Coffee & Honeycomb: agency

Showing posts with label agency. Show all posts

MONDAY'S MEMO: I'M AN AD MAN

Monday, February 3, 2014

Right now, I'm shifting into "student mode" and trying to absorb as much information as I can... Not just from my classes, but from every avenue, as well. I'm reading through Forbes, AdWeek, This Week, and "Lean in" daily. I'm trying to be a student of advertising, not merely an advertising student.

As a second semester senior, my graduation date is creeping up very quickly (May 17th). I'm currently job searching, networking, browsing industries, etc., and I want to be as informed about the advertising industry as I can.

In the same way we shared how blogging is a culture and language you must practice, so is your trade. The more I fill my brain with the trends, jargon, methods of my trade (advertising), the more organically I can speak about it at career fairs, emails, professional conversations, etc.

I take my career kind of seriously. And not in the intense-feministic kinda way, (but if that's your thing, you go, girl) but more so in the way that I'm really passionate about my professional growth, my professional impact, and my professional trade. I want to be in an industry and specifically a company I believe in and respect, I want to be effective as I can in the role I am. So this job searching is not only looking through places and applying, but it's also an internal search, too.

This "search" has been taking up a lot of my mind lately, so I want to share about it here with you guys—my slow, painful, and exciting journey into becoming a contributing citizen of society. (yikes.) This whole semester is a process as I find myself as a professional, as well as find the perfect company where I can dive in and get my feet wet. What does that even look like? Will I be able to identify it right away? If I find the perfect place, will they find me to be the perfect candidate? That sort of thing...

Each monday I want to share with you the update of how my job search is going, what I'm learning, and some tips for you as you search for your own career path, internship, career, etc. Nothing formal or anything—again, this is just my "journey." I'm just going to be writing as someone who's in the same shoes as you and intentionally trying to develop a more professional voice. (Speaking of intentionality, if you want to find a blog all about intentional living, you must check Jess Lively out. She is the queen of living with intention.

So, if this is a topic that interests you, please tune in every Monday and we'll explore different topics/segments related to professionalism/job searching/etc. If this is not really your thing, no worries, come back other days of the week to find the usual content (lifestyle posts, inspiration, photos, etc.)

This week, instead of extending a tip, I kind of just want to (quickly) talk about where I am right now...

What you guys don't know is that last semester I received my first rejection email. And I cant fully describe it to you but my world seemed to collapse. I was defeated and heart broken and confused. Maybe I was also a bit dramatic, but getting that rejection email is never any fun—especially when you thought that prospect seemed perfect for you. Anyway, I don't want to delve too much into this because I'm going to have a separate post on getting rejected later, but that was just where I was towards the end of last semester. I didn't feel like an all-star and my pride was hurt. From then to now, though, things have changed... I was named one of the "Most Promising Minority Students" of 2014, I used the rejection as a learning opportunity and stepped up my game, and I kept trying to learn...

I'm leaving for New York one week from today for an Advertising convention/award ceremony, and I have (so far) two second-round interviews lined up for the week I am there. I'm not going to disclose company names just yet, but I can share the cities they are in! One is an advertising agency in Oregon and the other is a client-side office in Minneapolis. I actually thought I did TERRIBLE in one of the phone interviews and was feeling bummed about it, but today I received an email that I had passed to second round. (PTL! I know that definitely was not me.) Both of these companies are companies I really, really respect and would be more than honored to work for—I'm even honored to just be considered a candidate! The only thing is that they are both out of state. Yikes. So moving forward either way will make for a huge life adjustment.

Other news, I have two Chicago advertising agency prospects I am in the middle of interviewing for right now... These are also really great and reputable agencies, but I'm not sure I'm in love with them, you know? I don't know if the line of work I would be doing there would really fulfill and inspire me daily. I don't know if that's naive for me to think that way, though. I've been really, really fortunate to have positive internship experiences, so I only have high hopes for a full-time position, too! But everyone always says that working is not fun...

Regardless, I'm trying to put my best foot forward, embrace every opportunity with an open mind, and keep a positive attitude. :) Keep you posted!

Find more posts on professional development here.

Life of an Ad Intern: Day 2

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Day two was INSANE. Let me tell you about it.
The Insane Story of Day Two:
I boarded the 8:00 am train (per us), found a seat, opened my purse to pull out my train ticket and realized that my wallet wasn't in my there! -Along with all my cash, cards, train and bus tickets... I had a mini-panic attack unsure of how I was going to get through the rest of the day, let alone pay for the train ride I had already boarded. I was like... should i run off, should i stay on, should i lie, should i cry... I felt like I was in Italy again illegally riding those trains to Milan. Anyway, I rummaged through my purse and found a crinkled $10 sitting at the bottom, (lucky instance #1) so I was like nice and I decided I would use that for that train! ...And figure out the rest later.
So, the ticket master stepped in going around to see some everyone's boarding pass. By the time he got to me, I explained to him that I had already purchased a monthly pass but accidentally left it at home so I didn't have it with me that day, but I assured him that I ride that train every morning, yadda yadda wink wink pulls shirt down -- no I'm totally kidding. He asked me if I'd be there tomorrow, and I responded yes, and he let that ride go. (lucky instance #2 -- ticket master pulled through that morning. ps: i saw him again a later day and said "HI" and flashed my monthly pass in the air for a few seconds to show gratitude for the previous day... he didn't remember who i was and sort of cringed for being so enthusiastic. end note). So I was like okay, I can use this $10 for the ride back home then.
AND THEN, the train was delayed. Like I said, I hopped on the 8:00 train which is supposed to arrive at 8:34... BUT we didn't get to union station until 9:40!!! Two trains broke down on the track and one of them had to be tied up to the train in front and dragged into the city. Our train just followed slowly behind that whole ordeal. It was a mess. Do you follow? Picture oregon trail on the train tracks, because that's pretty much what it was.
When I found out the train was going to be delayed for such a long time, I panicked because I didn't want to be late on my second day of work, and decided I would use that $10 to pay for cab fare. I emailed my supervisor letting her know about the metra delay and that I would be in ASAP. She responded by telling me to just take a nice walk cause it was beautiful outside. "no worries" she said. So I was like, okaaaay! So I took that 30 minute walk to save that $10 for the train ride home like I originally planned. (lucky instance #3)
Then I came work, read some blogs, stapled all these packets (i'm becoming an EXCELLENT stapler, btw. I started to play this game to see how quickly i could get through packets... and the time is honestly pretty impressive.) So after I kept winning I got bored and lunch time came around. I had luckily thrown in some granola and decided to just munch on that to save monies. BUT THENNN, one of my supervisors came in and told me that there was a client lunch happening and that we could go out to eat on the company card!!! Just my luck. (: So, we went to Nordstrom Cafe and each enjoyed a $15 dollar meal. I got this amazing chicken pasta and a red velvet cupcake. It was freaking perfect. (lucky instance #4) Way to be clutch, havas.
Then the afternoon is kind of a bluuuuur and the work day ended and , I walked back to union station, and payed $8.75 for the train ride home. What a day. Now all I remember is a blur of mini-panic attacks; but luckily, somehow everything aligned and it was a-okay. (:
Anyway. That's my ridiculous story for the day. Now I will show you my outfit which has nothing to do with said story... HOWEVER, I am linking up with Mix & Match Fashion to daily document how I do biz casual. (:
DAY 2 OUTFIT:

DAILY TAKEAWAY:

PC STILL sucks. My eyeballs hurt so much from staring at this dim screen for 8 hours. And you can't take screenshots. And you can't zoom in/out with your trackpad.
It's hard to type quickly with long nails. I should probably cut them because they keep sliding off these cheap, plastic keys and falling into the cracks in between. ESPECIALLY BETWEEN "k" AND "i" AND "f" AND "t.

xo.

Life of an Ad Intern: Day One

Monday, June 10, 2013

Ello, ello.

Today was my first day of the internship. (: If I hadn't mentioned it before, I am an account management intern @ HAVAS WW, CHICAGO. Never heard of it? It might be because they recently had a brand makeover as of September last year. They used to go by EURO RSCG. Still doesn't ring a bell? You've probably seen their work, though! My office (CHI), specifically has done Sauza Tequila (do you remember that viral Fireman YouTube video?), Reynolds Wrap, The Laughing Cow, Pucker Vodka, etc. And Havas WW in general has done Does Equis (The Most Interesting Man in the World), McDonald's, Evian, IKEA, IBM, Coca-Cola... just to name a few.

Anyway, it was a solid first day. Boarded the 8:00 a.m. train, arrived to Union Station a quarter til 9:00 a.m., hopped on a bus, and got to the office just in time for orientation at 9:30 a.m. Last summer, the office was on Randolph, so it was only a 25-30 minute walk from the station; but this time the office is located a little bit more North. I google mapped it, which told me the walk should take around 30 minutes, but with all the foot traffic, I'm assuming I should factor in an extra 10.

It was pretty chaotic in the office with people running around to and from meetings, trying to maintain the momentum of work from the previous week. I think the arrival of 20 new bodies moving in and trying to set up camp probably didn't help.Yeah, there's nearly 20 of us interns. We're not all together though. The interns have been divided based on department and team. So more than half went to creative, and account/strategy got split into designated accounts. I'm on Bel Brands. You know, the Laughing Cow and those circular cheese wheels that come in little rad wax packing. (I meant red. But it's rad, too.) Those were the hot commodity back in junior high days.

It's fun. I read through all the creative brief and strategy, watch unreleased commercials, sat in on meetings... I resonate with the brand's voice, so I'm excited to be able to touch the campaign in whatever capacity I can. It's a team of about 10 people, including the creatives, strategists, and president. All the interns are given a "mentor," and mine is the Sr. Account Executive on the team. I'll just call her M. But she's super cool and nice and SMART and can't wait to learn from her. Her, along with her friends, and their interns, took us out to lunch today at the Nordstrom Cafe. So we all got to meet each other and have non-biz conversation. Mostly about GOT. (It's always about GOT these days, isn't it?)

Enough words, though. Here's some photos to show you! (:

^ This was on the bus. This weird lady kept trying to guess how much peoples' shoes were. I think she thought she was on "The Price is Right" or something, not public transportation. (Deep apologies if this is your mother and I retract everything I just said. She is probably a lovely woman.)

FIRST DAY TOUR:

^ Sitting right on the kiddie corner of Grand + State... And only ten tempting steps from Nordstrom. DANGEROUS, RIGHT?!

^ welcome inside! :) this is the lobby.

^ My office! (: My desk is the one on the left -- with all those rappers' faces. (It was there before I was, I promise.) On the left, is B's desk. B is also on my team as the Account Coordinator. She was really busy today so we didn't talk too much, but she was super welcoming and helpful.

^ Yes, you are seeing that right. They gave me a PC........................................................ #help. #shouldirun? I have LITERALLY never felt so disabled in my life trying to operate this colossal machine they call a laptop. It took me 20 minutes to figure out how to brighten the screen because the keyboard "sunshine icon" does CRAP. The keyboards are so plastic-y and annoying. The mouse is moves choppy and in order to do ANYTHING, it requires 9 other steps, first. Also, they don't even have an em-dash. If I want to use one, I have to do this. (see photo below):

^ In order to make a punctuation mark, you need to shuffle through 8 other things and then copy and paste it. I've literally been googling "how to do __on a PC" as well as g-chatting my hotdog all day. My hot dog is a PC user by choice. (I know, those exist). Sigh, learning curve, right? Lawl. I'm just being dramatic. But I really do hate PC's. Moving on to other corners of the office... hehe (:

^ That cappuccino maker does WONDERS. So far I've tried the FVL and the Chai Latter.

^ Yes. Yes I did take a panorama of the kitchen.

^ The floor plan is kind of complicated... There's a lot of winding hallways and circular rooms. I don't think I expected the office to be so BIG (and beautiful). Havas has their own building to themselves. It's a five-story office, complete with rooftop seating. (: Which is where we had lunch today! Floors are separated by department; lobby, hr, creatives, account, and media, respectively. So I'm on the fourth floor! All these photos I showed you are only of the fourth floor and I still get lost. Floors are organized into Chicago "neighborhoods," and they're written all along floors and walls to help guide your way... you just need to remember where is called what. I'm in bucktown. (: here's wicker park!

FIRST DAY OUTFIT:

^ I wanted to look buttoned-up, but still comfortable enough to easily do whatever the day's tasks were, so I crossed out a skirt or dress -- and double criss cross on the heels. | Blazer: The Limited | Top: Banana Republic | Pants: NY&Company | Belt & Necklace: Forever 21 | Flats: Italy

DAILY TAKE AWAY:

BTS = back to school

you don't need that 4th cup of coffee -- you will get jittery by 3 p.m.

act confident. even if you don't feel it.

bucktown 1 printer sucks. don't use it.

double check, double chek.

status meetings are essential because so many things are happening at once to each person on the team. these meetings help everyone debrief on where they're at and minimize miscommunication