15
Apr
2010

Ad2Sd Student Agency Tour

“Often the difference between a successful person and a failure is not one has better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on one’s ideas, to take a calculated risk – and to act.” – Andre Malraux

Tomorrow I will be going on the Ad2SD Student Agency Tour.

I’m very excited as it will be my first time attending an Ad2SD event. The tour will commence at 9:45am and we will see 4 different San Diego Agencies. I don’t believe I’ve ever been in an Advertising Agency before, so I’m excited to see what the workplace will look like. Of course I will have resume in hand. I’m a little disappointed as in preparing my resume for the agencies, I thought of some new ideas on how to market myself. I think that is one of the hardest parts about being a designer, never feeling accomplishment.

In design, there are always improvements to be made. Why? Well we are creating works of art in a world of change. Design and art must adapt to be effective & unique.

EDIT: I just got back from the Agency Tour. To sum up the tour in 3 words, money well spent. I learned a lot about how agencies work internally and the knowledge I gained today is invaluable. Here are some of the tips and tricks I learned today:

ADVERTISING AGENCY RESUME / COVER LETTER TIPS

Be creative and stand out..but don’t go overboard. You think that manila envelope resume package will set you apart? You guessed wrong.
SPELL CHECK! Be sure to have several people look over your resume. The last thing you want to do is spell “Quality Assurance” wrong on your resume.
Cater to what you are applying for. If you do not have several drafts of your resume, make some. There is no real generic resume, unless you are applying for a generic job. Applying for SEO? Be sure to add that you know Google Analytics, refer to some SEO blogs, etc. (of course don’t lie about it though).
Do your research. Companies have blogs/twitter/linkedin/flickr/etc for a reason. Use it and find topics you can relate to. This is set you apart from the rest.
Do NOT misspell the person’s name and above all, don’t use To Whom It May Concern (TWIMC Syndrome will get your resume a trip to the trash can before you can say Hello)

SEO Resources I Learned About Today:

If you are as interested in Search Engine Optimization or Search Engine Marketing as much as myself, you will find the following resources very interesting:

So now it is time to wind down. I plan on contacting the agencies I visited today very soon in hopes that they have some positions available. But until then…here is some art for the soul… and also I’m hungry so this looked appealing.