remember to show some enthusiasm for the work as you present it. Your work may all be familiar territory to you, but if you aren't excited about your own ideas, you can't expect your reviewer to be. “Too many junior creatives present their work like they're taking me through a mortgage application,” says Carroll. “Get me excited about you and your work.”

Show your ability to think strategically.

If you're given the opportunity to discuss your work, focus on the strategic thinking behind the work. CD Ryan Carroll agrees, saying,

Talk through the strategy and how you arrived at the idea, not just the execution. Show me how you think. Chances are, I've seen your book already, so I know the idea and what I really want to see is how the gears in your head work. How do you tackle problems? Do you get strategy?

Trust your instincts.

Go to 10 different interviews and you're going to get 10 different opinions on your work. It will be confusing. (“The guy with the goatee liked this campaign, but the one with the ponytail said it sucked.”)

If you hear the same criticisms more than once, take the hint. But you don't have to agree with everybody. If you do, you'll water down your book. Trust your instincts. Keep what you believe in and change what you don't. Keep reworking your book until the weak parts are out and the good parts are great.

One other thing about instincts. You placed your favorite campaign in the upper-left corner, as you should have. But if enough reviewers suggest some other campaign is a better opener, take their advice.

Relax. Ask some questions.

Keep in mind as you interview you can learn as much about the agency during this meeting as they can about you. Remember, even though you're young and on the street, you have options. You don't have to take this job, even if it's offered. You have choices.

Ryan Carroll says, “I actually appreciate being grilled by juniors. How does the creative department work here? What do you expect from a junior creative? What will I work on? Who will I report to? How do I work my way up the ladder? How can I make an impact here?”

Asking intelligent questions tells your interviewer you're not just looking for a job, but the right job. With this in mind, relax a little bit. Your interviewer is not there to pin you to the wall. If they invited you in for an interview, it means they already like your work. They're trying to see if they like you. So be yourself.

Have an opinion.

If the interviewer asks you what kind of advertising you like or what current campaigns you wish you had done (and many do), have an opinion. Say what current or classic campaigns you like and describe why. It's also okay to not like a campaign, even a popular one, if you can articulate your reasoning.

It's a subjective business, and unless you pick Mr. Whipple as your dream campaign, you'll probably do fine. What's bad is having no opinion at all. (“Oh, I like … well, I like whatever's good, is what I like … ma'am.”)

Offer to do the grunt work, the jobs nobody wants.

My very first assignment in the business was to write some 50 “live” radio scripts for a hotel corporation. Live radio is simply a typed script read by the local DJ, usually in between the traffic report and the day's winning lottery numbers. I suspect if that awful live radio project hadn't come through the agency door, I might not have, either. But I was more than happy to do it.

I recommend you take the same attitude. Express your willingness to take on any assignment thrown at you. Many young people come in thinking they're going to work on the agency's national TV accounts. Not likely. My advice is, offer your shoulder to any wheel, your nose to any grindstone.

GS&P's Jeff Goodby says grab those tough lackluster projects, the “assignments no one wants. It's usually because they can't imagine a crazy great solution to them. This is an opportunity. Solve this thing and people will hide in their offices as you approach.”¹¹

Let your readiness to work like crazy come off you in waves.

If I'm asked to choose between hiring for creativity or hiring for work ethic, I'll go for the harder-working person every time. I love how my friend Frank Anselmo puts it:

In my experience, talent is a bit overrated. Talent is human. Talent gets lazy and distracted. But intense work ethic is beyond mortal beings. Work ethic will add years of experience to your life while everyone else is posting selfies on Instagram. I'll hire work ethic over talent any day. Lazy talent will not get the job done.

If you're willing to freelance, let ’em know.

Agencies often have more work than their staff can handle, and even if they don't need another full-timer, they may need temporary help. During your interview, you may find a time to mention you'd also be interested in freelance work. Even if they can't offer you a full-time gig, it gives the creative director a chance to work with you, to see if you should keep “dating” before you get married.

A few days after the interview, send a thank-you note. On paper.

No emails, please. Write a short thank-you note and drop it in snail mail or at the agency's front desk. Thank them for taking the time to meet with you and add a detail on how the interview was important or informative for you. And sign off with your email and phone number. Also, when you get home, don't ask to friend them on Facebook—that borders on creepy. But asking for a connection from your LinkedIn page, that's okay. Go for it.

If you can't get into the creative department, get into the agency.

I can name quite a few famous creative people who started their agency careers in the mailroom or as project managers, CD's assistants, or as receptionists.

The thing is, once you're past the purple ropes, you'll be learning a whole lot more about how agencies operate. You can also start making friends with people who can hire you or help move you into the creative department. Unlike corporations such as, say, IBM, ad agencies are loosely structured places that often fill job openings with any knucklehead who proves he or she can do the work. They don't care what you majored in.

So, get in there, do the job, keep your ears open and your book fresh, and when a creative position opens, whom do you think they'll hire? A stranger off the street or the smart young kid in the mailroom who's paid the dues and is still chomping at the bit?

How to talk about money.

I had a long discussion about money matters with Dany Lennon, one of the best creative recruiters in the ad business.

“Do your homework,” Dany told me.

Before you go into an interview you should know what the starting salary levels are for that city and area. Talk to headhunters, talk to the agency recruiters, make phone calls, but find out. Then you won't be left in the position of saying, “Okay, so what do you think I'm worth?” An agency might be tempted to lowball you.*

So, pay close attention to the cost-of-living in the city where the agency's located and then establish a salary range you can live with. You need to have this range in your head, but it's also important you know that money's not something to bring up at any interview. You talk about money only after they've offered you the job and you think you want to take it.

When they do offer it, thank them, say you're very interested, and ask to discuss the start date, your responsibilities, and compensation. Note I said compensation, not salary. Most agency job-offer packages feature several things of monetary value—a health plan, a 401k, maybe profit sharing, parking allowances, and moving expenses. (Recruiters call moving expenses “re-lo allowances”—as in relocation.)

Shops on the East and West coasts will offer more because of higher cost-of-living indexes. Also note that A-list agencies will likely offer you a lower starting salary compared to middle-of-the-pack shops, which is fair. The standards at an A-list are higher and you have a better shot at producing award-winning work. Also, having an elite agency on your résumé can open more doors for you later on.

For your first job, you'll likely be offered a standard starting compensation package. If you believe you simply cannot live on the offered salary, let the recruiter know you want to accept the offer, show interest and gratitude, but let them know what your issue is. Ask for something specific. If it's the salary, well, you can politely counteroffer, but you'll likely do better negotiating for a higher re-lo allowance or perhaps a signing bonus. Agencies sometimes find these one-time expenses easier to dish out than increasing the salary, which is something they pay annually.

Depending on where you're looking, your interview could be with a creative director or an agency recruiter. Typically, in midsized and larger agencies, you won't discuss salary with the CD. The CD will decide if they want to hire you and then turn you over to the agency recruiter or HR to talk salary and benefits details.

“Once you've landed the job,” Dany went on,

you may want to tell your CD you'd appreciate a review in six months. Not a raise, but a review. This says to her, “I'm going to work my tail off for this place and I'm confident in six months you'll see you've made a great hire.” And six months is all it usually takes for a CD to get a good read on you: on how hard you work, your attitude, your overall value to the company.

One last thing. My friend, author and copywriter Thomas Kemeny was asked by one of my students, “Looking back over your career, what's the one thing you would change if you could start again?”

His answer was instant. “On my first day, I'd start contributing the maximum to my 401k.”

Waiting for the phone to ring.

I've determined the back and forth between you and agency recruiters is exactly like deciding whom you want go to prom with. Even the questions you ask will be the same.

“What if she doesn't call back?”

“How long should I wait for the call?”

“Should I ask someone else?”

Everybody wants to get invited to the prom and we all want to go with our dream date. But let's say time is going by and you haven't been invited to the dance. Well, if you're the same kind of creative I was (low self-esteem) you'll be tempted to say YES! to the first offer you hear. But do not ever accept a job offer on the spot.

Here's the thing. If you run your job search the way I've suggested here (World War III), you will have many irons in the fire. Some agencies will take longer than others to get back to you. The best possible scenario is to have several offers to weigh against each other. The worst possible scenario is taking the first offer and a week later you get invited to the dance by your dream agency. If you accept a job, you cannot back out of it. This is a small industry and recruiters trade war stories and pass around names of people who pull this stunt.

When you do get that first job offer, express your gratitude, your excitement, and then ask if you can have a set amount of time to think it over.

This is when you get on the phone and tell the dream agency they're still your first choice, but now you have this other job offer and they're asking for a decision by such-and-such a date. Some students have asked, “Is doing this okay? It feels a little, I don't know, underhanded.” It is okay. Every recruiter knows you're shopping yourself around trying to land the best offer. Well, they're busy doing the same thing, shopping around trying to land the best candidate for their agency.

Now, as for that first question, “What if she doesn't call back?” If you haven't heard back from the recruiter in two weeks, contact them. It's okay to ask about the hiring process and about their timing. Politely inquire, “When do you think a decision might happen?” Sometimes they know, sometimes they don't; the real answer may be “When we find someone we're crazy about.” But it's okay to ask—after two weeks.

Don't choose an agency based on the salary they offer.

If you're lucky enough to get a couple of offers, you may find the better salary is offered by the worse agency. It has always been thus. And lord knows, it will be tempting to take that extra 10 or 15 grand when it's held out to you. Don't.

One of Bill Bernbach's best lines was “It isn't a principle until it costs you money.” In this case, the principle is the value you place on doing great work. I urge you to go with the agency that's producing better advertising. You may work for less, but it's more likely you'll produce better work. And in the long run, nothing is better for a great salary than a great portfolio.

More than once, I've seen a talented kid go for the bigger check at a bad agency and a year later take a cut in pay just to get the hell out of there. The worst part was even after a year in the belly of the beast, he hadn't added so much as a brochure to his original student portfolio.

If you get a fair offer from a good agency, take it. Take in four roommates if you have to, live in your parents' basement, but get on board—that's the trick. I read somewhere not to set your sights on money anyway. Just do what you do well and the money will come. McElligott once told me, “You'll be underpaid the first half of your career and overpaid the second.”

Take a job wherever you can and work hard.

All you need to do to get on a roll is produce a couple of great campaigns and have them run. And it's possible to do great work at almost any agency. Once you've done some great campaigns, agency higher-ups will notice and you can start thinking about angling for a raise or promotion.

Don't be crestfallen if you can't get into one of the “hot” shops. The agency offering you your first job will be a launching pad, a stepping-stone. (However, it's probably not a good idea to tell them this as you're shaking hands: “Thank you, sir. I guess this job will just have to do until something opens up at Wieden+Kennedy. In fact, if you don't mind, I'll just keep my coat on.”)

Here's the other thing: if an A-agency is your first job in the industry, you won't appreciate how good you have it. The late great Mike Hughes of The Martin Agency once told me, “People who start in great places like Goodby and then leave are forever disappointed in their other agencies.”

Remember, wherever you land a job, there'll be plenty to learn from the people you meet. Think of that first job as continuing your education. Look for kind-hearted souls who can mentor you. In Breaking In, BBH creative director Todd Riddle said:

That first job is a critical part of your career. Even more critical than the college or education you received. Because everyone will forget where you went to college after two or three years—whatever school you went to, nobody's going to care. All they'll want to know is what have you done in the past two or three years? And if you've been surrounded by great creative people, and it's rubbed off on you … that's all you'll have to have.¹²

Just get on board and work like hell. Early in your career's the time to do it, too, when you don't have children calling you from home asking why the dog isn't breathing or how to get the top off the gasoline can in the garage.

“Interns? Cleanup in aisle three, please.”

The answer on whether to intern or not depends on the agency. Wherever it is, don't take an unpaid internship. Look for a paid internship and expect to work hard.

It's not likely you'll be creating Super Bowl spots. Doing image searches for an art director or making copies of stuff for a meeting is more likely. But that's life in an agency, and an internship can be a great place to learn what it's like. Offer to do anything for anyone. If you see a senior team working late, lean into their office and offer to help. They may take you up on it and that may be the big break you need.

After you've been there awhile and you think you want to stay on in a full-time job, tell your supervisor. If you sense the answer is going to be no, honorably finish out your time there, while you secretly start World War III again.

And whatever else happens, make sure you're not taken advantage of, financially, personally, or physically. Sadly, all have been known to happen.

Don't check your morals at the door.

With as much power as great advertising has to influence opinion and behavior, there's clearly a moral dimension to what we do in this business. Yet for the first half of the last century, advertisers had no accountability and said pretty much whatever they wanted. (Remember the cigarette manufacturer that blithely promised “Not a cough in a carload”?)

That was pure social engineering, defined by Wikipedia as “any act that influences a person to take an action that may or may not be in their best interests.” In 1953, as the coffins were piling up, the CEOs of seven major tobacco companies met with a public relations firm to create an ad with the headline, “A Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers.” In this long-copy ad they stated, “there are many causes of lung cancer … but no proof that cigarette smoking is one of the causes.” Packed with evil lies from the first line to the last, the strategy was clear:

[They] realized that simply denying the health risks would not be enough to convince the public. Instead, a more effective method would be to create a major scientific controversy in which the scientifically established link between smoking tobacco and lung cancer would appear not to be conclusively known.¹³

Even today, many ad agencies continue to assist the tobacco industry in spreading their lies and the money still rolls in. As recently as 2019, the tobacco sector's annual advertising expenditure was a mind-bending $105 billion.¹⁴ Today, fortunately, fewer agencies are willing to take this money and so tobacco companies are creating much of their crap in-house.

It seems more agencies are growing consciences and a brave few are actively fighting evil industries. One good early example of fighting the good fight was Crispin's stellar anti-tobacco campaign for their client truth®.

In the ’90s, Crispin was tasked with stopping teenagers from smoking. Instead of creating preachy “smoking-kills” ads, the agency's brilliant strategy was to activate the natural rebelliousness of teens by revealing how Big Tobacco has been manipulating them with lies—an approach I describe as “Don't be tobacco's bitch.” I encourage you to Google this extraordinary campaign. As of this writing, the work for truth® remains the most successful public-service campaign of all time.

The tobacco industry isn't the only evil player out there. There've been many similar attempts at social engineering.

The Republican party continues to foment doubt about the validity of the American election process. Their disinformation helped create the insurrection of January 6, 2021, and severely injured public trust in the democratic process. Additionally, oil companies have been successfully seeding doubt about the role of fossil fuels in the acceleration of climate change. Companies like Exxon have lied so much and so often, millions of people continue to believe there are actually “two sides” to the story of human-made climate change. There's only one: science.

In a New Yorker article titled “When Creatives Turn Destructive: Image Makers and the Climate Crisis,” Bill McKibben noted every young creative entering the industry will have a choice: they can employ their skills on behalf of brands and causes that can help bring the world back from this existential crisis. Or they can join the busy teams of well-paid creatives who are helping deceitful clients rationalize, justify, or deny the effects of their harmful products.¹⁵

So, as you search for a home base in this industry, study the brands on the agency's roster before you sign on. Agencies are known by the companies they keep.

You have a choice on the brands you will work for.

Millennials used to be the sweetheart demographic of most brands, but today it's Gen Z; people born after 1997.¹⁶

Forrester Research found that Gen Z is much more skeptical of brands than Millennials. Not surprising when you consider many in Gen Z are coming of age in the time of “fake news,” an era captured by a TIME magazine cover headlined, “Is Truth Dead?” In Forrester's report (“A Post-Truth Climate Is Shaping Gen Z's Consumer Behaviors”), research director Mike Proulx quoted a 19-year-old participant who observed,

This past year has made me put a lot more attention toward who cares about telling the truth. I've started to care less about the products [brands] sell and more about their message to consumers. Are they reflecting the emotions of the world? Do they care about being direct and honest with consumers, even if it's uncomfortable?¹⁷

This generation may be the one that drags the holdout brands into the 21st century. The old value system of capitalism—profit at any cost—is slowly being crowded by the values of connected capitalism. The term refers to companies that connect the bottom line of their business with a social conscience. Brands that don't embrace this interconnectedness of profit and purpose aren't likely to pass Gen Z's sniff test.

Many brands try to tiptoe past this generation's social conscience by hopping on one bandwagon or another. But their pandering is so obvious it's been dubbed “performative activism” or “greenwashing.” As social media observers Newberry and Dawley warned, “Becoming a purpose-driven company is not something you can fake. This is where a lot of brands stumbled in 2020. They responded to important issues like they were simply new social media trends.”¹⁸

So, how does this apply to you?

The one time you have complete control of the companies you work for is when you're deciding on an agency. Some agencies are good about this and won't force you to work on a brand you have issues with. But because few agencies let employees pick and choose, it's possible one day you'll find your principles come between you and your job. I can tell you it happened to me. I lost a job for refusing to pitch a tobacco account.

Again, Bernbach's famous maxim applies. “It's not a principle until it costs you money.”

Once you land a job, stick with it a while.

There are going to be rough spots no matter where you work. There are no perfect agencies. I like to think I have worked at a couple of the best, and there were plenty of times I thought just about everything that could be wrong was wrong.

Hang in there for a while. Things can change. An account that's miserable one year can suddenly become the one everybody wants to work on. There's also value in learning to stick with something long enough to see it through. Plus, it doesn't look good on your résumé to bail on a place inside of a year. Show some patience.

If you've heard the best way to increase your salary is to change jobs, it's true. But I advise against job-hopping solely for that reason. If you're at a good agency making a fair wage, stay there. Every six months or so, take a long, hard look at your portfolio. If it's getting better, stay. Move on only when you've learned as much as you possibly can. You don't want a résumé that's a long list of brief stints at agency after agency.

Don't let advertising mess up your life.

On the same page I say work hard, I'll also warn against working to the exclusion of all else. We all seem to take this silly advertising stuff so seriously. And at some shops, the work ethic isn't ethical. People are simply expected to work until midnight, pretty much all the time.

When this happens, we end up working too hard and ignoring our spouses, our partners, our friends, and our lives. Remember, ultimately, it's just advertising. Love, happiness, family, stability, sanity—those are the important things. Don't forget it.

Don't underestimate yourself.

Don't think, “I shouldn't bother sending my book to that agency. They're too good.” All people are subject to low self-esteem, and creative people are particularly prone to it. I once thought this, as did a 100 industry superstars I could name.

It's that same little voice we talked about in Chapter 15, the one that loves to tell you you're just a hack on crack from Hackensack. Don't listen to it.

Don't overestimate yourself.

On the flip side, a lot of people in this business develop huge egos. Yet none of us are saving lives. We are glorified sign painters and nothing more.

Stay humble.