With that in mind, the minute your interviewer offers any suggestions about changing an ad in your book, fall to your knees sobbing, "Oh, thank you, my Lord Interviewer. Thank you for your kind and generous guidance. I'm wrong. Of course I am." Then rise and kiss his ring.
At first you'll probably scare him to death. Then he'll get the idea that you don't think enough of your own work to defend it. He'll probably think you have no backbone, and that you take no pride in your work. He'll be convinced that you don't believe in any of your ads and that you don't have any respect for your own efforts. So why should he?
Smile. You did it again.
(Never try to defend your work while, at the same time, inviting criticism from which you could learn. You could run the risk of making your interviewer respect you. You'll never mess up an interview if you just admit that your book isn't as good as it could be, but that there are some parts which you do believe in.
If you ask questions about specific concepts, headlines, visuals, and the ways they work together, if you explain why you think they're either good or bad and ask for your interviewer's thoughts about them, you're liable to learn something about making ads. And your interviewer is liable to learn something about you. Namely, that you respect his experience, his opinions and, maybe even more important, that you respect yourself. You'll look like you're serious about wanting to get into advertising. That's no way to skunk yourself.)
So, if your interviewer starts to make a suggestion as to how to improve a layout or headline, don't even give him a chance to finish his sentence. Jump right in with something like, buddy, I know where the mistakes are. Hell the stuff, didn't I? I can do much better than here. In fact, if I tried, you wouldn't believe how good I could make it. This is just my portfolio for getting a job. I'm saving most of my energy for after I have a job. When I'm working, when I've got myself a gig, man, that's when I'll really start trying. If you want to see what I can really do, you'll just have to hire me."
You'll definitely screw up your interview. You can't miss. First, because your interviewer is liable to get the idea you're trying to fast-talk him. Second, because he might think you're showing an out-and-out disrespect for both him and his industry. And third, because you usually have to prove you can think like a copywriter before you ever get a job as one. The same goes for an art director, producer, and everyone else in the business. And you have to have a portfolio which serves as that proof.
If your portfolio shows promise and your interviewer shows some interest, he may ask if you can do things which aren't evidenced in your portfolio. He may ask an art director if he can do mechanicals, a copywriter if he knows anything about production, or a producer if he has ever directed. Account people, media people - anybody trying to get any kind of job-can be asked the same kinds of questions. And it's one of the most beautiful openings you'll ever get to louse things up but good. So: no matter what your interviewer asks if you can do, say you can do it, even if you can't. Because while you might be able to get away with that in some businesses, it doesn't work in advertising.(Unless you have tremendous political clout. Or unless you work some place so full of semi-pros they wouldn't know an ad if they drooled on it.) This is because in advertising, it's too easy to get found out. For one thing, there's always a time factor involved in advertising.
There are some things that you have to be able to do fast, and there's always somebody supervising you to see that whatever it is you're doing gets done on time. For another thing, you can't fake much in this business, especially when you're starting out. People can see and touch the things that you do. They can see what's good about it and what's bad. If there's a mistake anywhere, it'll shine through for all to see. If you don't know what you're doing and try to bluff your way through it, you won't fool anyone and you won't look intelligent. You'll look pathetic.
If an art director says he can do mechanicals, but doesn't have any in his portfolio, an interviewer might offer him the chance to sit behind a drawing board and do one. If it turns out that that art director can't even lay type down squarely, no one will think, "Aw gee. The poor kid wants to work so badly he's trying to convince himself he can do things he knows he really can't. That's a shame."
Your interviewer probably won't say a word except for a simple, "Good-bye."
You're playing with the big guys now. They don't waste their breath on someone they might consider to be a liar. Promising something you can't deliver is good for only one thing, blowing your chances of getting a job, and for that, it's almost incomparable. In fact, there may be just one thing that is looked upon with greater disdain.
