How to Choose an Area of Specialization?

Summary: To become a successful person you must be outstanding. That is you are above the mass level of mediocrity. This is not something that few people are born with it. But the truth is becoming outstanding is purely and solely your responsibility. The key to this is the discipline and the concentration of your area of specialization.

Find a niche

A niche is described by Webster's New World Dictionary as an especially suitable place or position. In Step One you examined the importance of determining the type of work environment, job functions, and responsibilities that were best suited to your personality. Having established your personal criteria, you have already created one kind of niche for yourself-we will call that a "work mode" niche. In addition to that, you will need to find another niche-an area of specialization that relates to advertising. This niche should be geared to your particular skills, talents, personality type, and a high score on an interest/love rating scale.



"But why," you may ask, "do I need an area of specialization when I am just beginning to get into advertising?" Having an area of specialization will enable you to concentrate your full attention and focus in one direction once you do get into advertising. Full concentration in just one area at a time is the only pathway to mastery. And while you may not need to be a master in a specialized area to get a job in advertising, the intent to work toward mastering an area of specialization will be respected by any potential employer. Obviously the person who is flexible and willing to take on any job or challenge will also be attractive to an employer. But if that flexibility and willingness is balanced with the motivation and follow-through to be the best designer, copywriter, researcher, or whatever it is that you are capable of being, you will be a rare and highly revered employee long after the initial glow of your flexibility has worn thin on your boss's list of valuable qualities. Getting a job involves more than the short-term enthusiasm of the eager fledgling. It means being able to demonstrate to an interested employer that you understand what successful employees are made of: the desire and dedication to be outstanding.

SPECIALIZED AREAS FOR FREELANCERS

While agencies will hire freelancers for just about any aspect of design or production that may need to be done when their own staff is over-burdened, there are certain things that agencies turn to freelancers for on a regular basis. If your skills and interests are in line with any of these areas, you will most likely find yourself with a steady stream of freelance work.

• Illustration-especially specialized areas such as fashion, technical, or medical, that have a unique style
• Typesetting
• Computer graphics
• Mechanical preparation-especially for large jobs like annual reports and catalogs that can tie up agency staffers
• Photography
• Videography
• Design work-if the designer has a desirable, outstanding style
• Production management-smaller agencies will often hire a freelancer to take a project from start to finish because they don't have the in-house staff to do it
• Copy writing-even agencies with a copy department frequently want fresh ideas or they use freelancers when their own staff is backed up with work
• Typography-designers who specialize in designing with type are frequently sought out by agencies for identity packages and logo development
• Media scheduling and buying-many small agencies are turning to media specialists to recommend and purchase their media rather than keeping a person on staff to do so
• Bookkeeping/accounting-agencies of all sizes are more inclined to hire independent bookkeepers and accountants as needed
  

To be successful in advertising or any profession, for that matter, you must be outstanding. That means you must rise above the mass level of mediocrity. Most people think that the ability to be outstanding is something that only a few people are born with-a talent or a gift. A good many of these same people are convinced that they are not one of the lucky few. Thus, they are content to settle for "good enough," and therein lies the origin of mediocrity. When members of the mediocre masses are presented with the notion that to become outstanding in your profession is not really a matter of talent, nor is it a gift, but rather it is a matter of self-discipline and concentrated hard work, they say: "Maybe so, but they don't pay me enough around here to work that hard!" The truth is no one will ever pay you to become outstanding. They will only pay you enough when you are outstanding. So becoming outstanding is entirely your own responsibility.

Discipline and concentrated hard work are the keys to becoming outstanding. Discipline means consistent efforts to do one thing over and over, striving to get a little better each time-even when you do not feel like doing it. Concentration is the ability to be single-minded in your attentions toward an activity. With discipline and concentration you cannot help but get better at something. Combine that with focus in an area of specialization and you have the proven formula for becoming outstanding.

So if you are one of those people who does not have a specialization niche and you are just floating along saying, "I want to work in advertising and I'm willing to do just about anything," you will need to revise your thinking. Otherwise, you may get exactly what you want-a job in advertising doing anything and everything that no one else wants to do. And as time goes by, you will still be answering the phone, running errands, and doing odd jobs around the office while other people will be promoted from assistant art director to senior art director, junior copywriter to copy chief, and so on.

Maybe you already think you know the area of specialization or niche you want to work in. Maybe it is because you have a degree in that area or years of experience and you are good at it. But before you close the book (no pun intended) on other possibilities, let us see if what you have chosen matches your personality type, and how it rates when you come to do the Area of Specialization Evaluation workshop at the end of Step Three.