Ada Parker If you are interested in how to get a job in the advertising industry, this post is right for you.
The advertising industry is a highly competitive field. You will need a lot of experience, unbridled talent, and a dedication to your craft in order to make it your career, regardless of whether your dream job title is graphic designer, art director, copywriter, creative director, or another marketing professional.
Even internships are hard to get, and that route is hardly a secret.
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Advertising Specialties and Job Roles
As was stated earlier, advertising involves more than just coming up with catchy catchphrases to promote a product. It comes with a litany of job roles that ultimately serve up the “sellable” product on a plate – whether on print, television, or the internet.
It also comes in a variety of shapes and sizes, occasionally with a commercial angle and other times as social messages, promotions, and other things. The collaboration of three essentially broad job role categories—Creative, Accounts, and Marketing—within the advertising industry ultimately results in its creation.
Average salaries, in India, can range from 4 lacs to 25 lacs, annually.
An extreme simplification of the three broad roles, with their many many job titles within, is such.
- Accounts brings clients to ad agencies and bargains the budget a campaign will be launched within. Additionally, they uphold the client relationship with the agency, attending to their requirements within the agency’s capabilities. Examples include sales manager, account manager, and promotions manager.
- Sales and Marketing do the necessary background work like research, gathering data, data mining and analyzing consumer behavior, to help pump up the effectiveness of the campaign with the target consumer. They are also responsible for taking the final product to newspapers, magazines, television, etc. Brand manager, buyer, marketing associate, media planner, etc. are job titles that fall under this heading. Read How I became a Brand Manager and Common Brand Management Interview questions
- The message that ultimately makes up for the portion of advertising that we are familiar with is worked on by a creative team that includes copywriters, artists, and designers. They are people who have an excellent sense of creativity, verbal and written expression, visual media, etc. Copywriter, Copyeditor, Art Director, Web Designer, etc fall under this category.
There are many ways you can break into the advertising industry given these job roles.
The courses that will set you up for success and the steps you can take to move up the food chain in this fiercely competitive industry are covered in the following sections.
Related Reading: Is Advertising A Good Career Path?
How to Get a Career in Advertising?
It takes time to build up your advertising career and gain a reliable reputation. While many reputable agencies are located in cities like London, New York City, and Washington D.C., it is also possible to begin a career path as a freelancer for local agencies, or target digital advertising agencies as a start.
If you’re looking to be the next account executive a la Mad Men and make the long hours of the advertising world your full-time business, the following guide can help:
- Get a degree. Depending on the specific advertising career you’re after (like copywriting or art direction), a bachelor’s degree or master’s degree in an advertising program or creative department such as graphic design, fine arts, or other related field can be helpful in boosting the chances of a successful job search (it may also be required for certain employers).
- Build a portfolio. Your top priority is to demonstrate your aptitude as an advertising creative. Keep in mind that when a company hires you, they are investing in you, and investing in anyone takes a lot of work that shouldn’t be taken for granted. Create samples of your work, such as spec ads or mock marketing campaigns, depending on the type of job you are applying for, to show prospective employers your creative side. Be expressive when applying for jobs as a copywriter in the advertising industry. Use proper grammar, spell-check your work, and have personality. Make it clear that you have the ability to write catchy headlines and persuasive copy that will grab the attention of even the most uninterested customers. If you’re a designer, make a logo for yourself. Characters that interact should be illustrated in your work’s thumbnails. Employ a distinctive typeface and an eye-catching color scheme. Showcase your abilities to establish that you possess the original thinking required to work at a digital marketing or ad agency. Make it clear that you can manage both small-scale and large-scale advertising campaigns.
- Develop your skill sets. You must have excellent communication skills in addition to your skills in graphic design or copywriting. Any person working in the creative industry needs to possess interpersonal skills. Since open communication makes it easier for information to flow, advertising calls for the cooperation of the marketing team across several departments.
- Be a problem-solver. You need to be skilled at original problem-solving to succeed in almost every career path in the advertising field. It’s your responsibility to create an effective marketing strategy for a client within the given brand mandate and time constraints. The advertising industry thrives on innovation and finding ways to make the impossibly possible. Taking the initiative to overcome challenges or foresee problems is a quality that any agency, large or small, would value, regardless of whether you want to work in online advertising for new products or writing slogans for well-known brands.
- Gain experience. To gain agency experience and network, consider doing an internship at a company or looking for a part-time or entry-level position. Employers want to know that you have completed the task at hand, not just that you can do it. While it might be difficult for job seekers to find the ideal (and open) position, even at entry-level, you can first try your hand as a freelancer and lend your talents to smaller jobs like social media campaigns or other online marketing, which can add to your valuable experience. Use Google to look for small, independent jobs. This is a great way to begin expanding your network, and at the very least, your work in digital marketing can help you establish an online presence. Additionally, you can look for jobs in fields that are related, like sales or public relations.
- Seek out fame. Wanting others to see your accomplishments is a good idea. When they do, it’s good for your career, the agency’s health, probably your clients, and it will open up more doors to help you do the work you want to do. Good work should be shared, publicized, and envied. Furthermore, pursuing fame and recognition motivates you to look for chances to develop unique concepts that would eventually lead to that kind of notoriety, which in turn results in a more interesting body of work. Building up your professional reputation is a great way to begin positioning yourself for a successful future.
- Fit the bill. Do not forget that you are also a brand. Being aware of your own brand can help you connect with people on a personal level that feels warm and genuine. You present yourself to those particular people who share that brand identity as someone who is worth investing in. The more you can consider your own brand as a tool for communication, the simpler it will be to do the same for another company, and the more likely it will be that company will later hire you for an advertising campaign or other creative work.
Final Words on How to Get a Job in the Advertising Industry
The truth in advertising is that the field is so competitive, and open positions so few, that getting a gig in the modern ad business is as difficult as landing a major account.
Consider the fact that marketing communications are constantly evolving, and that working in a digital media company, for instance, may have given you the experience and qualifications that an advertising agency may someday require.
FAQs
Is It Hard to Get a Job in Advertising?
The truth in advertising is that the field is so competitive, and open positions so few, that getting a gig in the modern ad business is as difficult as landing a major account.
What Qualifications Do You Need to Work in Advertising?
A great place to start is with a degree in anything, from business management and psychology to English and communications.
Do Advertising Jobs Pay Well?
Based on some of the highest paying marketing/advertising jobs, you’ll find that marketers can earn over $140,000 a year easily without a graduate degree, so there is potential for high pay in this field.
