Not knowing what you want
In addition to not targeting in on prospective employers, job hunters also fail to target in on what they really want to do and what their capabilities are. Without this, you cannot pick the agencies or type of advertising work that is best suited for you. You also need to determine the kind of job you want and whether or not it is compatible with your training, interests, and capabilities. You must also learn how to examine any personal values that may create conflicts in a work environment. Knowing this ahead of time will help you choose the job that is just right for you when the time comes to make a decision. The second part of your research will be focused on the kind of agencies that your personal evaluations reveal are best suited to you.
During an interview, an agency owner recognizes that the interviewee can clearly make an immediate contribution to the ongoing work in the agency, the final determining factor in deciding to hire this person is often the sense that this is a perfect match. Is this chemistry? Maybe, but more than likely, it is the growing awareness that the person about to be offered a job has a personality that is truly compatible not only with the duties and responsibilities of the job but also with the agency's staff, the clients, and the very structure and philosophy of the agency itself. While this notion that someone is a perfect match can sometimes come across simply during an interview, taking the time to research and go after only those agencies for which you are a perfect match is going to make you stand out noticeably from the crowd of competitors anxiously vying for the same job. You cannot avoid the competition, but you can avoid looking just like them.
Not grabbing attention with initial contact
In addition to blanketing every agency around with a generalized cover letter and a watered down, no punch resume, and failing to research and target the most personally compatible agencies, job seekers also make another mistake that can eliminate them from consideration before they have even had a chance to demonstrate their abilities during an interview. Agency people receive phone calls and letters constantly from people inquiring about possible job openings. The majority of these inquiries are automatically screened out by the secretary as not being worth a busy executive's time. Most people think that their calls may not be returned, but surely their letters and resumes will be brought to the attention of the appropriate person. Not so! If there is nothing in that letter to grab the interest of the first person who opens the envelope-usually the secretary-the letter will end up in the wastebasket.
Not understanding the business of advertising
I have already mentioned the necessity of taking the time to find out exactly to whom in the agency your letter should be addressed. Along with that you must clearly communicate that your research indicates some distinct areas of compatibility between you and the agency. Another critical area that many people fail to address during their first point of contact with an agency is an understanding of how agencies operate as a business. Later in the book I will prepare you with basics regarding agencies and clients, how an agency makes money, and how agencies grow. But that is only die ingredient list for your recipe. To really get cooking you will need to read, on a regular basis, any local or regional advertising trade publications that are available. Check with your public library to see if they carry these trade journals. If not, they can tell you which libraries do. Industry trade journals, as well as your local newspaper business section, will tune you into who's who and what's what on the local advertising scene. When you write a letter to an agency and you can relate your experience as applicable to a specific account or market niche that agency has, you can bet you will get the reader's attention.
Relying on want-ads
Keeping up with the local trade journals can also be your most direct source of possible job openings. Most publications feature articles or blurbs on those agencies who have added new accounts. A new account usually means that additional staff people may be necessary to service the account. When an agency needs to get new staff people on board, the person in charge of hiring will try to avoid placing a classified ad. Why? Because it takes too long to sift through the barrage of responses to find competent and qualified people. That is when the job hunter with an ear to the ground can move in to make a timely appearance.
Not preparing for the interview
And finally, the last of the common mistakes unaware job hunters will make include not preparing adequately for an interview. When applicants are not well prepared for specific interviews, they end up over-selling themselves instead of being more focused on what the agency needs, talking too much and listening too little, under-dressing or over-dressing for the interview, and not taking their careers seriously. Every one of these danger zones will be explored in this book.
