CHAPTER 2

HOW TO GET A JOB

GOING TO COLLEGE

If you have picked up this book because you think you might want to work as an advertising creative and you are wondering whether you have to take a college course to get such a job, there is a simple answer to your question.

You do.

The days of getting a copywriter’s job off the back of an English degree or an art directing gig straight from art school are long, long gone.

The good news is that the vast majority of colleges are extremely clued up about helping you get a job. They nearly all have good links with the advertising industry and regularly get working creatives to critique students’ work (these industry contacts will become crucial after you leave college and begin looking for a job). The tutors will teach you the principles of strategy, ideas, and craft. They will help you build a portfolio that you can take round to agencies.

I didn’t do much research before choosing a college, but then again, we didn’t have the internet in those days. You do. You must carefully research what colleges are out there. If you know anyone in the industry, or a friend of a friend works in the industry, then speak to them and get a recommendation.

As with anything in life, some colleges are better than others. Don’t just rely on their websites and the stuff they send you—these are essentially marketing tools, and without fail they will tell you that their college is brilliant. Find out as much as you can about their reputations from external sources.

How much the college charges in fees and where it is located will both be important factors. Another biggie is how many years the course lasts (some courses are one year, some two, some three). If you already have a degree, you may prefer a one-year course. If you’re still in your late teens or early twenties, you may not want to enter the world of work just yet, so a three-year course may be more appropriate for you.

ART DIRECTOR OR COPYWRITER

At some point, you will have to decide whether you want to be an art director or a copywriter. The vast majority of ads are created by a team of two—one art director and one copywriter. (This is another great advantage of college: most creatives meet their partners there.)

On my first day at college, the tutor made one simple request of us. “Everyone who can draw, stand to my left. If you can’t draw, stand on my right.”

We divided ourselves into two more or less equal groups, and he announced: “Right. All of you on this side of the room, you are the art directors. The rest of you are copywriters.”

That was it. He went on to say that it was just a trial, and anyone who wanted to change could do so at a later date. But no one did.

It’s an unconventional method that almost certainly isn’t followed at most colleges, but it demonstrates that this is not a decision to agonize over.

Most people find it relatively easy to decide which they are. For example, if you have a strong visual sense, and are interested in things like fashion, cinematography, photography, design, or illustration, then you are an art director.

If you are interested in any kind of writing or screen-writing, then you are probably a copywriter. People who are good at talking—the people whose parents thought they might become lawyers one day—are normally copywriters too. (Art directors are often strong, silent types.)

The art director/copywriter combination has been the way creative teams have been structured for over 40 years. Very recently, there has been a trend toward teams where neither partner defines themselves explicitly as the copywriter or the art director. That’s OK too. For most of the time, you both do exactly the same job—and that is thinking.

All that matters is that, between the two of you, you will be able to cover the various craft skills required; for example, writing copy, choosing photographers, or working with typefaces.

For more information on what copywriters and art directors do separately, see Chapter 9 of this book—”The differing career paths of art directors and copywriters”.

WHAT YOU DO AT COLLEGE

You will spend the majority of your time at college actually writing adverts—putting together dummy advertising campaigns for real products. You’ll practice working in a variety of media, and with a variety of different partners.

You will also be trained in some of the craft areas, such as typography, copywriting, photography, and art direction, and may be exposed to some general business skills, such as how to pitch and how to give presentations. Depending on the length of your course, you may study advertising in its wider cultural context; analyzing its impact and its history.

I’ve noticed that how people approach their time at college depends a lot on their age. The students who are taking their first college course, perhaps living away from home for the first time, tend to behave more like typical students—going out a lot, having fun, and crashing their cars (if they have them). Whereas the students who already have a college degree, or are a little older, tend to be more focused on what they can get out of the course, and on getting a job.

Either approach is fine. You have to do what is right for you, and your life-stage.

The relationships you form with your fellow students are crucial. These guys and girls are your peer group, and you will probably stay in touch with them for years to come. They will shape your views on advertising as much as the tutors do. And they are the people who, in future years, you will turn to for advice and, inevitably, compare your career progression with.

There’s no secret to getting the most out of your time at college—work hard, have fun, and learn lots. The goal is to leave college with a good partner and a good book.

Your book may not be good enough to get you hired immediately on graduation, but it should be good enough to get you some interesting conversations with working creatives. And they will help you the rest of the way.

Three very different “landing pages” of three very different online portfolios. A digital portfolio shouldn’t just showcase your work, but also your personality.

PUTTING YOUR BOOK TOGETHER

WHAT FORMAT?

To get a job in advertising, you create dummy or “spec” ads for real clients, put them in a portfolio to showcase your creative talent, then get your portfolio or “book” seen by creative directors. That’s the method creatives have been using to get a job for well over 40 years now.

However, the “rules” for what should be in your book are evolving rapidly.

The answer used to be easy: eight ad campaigns (each consisting of three print ads), plus maybe an ambient execution (ambient means non-traditional media, such as ads on the sides of coffee cups, the undersides of airplanes, or stamped onto students’ foreheads) and the odd TV storyboard (N.B. without dialogue).

Such was the way it was, for years. But if your book still looks like that, you’re doing it wrong. Why? Because creative directors have gone digital-crazy.

Despite growing up in the age of VCRs and vinyl, most creative directors are surprisingly well informed about digital. They’re closer to the “business” side of the business—they know that the agency’s clients now want great work in non-traditional media, as well as the traditional ones like TV and print.

And as well as retraining their existing creatives, they’re looking to the new generation to give them that work. You must be that new generation. Your book must show compelling examples of how brands can exploit the digital space.

Having said all this, you’ve got to show you can do the traditional media as well, so your book still needs to have lots of great print work. And now that camcorders are cheap, and editing software is free, it’s not hard to put together your own TV ads too. If what you produce doesn’t look broadcast-standard, it doesn’t matter. It shows energy—and this is often the difference between good teams and OK ones.

But more and more you need to demonstrate how to reach consumers in new ways. That means new media, events, ideas for mobile games, TV shows, crazy sh*t... maybe even new products.

And, above all, digital.

The most recent student team whose book my partner and I recommended to the executive creative director at BBH looked like this: nine campaigns, comprising a total of 21 print ads, two TV ads, six digital executions and 31 (!) executions that were ambient/ new products/crazy sh*t. Maybe there were a few too many of the latter, but you get the idea.

Fashions in student books change. Make sure you’re up-to-the-minute.

Maybe your book shouldn’t even be a book, but a website or a CD.

(Actually, I always advise young creatives not to put their work onto CD. At least half the time a creative director tries to look at a CD, there is some kind of compatibility problem, and the thing doesn’t work. Don’t take the risk.)

At the time of writing, the industry is transitioning between the traditional black portfolio with clear plastic sleeves—what you could call an “analog” book—and digital portfolios. It seems likely that all portfolios will be digital within a short space of time.

A digital portfolio is easy to put together—a simple web search will throw up many sites that offer to help you create one, either for free, or for only a small fee. Have a look at a few that other people have done before you do your own. Decide what you think they’re doing well and not so well…then copy the elements that you think are good and improve on the bits that aren’t. A simple layout and easy navigation are vital.

But whether your work is on a website or on ancient papyrus, the fundamental principles remain the same.

SPENDING YOUR TIME SMARTLY

Naturally, you want it to look presentable—a sloppy portfolio that looks as if it were put together by a right-handed eight-year-old using only his left hand is not what you want. So it’s definitely worth spending time crafting your book. But whether your visuals are created on a computer, sketched up with marker pens, or hand-painted with blood from your own veins doesn’t make much difference as long as it communicates clearly and looks as if you know what you’re doing.

On the other hand, you don’t want to spend an excessive amount of time crafting the appearance of your work. What your work looks like is far from the most important factor. Creative directors are primarily looking for people who can think, not use a Mac. A lot of people can use a Mac, but not many people can think up brilliant ad campaigns.

Be smart in how you allocate your time. Someone who spends seven hours working on a campaign idea and can then make it look presentable with 20 minutes of Mac time is going to get hired a lot quicker than the person who spends only 20 minutes thinking of ideas and then spends seven hours perfecting the layouts in Photoshop.

Devote the vast majority of your time to thinking. There’s a rather large irony in putting a spec book together—the number-one thing creative directors say they’re looking for in a student book is “good strategies”—smart thinking about how to sell a product, rather than clever ads per se. And yet, as soon as you get into an agency, the strategies aren’t your responsibility, but the responsibility of the planner. Nevertheless, that’s what creative directors are looking for. So don’t even start to write ads until you have a great strategy to write to.

PICKING YOUR PRODUCT

A lot of teams looking for a job have funny ads in their book. But not many will have ads that, while equally funny (or moving, or whatever), are actually based on an insightful strategy that could really shift a product. Even fewer will have married that thinking to exactly the right brand or product.

Picking the right products to work on is quite an art. The point of your book is to make you look good. Therefore, don’t pick products that are “too easy.” By this I mean products like a washing machine that runs on only one cup of water—the product itself is so brilliant that it doesn’t leave much room for your brilliance. Similarly, avoid products like condoms or AIDS charities—these areas have such a rich potential for powerful advertising that you’re giving yourself an unfair advantage. No one is impressed by the darts player who stands 12 inches from the board.

Then again, don’t try to hit the bull’s-eye from the other end of the room. When I was working on my student book, my partner and I spent weeks and weeks trying to come up with a campaign for a bank—any bank. We never cracked it. Banks are really hard to advertise. They are probably the least visually interesting places on Earth, for a start. All financial services advertising is hard. If you pick a product that is too hard, it’s difficult to shine.

I would also advise against choosing unknown products. If you are launching a new product, it takes time to communicate what it is and what it does, before you can get around to explaining why it’s good. That makes it hard to create work that communicates quickly. And a slow ad is a bad ad. Creative directors like books that are quick to go through, because they know that in the real world, consumers are pressed for time, and are minimally interested in advertising. Creative directors themselves are pressed for time, and have a lot on their minds. Don’t give them campaigns that are hard to work out.

Strip out anything that takes time to read. Don’t include a summary of what the brief was, for example, or body copy on print ads. Keep headlines short and avoid TV scripts that require dialogue.

Also, avoid writing campaigns for companies that already have great advertising. Don’t write ads for Nike, Volkswagen, or Sony. People can’t help but compare—it’s human nature. And the comparison won’t be in your favor. Better to present good advertising for a product that has never had any. That way, the comparison works for you.

For now, avoid working on the sexy showpiece accounts. There’ll be plenty of time for that when you get into an agency.

HOW TO APPROACH AGENCIES

CALLING CREATIVES

Some agencies have specialist in-house recruiters—they will have a title such as creative manager or director of creative services, and you can track them down via the agency’s website. But most agencies don’t have such people. That means you will have to get hold of the creatives, and calling creatives is hard, because usually they don’t pick up the phone.

They may be out on a shoot, or may be working and don’t want to be disturbed, or they may be screening their calls. Many ad agency phones have caller ID so it’s easy for creatives to ignore numbers they don’t recognize. Although it may seem shockingly arrogant that creatives don’t even deign to lift their receivers, some creatives get hundreds of calls a month from photographers’ agents and directors’ representatives, so it’s understandable.

You may find your call goes through to voicemail. Don’t bother leaving a message—nearly no one calls back. When I was looking for a job, I used to think it was the height of rudeness that creatives never returned my calls. But then I realized…why expect someone to do you the favor of calling you back, just so you can ask them for another favor?

So, if you want to speak to a creative on the phone, you will have to keep calling and calling, and hope that one time they pick up by mistake. But be warned, even when you do get through, it may be awkward. Many creative people are introverts. They don’t give good phone.

So my advice is to forget calling.

PERSONALIZE YOUR COMMUNICATIONS

Simply send an e-mail to the team you would like to see, explaining who you are.

Or send a letter. There seems to be a perception out there that “no one reads letters any more.” I can assure you that they do. Letters also have an advantage over e-mails in that a letter can’t be instantly deleted.

Be aware that most creatives get more requests for help than they have time to see people. You need to get them to choose you, rather than the three or four other teams whose requests are cluttering up their in-box.

The worst thing you can do is send something that looks like a standard e-mail, which you’ve sent to 40 other teams. If you haven’t taken the time to find out about the person you’re writing to, then why should they take the time to find out about you?

So when you are writing to a creative, whether by letter or e-mail, you must personalize your communication.

Find out about a piece of work they’ve done, and mention it in your note. For example, if writing to Juan Cabral, you could start with “loved your Tate Gallery campaign—it actually inspired me to go there.”

Use personal recommendations too. For example, “we just saw your old mates Nick & Simon at BBH—they said to say Hi, they liked our book and thought you guys would be good people to help us move it on.”

Once the junior teams like your book, see the more senior teams. And when these teams like your book, ask them who is in charge of placements/freelance/ hiring (but not before that stage—you’ll sound pushy).

You’ll rarely (if ever) get an appointment to see a creative director. But that’s OK. You don’t need to. All you need is a senior team who are on your side, and they will pass your book on to the CD.

And remember, if you are using a traditional or “analog” book, make sure you have multiple copies of it. That way, if one gets “stuck” in some CD’s office you still have another to take around.

It’s also important to “tailor” your book. If a team doesn’t like one of your campaigns, then remove it the next time you go to see them. If an agency is known to be keen on seeing digital work, or ambient, or whatever, then weight your portfolio in that direction.

When you come into an agency for a crit, be friendly, interesting, attentive, clean, and punctual.

And, finally, smile.

I know it sounds corny, but the fact is they’re not just looking at a book, they’re looking at two people.

It’s probably no coincidence that a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, the first people to give me and my partner a placement (thank you, Richard and Markham) were two guys that we happened to get along with.

HEADHUNTERS

Some young creatives are scared of headhunters. You shouldn’t be. Despite the scary name, they are nothing to be frightened of.

“Headhunters” is an industry term for recruitment consultants. They are often ex-agency employees themselves, and for some reason are nearly always female.

Their job is to see creative directors and find out what kind of teams the agency is looking to hire (what level of experience, salary expectations, and any specific experience needed) and then find creatives to meet that brief.

You can make an appointment simply by calling them, or e-mailing. They will invite you to come to their office, where they will look through your book, and maybe note down some of the campaigns you have in it. At the same time, they are assessing what kind of person you are, and which creative directors they think you’ll get on with, either now or in the future. After that, probably nothing will happen.

For that reason, junior creatives sometimes say there’s no point contacting the headhunters, not until you have several years’ experience. They argue that most first-job creatives get hired from placements, which are arranged by agencies, not headhunters.

There is some truth in that. Most agencies use their senior teams as a filtering system to bring in placement teams. But some creative directors like to ask headhunters if they know of any interesting juniors. Some creative directors even call in 20 or 30 books from headhunters and offer a job—or at least a job trial—to the one they like the best.

I think it’s never too early to see a headhunter. But don’t just see one of them; see all the headhunters in your market. Some organize schemes like portfolio nights, and it’s definitely worth finding out about those. Headhunters are also a good source of industry gossip. They will tell you stories about certain creative directors that may put you off advertising for ever…or make you even keener to get in.

Headhunters. Despite the name, they won’t kill you.

HOW TO TURN A PLACEMENT INTO A JOB

MAKING THE SYSTEM WORK

As your book improves, you will start to be offered placements. A placement is sometimes poorly paid, sometimes unpaid, and sometimes expenses-only.

To many creatives, this seems unfair. It is. The placement system favors those who already have some money from somewhere—enough to see them through until they can get a real job at least—or those who are able to live at home, have some other source of income, or have learned to survive by eating everyday house-hold objects instead of food.

However, the supporters of the system say that placement teams are gaining valuable experience, and that by handing out multiple placements, the agencies are giving multiple teams a chance.

This isn’t the place to debate the rights and wrongs of the system. The most important thing is to make the system work for you.

Every placement is different. Some agencies run them fairly and well—they take on placement teams for a decent length of time, with a real chance of a job at the end, and give them decent briefs while they’re there. Other agencies, sadly, use placement teams as little more than cheap labor.

Nevertheless, the fact remains that while a placement is not the only way to get your first job—you should also be looking for opportunities via friends, contacts, headhunters, and portfolio nights—it’s probably the most common way.

The “placement treadmill” can seem daunting: you are regularly starting afresh in an entirely new environment, with totally different people, clients, and systems. But if you work hard while you are on the placement, and you do well, and the agency has a vacancy for a junior team, then there’s every chance you could get hired.

HOW TO SHINE

While on placement, you’ll most likely be given smaller briefs such as trade ads (ads to go in less glamorous “trade” publications like Tractor Weekly), or money-off/ special-offer ads to work on. Consider this your opportunity to make yourself useful. Crack them quickly and efficiently, without making a fuss, and without taking up too much of your creative director’s time. He will appreciate that. Another reason to get good at the “bread-and-butter” stuff is that while you have work going through the system—being presented to clients, heading into production—then the agency will normally keep you on.

However, you’ve got to give yourself an opportunity to shine too.

Useful on its own isn’t enough. Useful and good is what’s wanted.

At most agencies, they will let you have a swing at briefs other than the ones you’ve been assigned to. Choosing which ones is the tricky part.

Don’t waste your time trying to crack the agency’s big kahuna TV brief. Your chances of success are too slim. You’ll be up against the agency’s best teams, teams that (for now) can beat you on nine briefs out of ten. Plus they have an unfair advantage—they will know the situation and the client better than you. Also, these kinds of projects take months. Even if an idea of yours does get bought, you will be long gone by then, so won’t reap the benefits.

The briefs to go for are the ones in the middle. The promising print briefs for the agency’s better clients. Or a TV brief for a smaller client. Projects that don’t take too long, and where there isn’t too much competition.

Do the things the existing creatives do less of: non-traditional, ambient, stunts, that kind of thing. Make the creative director think that you offer something new to his department. That’s better than just being a cheaper and more inexperienced version of what he already has.

USING YOUR PLACEMENT TIME WELL

Fit in. Go to the agency’s bar if they have one; make friends with the other young people about the place. If you fit in well, you’re more likely to get hired. That’s true in any organization. And if you don’t fit in well, you’re probably in the wrong place anyway.

However, just because you have a placement doesn’t mean you stop working on your book. Even if you’re really busy. In every moment of spare time, you should be working on your book. If your current placement doesn’t lead to a job, you’ll need that book to get another one. And the better your book, the quicker you’ll find another placement, and the better the agency it will get you into.

Sometimes, after they have done a few placements, junior teams start getting interviews with creative directors, and can get hired on the strength of their book alone. So it’s absolutely vital that your book keeps moving forward.

It may be that some of the briefs you are given while on placement lead to work that can go in your book. That’s great. You might get some work bought by clients too, and get experience of actually making ads. That’s a bonus.

Don’t worry if you have been on a placement at the same agency for a while and haven’t been hired yet. Some people get hired after being on placement for up to a year. You need to constantly be making calculations. Are there people you are learning from? Is it not too madly busy, so you have some time to work on your book? Is there at least some chance of getting hired?

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Speak regularly to whoever is in charge of the placement system and ask them how you’re doing. Ask them if they think there is a chance of a job for you at the agency or not. It’s amazing how many creatives complain that they “don’t know what’s going on.” Ask.

Even if they explicitly tell you there is no job for you at this agency, it may be worth staying if you’re gaining good experience.

Some people get hired on their first placement. On the other hand, some people do five, ten, or even more before they’re offered their first job. Don’t worry too much about this. A lot of it is down to luck—you have to do well, which is partly luck, and the agency you are at has to be hiring, which is completely luck. The state of the economy plays a huge role too—in times of recession, you’ll be looking for your first job for a lot longer than in times of plenty.

WHY PEOPLE WHO GET HIRED GET HIRED

The main reason people get hired is because they’re good.

However, “good” on its own is not enough.

In the course of a year, a creative director will see many good teams. He can’t hire all of them.

So what else do you need?

Luck. (When Napoleon was asked what was the most important quality in a general, he answered “lucky.”)

For creatives, it’s the same. Not even the agency’s best teams do a good ad every single month. And yet if you are to impress the creative director, you may need to do a very good ad and you may only have a one-month placement to do it in. So you need luck. The right brief, at the right time.

But let’s assume that you’re good and you’re lucky. Now all you need is for there to be a vacancy. Sometimes, a vacancy occurs because an agency is doing well—they win a big piece of business, more staff are needed…the placement team are on-site and doing good work; they get hired. On the other hand, sometimes a vacancy occurs because an agency is doing badly—the creative director needs to cut costs so he fires seniors and hires newbies.

So let’s assume that you’re good, you’re lucky, and there’s a vacancy. That should be enough. Except…it’s rarely so clear-cut. The creative director may be convinced that you’re good, but he may wonder if the next placement team might be even better. Or there may be a vacancy, but no pressing reason to fill it immediately, so the CD may be happy to let the situation slide.

There is no magic formula for getting hired.

SOME VARIABLES THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE

However, over the years I have noticed a few variables that make a big difference.

The first is that teams who appear to be in demand are far more likely to get jobs. It’s quite common to hear of teams on placement at an agency for several months, and doing well, but the creative director shows no inclination of wanting to hire them until they go into his office to tell him they’re leaving, because they have a job offer from another agency. Now, of course, he offers them a job on the spot.

This is partly due to the arousal of his competitive instinct—his desire to “beat” the other agency. But it’s mostly just regular human psychology, in that when we learn a commodity is in high demand, we automatically assume it to be more valuable. Even if the commodity is in reality identical today to what it was yesterday.

So don’t be afraid to put yourself in the middle of a bidding war, if you can. Don’t lie and say you’ve got a job if you haven’t. Word gets around. But if you have been offered something elsewhere, even another placement or freelance work, make sure your current shop knows about it, as it may force their hand.

One quality that teams who get hired tend to have is they just “smell” like creatives.

Have you read Blink by Malcolm Gladwell? This wonderful book is all about the extraordinary power of “snap” judgements. We human beings tend to sum up a person or an object in an instant, and these instant appraisals have a surprising accuracy.

It turns out that the faculty this “blink” judgement relies on is memory. In other words, we run a comparison between the person or object in front of us, and all the similar ones we’ve encountered in the past.

That’s why experienced CDs often claim they can tell “instantly” whether a young team are any good. It’s not arrogance. They are simply mentally comparing the team in front of them with all the other young teams they have ever met. They know which of those previous young teams went on to be successful, so if the team in front of them seem similar, then they’re a good bet.

Of course, the judgement is being made at an unconscious level. Which is why I compared it to a smell. It’s an instinct. A feeling. A creative director might say “there was just something about them” or “you could tell they were going to go far.”

I realize this doesn’t help much. But it does at least explain.

Actually this leads on to my next point. Fitting in. We’re getting into an area now that many people feel uncomfortable discussing. In fact, I probably get more heat on my blog about this than I do on any other subject.

Creatives seem to feel uncomfortable with the idea that the way they look has a bearing on how they are perceived (while simultaneously being utterly convinced that the “look” of an ad influences how a brand of margarine or soup is perceived).

I’ll go into this subject in more detail in Chapter 9. All I want to say for now is that you are more likely to be accepted into any group if the way you look and behave conforms to the norms of that group. Ad agencies are no different. I’m not advising you to change your haircut or your trousers, or suddenly start drinking a certain brand of beer or listening to a certain style of music. Far from it. Continue to be yourself. But just be aware that you are more likely to get hired somewhere you fit in. If you find yourself at an agency where you don’t fit in at all, you are unlikely to get hired. Not a problem. Find somewhere else. There are all kinds of agencies out there.

CAN-DO

Make sure you display energy and a can-do spirit. I’m always impressed when I see that a creative team has got off their backsides and done something. (Remember—the word “create” means “to bring into existence” not “to ponder.”) When my partner and I were going around with our student book, we had written one particular “spec” campaign (short for “speculative”—a campaign that you’ve mocked up for your book rather than one that has actually run), which people liked a lot. Creative teams were constantly telling us to make it happen for real. I couldn’t understand why. Surely we should be judged on our ability to come up with good ideas, not our ability to organize a photoshoot? Eventually we gave in, and we made the thing come to life. Immediately, we noticed a huge difference in how we were perceived. The fact that we had “actually done it” got a great reaction from people—even though the campaign idea was identical to what it had been before, and the only difference was that it had actually been produced.

What I didn’t realize at the time, but now know for certain, is that there is a lot more to being a successful creative than coming up with good ideas. Although there are many people in an agency who will help you bring your ideas to life, for example account handlers and TV producers, a can-do spirit on your part will be repeatedly important. And in making our campaign actually happen, we were displaying the initiative, energy, and can-do spirit that made people think we’d do well in a real job.

It’s so easy nowadays to shoot a little ad on a camcorder, or print out some material for an ambient piece. Do it.

BEING AN INDIVIDUAL

One phrase you’ll hear often is that “creative directors are looking for people who offer something they don’t currently have in the department.” This idea used to annoy the hell out of me. It was hard enough trying to master the “normal” disciplines such as TV commercials and posters—and now they wanted me to master some additional skill, specifically one that even the most experienced creatives in their department didn’t have? And how was I supposed to know what skills the people in their department had anyway?

The answer is that they’re looking for something that makes you an individual. At a job interview I had a few years ago, the creative director was more interested in my blog than he was in my book. No one in his department had a blog, and he found it fascinating. (Not many creatives had blogs at that time.) You shouldn’t have to think too hard about this one. Everyone has something unique about them.

Everyone is either from an interesting place, has some weird or unusual hobby, or has done a weird or unusual job. Make something of it. Find a way to get it into your book if you can.

Finally, I have a theory that every creative director is looking for a “dinner party story.” Creative directors are regularly called upon to entertain—clients, new business prospects, even their own staff. And because they have repeated their good anecdotes hundreds of times, they constantly need new ones. Could you become his next anecdote?

I’m not saying you should deliberately set out to do something outrageous. (You can’t create anecdotes, they have to occur naturally. A deliberate attempt to create an “incident” would be cringe-worthy.) But don’t keep your head down during your placement and behave in a way that is completely boring and anonymous. Throw yourself fully into the agency’s life and culture, and become not just another anonymous placement team but a real member of the agency, an individual with whom they’ve shared some history.