Besides a portfolio, a decent education wouldn't hurt a bit. You could major in anything from advertising design to journalism, but you should take courses in every other area which is applicable to advertising, for example, marketing, merchandising, and psychology. You could also do a lot for your own cause by getting acquainted with mechanicals, so take a course in studio skills if you can. Beyond that, courses in film production, design, still photography (both color and black-and-white), darkroom techniques, graphics, and typography would help, too.
But there's more to an education than school. That means work experience. Of course, you know by now that a summer job is the best place to get some practical work experience.
If you're unbelievably fortunate, you might be able to get on an internship program in an agency.
If you can't get on as an intern, try getting an agency job in another position. Maybe you can get into the mat room, cutting mats. That's usually a job for would-be art directors, but take anything you can to get a start, including running errands or typing.
If you can't get a job in an agency, try the advertising department in the department store. Sometimes they have openings in one position or another. If you have a portfolio, you might even get a job as a copywriter. If you don't have any luck in a department store, try small advertising studios. Studios are companies like agencies, but studios don't place media. They don't usually have marketing or research people, either, just creative and production. They often have an opening at one level or another, and since they use copywriters just like agencies, once in a while they have an opening for someone like you.
Another thing that makes studios good places to start is that, since they are usually small, few people get stuck to only one job. They have to double up on duties: an art director can work as a copywriter, a copywriter can get into account service, and paste-up people and errand runners get to do just about every-thing, including writing copy.
Next, try getting into the advertising department of a large advertiser. This would give you experience, a paycheck, and the chance to make some agency contacts. If you can't connect there, try the newspaper, again in a position that would give you the chance to do some writing under a supervisor. But don't be too fussy. Just about anything you can do for a newspaper would be good for you in one way or another.
See if the printers need any help. They sometimes use copywriters, especially on a free-lance basis. If the printers are dry, try anybody, anywhere: store owners and managers, your father's tailor-anybody who might need an ad written. Show them your portfolio and you might find work on a free-lance basis.
Freelance is a great way to get experience. And, thanks to that portfolio, you don't even need to wait until you graduate to do free-lance. You can do it summers, or even on a very light schedule during the school year. Free-lancing can build your portfolio, keep you in bed and board, and teach you about the craft of writing.
If you can't scrape up any work writing advertising, go after any kind of writing you can find. Write on the subways and buses if somebody will pay you to do it.
When you're ready to try your hand at full-time employment, the agency person to call is the creative director. Check the Advertising Agency Redbook. There you'll find the names of almost every creative director in the country listed under the agencies for which they work. You'll also find the names of other people you can call listed there. If you can't speak with the creative director, ask for a copy group head. If you can't talk to a group head, ask for a copy supervisor or a senior copywriter. If you still don't get anyone but a secretary, ask for a copywriter.
But before you call anyone, do a little research. Look through the Advertising Redbook and find out which agencies have which accounts. Then call those agencies which do advertising you like, because those agencies obviously have strong creative directors. Don't worry about working on a beer account or an airline in the beginning. Just make sure you work for someone who will make you think.
When you do get through to someone in an agency, set up an appointment and show him your portfolio. If the going is tough and you can't get in no matter how hard you try, try the same places you did for summer jobs.
When you finally do land a job you'll see that it was worth every phone call you made, every letter you wrote, every door that shut in your face, every tear you shed from frustration, and every blister you put on your feet walking from agency to agency.
Working as a copywriter will give you the chance to deal with some of the best minds around-business moguls, directors, photographers, and athletes. As a copywriter you'll have a chance to get into other things that you might not have thought about before. There are film directors and producers, music producers, all kinds of folks who used to be copywriters who are now leading highly satisfying and successful lives doing some-thing entirely different.
A lot of copywriters who stay in advertising become copy group heads or creative directors. Some even open their own agencies. More often than not, copywriters do stay in advertising, because coming up with an idea that you know will be memorable and will cut through all of the garbage you see in print and on the air waves is one of life's big thrills.
But regardless of which way your career turns, regardless of how you're earning your keep twenty years from now, learning to be a copywriter will give you one ability that you'll never lose, one ability that can give you more enjoyment more often than any other part of your life: the ability to communicate ideas and information through the written word.
And even if no one ever reads the stuff you write, that ability will bring you more pleasure and satisfaction than words could ever express.
