When you are searching for advertising job opportunities advertised it pays to step back and assess what your own goals are with your job search and career development. Also, it is good to realistically assess what you feel you are worth and also to look at what resources are available to help you in locating the employers with suitable vacancies for you to apply for. You should carefully consider the types of advertising jobs you feel you are capable of handling as there is wide variety in the quality and nature of the work.
Top advertising jobs will see you working with very large clients on multi-million dollar campaigns designed to promote brand awareness, consumer education, drive sales and assist a variety of organizations in reaching out to their target audiences with a message you will have a direct hand in creating. It is not just businesses that use advertising agencies to promote themselves; we have just had an historic election for the new president and obviously there was a great deal of promotion of the candidates and their policies which went far beyond simple campaigning and debating.
This is a serious point when it comes to the type of work you wish to engage in; the stereotypical caricature of an advertising agency is one of a group of people running around with high stress levels trying to get an unwitting consumer population to buy some more stuff they do not need!
While it is true that there are agencies where the stress levels are extremely high, it is not that way all the time. When they are higher, the stakes are higher as well and the more realistic practicality is that you will find agencies and work which reflects what your interests actually are. If you are interested in non-profit work for instance, then there are marketing and promotional campaigns dealing with cancer research, child care, care for the elderly, environmental issues and the list just goes on and on. If on the other hand, you are of a commercial bent then you may not wish to deal with the high stress situations that working for big hitters will bring, instead you will find an agency and work with all types of business and organization throughout the country as there is a universal demand for the skills involved.
This universal requirement for advertising and marketing promotional skills leads in turn to good financial and benefit rewards for employees as well as excellent career development and opportunities to move into other areas outside mainstream advertising. There are plenty of opportunities to enjoy life in different parts of the country and overseas as well, particularly given the increasing globalization of the world economy and multi-national activities of many businesses and agencies. You may be looking at advertising jobs in LA, but equally have you considered London, Paris, New York or Tokyo?
A career in advertising opens all of these doors and much more.
You will need to be literate and able to communicate with a range of people including not only your own team, but with the client as well as the public and consumer groups you are targeting. A creative desire is required with the ability to think laterally as well as being able to analyze a client's issues and ultimately be able to clearly formulate and implement a marketing and promotional program to deliver the client's message to as wide a target market as is possible.
There are no prerequisite qualifications for entering the advertising world though you will need to have a visual, literate and numerate set of skills. Much of your work will not only be involved in creating visual and audio promotional material but will also require you to consider online marketing techniques such as use of the web, cell phone marketing using SMS texting and content delivery as well as making use of social networking web sites. Old media, usually taken to mean television, print and radio are still dominating the mass marketing communication channels but this is changing as online and mobile communication media continue to develop and advertising revenue spent in these areas has grown and will continue to grow significantly with future development.
No matter where you land or what type of work you are interested in, you will have a very interesting and varied career working within the advertising world. Financial rewards are high with challenging and demanding work that will tax your brain and require you to harness your creative talents to the maximum; no other work can bring into such close proximity with the inner workings of a range of businesses than working in advertising. The skills you develop and the experience gained will be sought after and highly prized whether you choose to remain long term within the advertising world or look to move into other related roles working for a business or agency for instance in a PR capacity.
No matter what you decide, plan your job search carefully and start with what your own requirements are first as this will help you be more effective when it comes to selecting potential employers.
