Back2Work: But Are You Ready To Work?

Time to grind. Are you ready?

I hope I didn’t scare you off on Friday with some of the challenges of being a creative. I did it because I love you. Truly. I want you to be great. And knowing what to expect and how to prepare yourself for it is going to help you be great. (Also, I’m a bit of a bully.)

I just want you to be prepared to work hard and give 108% to be successful. 

You have to know the hours can be long and the projects can be hard and you will have challenges and sacrifices. You have to be willing to put in the work to get to where you want to go. 

No one owes you anything.

No matter how good your book is, what award you won, who you know or where you went to school. No one owes you a reply to your email, feedback on your book, an interview – Shoot I don't owe you this next sentence.

You have to prove yourself. You have to show that you are capable and worthy. 

It’s important to have your current/future coworkers like you (Read up on why you should go for a drink with them) but it’s even more important to have them respect you.

And respect is earned.

That’s why I’m always surprised (and turned off) by young creatives with egos and attitudes. Maybe you were the next best thing since wi-fi at home/school, but in an agency, you’re a small fish at the bottom of a big ocean and you have to show that you deserve to be here.

Can you deal with the pressure? The deadlines?  The process? The clients crushing your dreams? Can you work with a partner? A PM? Do you even know what a PM is?

This is why internships and freelance are so important. The more familiar you are with how an agency is run and the more intimate you are with the work process, the more successful you’re going to be. 

It's not enough to be creative (don't be a cliche.) You have to have an edge.


That's why posts like how to stand out and how to promote your personal brand and the art of emailing and books like Breaking In are so valuable.

That’s why becoming intimate with hard work is even more valuable.


There are a million juniors out there. Why should anyone pick you? And if they do pick you, why should they keep you?


People get laid off and fired left and right in agencies, how do you ensure that you are not called into that dreaded meeting? (Outside of putting on your invisibility cloak. I got mine on Amazon.)


And don’t get me wrong, advertising is fun. It’s a great industry to work in. When you win, you win big. But it takes a long time and a lot of work and a bit of luck to get that win. There are at least 4 failures for every win. And a lot of weekend work and missed lunches and cancelled dates.


So start working hard now. Put your all into school, into building your book, into promoting yourself, into your job hunt and into being a student of advertising.

People will see it and think, "Oh, she would put that kind of passion and tenacity into the work we're doing here."

Get internships. Get freelance work. Practice working with a partner. Working with limitations. Get involved in ad clubs and ad organizations. Get as much experience as possible.

 

Today is Monday. What are you going to do today?

Mailbag: Dealing With Deadlines

Q: So far, I have been given deadlines ranging from one hour to a few hours. Because I have so little time to work on projects compared to what I'm used to, I am usually not happy with the results. Can you please give me some advice on how to handle it all?
- Emely, a MAIP summer intern at JWT NY


A: First off, go in earlier and stay later.

This business is all about timeliness. You have to be quick. But you also have to be good. It's sometimes hard to manage the two. So when necessary, ask for a little more time. Don't do it too often, but if you think having another hour or two would make a significant difference to the quality of work, say that.

If you have several projects, try to prioritize and see which ones you can ask for more time on so you can focus on being really great when it really matters. Time management is your responsibility but if you need help/advice on what is most important, ask a project manager or your supervisor.

Honestly, some of the deadlines are probably stricter than they need to be because you're an intern. It's part them testing you and part them not trusting you. They need to see what you can do and need time for someone else to fix it if you mess up. (But don't tell anyone I told you that.)

Ask nicely and say in order to do quality work and prevent several rounds of revisions, you're going to need more time up front. Which is saving time overall because it means you can get it right the first go.

If you meet the deadline then find you have time, revise the piece later into to something you like more. This is good because you now have a piece you can use in your book that you feel good about. And you can submit it again and say you took more time and thought this was better because of xyz reasons. See if they'll take that instead or as well. Then you can say for the next round, if I have more time, I can do something really great like the one I redid that time. You've set a precedent now that more time = better work and they're more likely to trust you and try to get you more time.

However some times, you're going to have to just suck it up, work through lunch, ignore Facebook and put the pedal to the metal to produce something good in little to no time. It happens to everyone from time to time. Just take a deep breath and focus.

Put your all into every project. No matter how small or stupid it may seem. If you do good with small + stupid you'll graduate to medium + alright and eventually get to big + exciting. And that is why you got into this business, right?

Now get back to work.