I got there around one-thirty, when a seminar titled "The 10 Commandments of Getting Hired," is starting. That's one of the main reasons I went, so I rushed into the room. For about an hour I sat about five rows back from the 8 or so panelists made up of different people of different functions from different agencies and listened to what they like to hear in resumes, cover letters, interviews, and follow-ups. A lot of the stuff was things I'd heard before ("Proofread your resume," duh), but some of it was useful.
The real fun part of the event came after the seminar, when I got to visit the booths of 60+ agencies from around the country. Who was there? Ogilvy, JWT, Lowe, Saatchi, Google, Goodby, McCann, MTV, AdAge... just to name a few. I was excited to have some conversations, rub some elbows, and meet some new people.
The first thing I had to do though was visit my good ol' HR ladies over at Lowe Worldwide. Last summer I had an internship as a brand strategist at Lowe Worldwide in New York and it was one of th ebest experiences--it got me into the whole advertising industry, and I'm grateful for that. What was the best part of the internship though was the people I met. Half the reason I decided to go to the career day was to see them, once I saw Lowe would be represented with a booth.
I walked up and down the aisles of booths until I spotted Lowe. One of them spotted me at the same time and got up running towards me, giving me a big hug in the middle of the expo. The other one was talking to someone who wanted a job. I felt kind of bad that I had wavered her attention, she had to say, "Sorry, I got distracted" to the guy she was talking to. I'm sure he deserved a job, too. I sat and talked to them for a little while, we caught up on how the agency was doing (no comments...) and how my schooling was doing (equally no comments...) and how the rest of the interns were doing, live, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. All that fun stuff. They sent me off to go talk to some potential employers and I said I would visit later.
The first I visited with was Ogilvy. My old Advertising Management teacher actually knows Mr. Ogilvy, so I thought it might be zen to start with them. I get there, and the woman is opening a Coca-Cola, so I wait for her to finish, take a sip, and shake my hand. We have some small talk, it comes out that I'm graduating in May and she says, "Oh... you're a little early." I told her I realized that, but just that I wanted to come and say hi and have some conversation, and asked when would be a better time when there would be more of a chance to get a job. "Um... I guess around April."
That damn scarcity again.
So I moved on to McCann. I went to them, we had our small talk, this times sans Coke, and when we got to the point of giving a resume, I gladly handed it over and she looked at it. Within a second, her brow furrowed up and said, "So... you graduate in May?" I replied that yes, and that I knew I was a little early, but that I was here for the experience (and my Lowe gals). "I'm sorry, we don't really hire this far out. I can take this resume, but I don't think I can do anything with it." So now we're killing trees.
I get it, people. I'm early. But isn't that good? I'm eager to enter the business. I want to get my name in, get my face in. I want to meet people. It's not like I went to the career day expecting a job out of it. I went to meet some nice people, have some nice conversation, and maybe score a few free gifts and a meal at the same time. Is that a crime?
Saatchi told me the same thing as the others. So what did I decide to do? Just have a little fun. I went to Lowe, dropped my bag off there, and galavanted around just talking.
My best fun stop was at MTV. I was attracted to them because of their table overflowing with free DVDs, notebooks, and belts. Yes. Belts. Belts with blinged out buckles that said "SPIKE" on them. I had to have one. Or two. I hadn't quite yet decided. So I went up to the table, started talking about the channels, what they do there, marketing positions, and then we got on the subject of Flavor of Love. Let me preface this with one sentence: I hate Flavor of Love. So I asked them what they thought of it. They hated it too. Good to know there's such strong brand support in the company. About five minutes later, after having gone through Flavor of Love, I Love New York, and that old show where they would play five seconds of a song and you'd have to guess what it was, the recruiter said, "Why am I even talking to you? Are you trying to get a job?" I said no, unless she was offering.
Maybe I just enjoy career fairs too much.
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