Your Career Starts Here__

To get my first job as a copywriter in this business, I had almost 100 interviews. I met with anyone that would see me. Not just creative directors, but writers, art directors, producers... anyone. If they worked at an agency, I’d try to get in to meet them. I can’t even imagine how bad my first portfolio must have looked. I literally cut pictures out of magazines and wrote headlines against them__
One thing that didn’t help was that many people who looked at my book just nodded and said, “Great ... great ... ” when it would have been a lot better if they’d said, “This is bad.” The more people I met with, the more I began to understand that the ideas in my portfolio needed work-and that it was my job to keep working on it until it was good enough to get a job.
So you’ve finished your program and you have a “book” or a website to show what you’ve got and you’re ready to meet some people.
What could possibly go wrong?
I see as many interns and hopeful juniors as my time allows. Maybe it’s because I’ve been there myself and I know how hard it is to get that first break. Even though the schools are doing a better job than ever to get young creative minds cooking, there’s still a lot to learn to make your interviews successful.
First off, don’t think that just because you’ve made a portfolio your job is done. I’m never that thrilled looking at a book that’s entirely school assignments. For one thing this work is mostly “group think” and the person you are meeting wants to see what you can do. I would suggest you split your book in half. Show some of the work you did in school and then show some work you’ve done on your own. Create some ads for something you’re passionate about, like cooking or motorcycles or a gun store-something you see opportunity in. Give it a voice or an attitude that shows you know how to make a statement for a product or service. Sometimes, it’s a good idea to work with some ads that already have a great tone or campaigns that you love and show that you can write an ad that’s just as good as anything they’re doing. Another way to go is to make an ad for a brand that seems to have no idea what they’re doing and give it a look and feel that you think is great. There are no rules for spec work other than your desired consumer response-the person who sees your work says, “I would love you to come and work at my agency.”