Ad Grads Vs Grads

Hosted by NABs, the graduate workshop at JWT on Monday was a fascinating experience. I was able to gain a bit more insight into how agencies are run and what makes a good account man, and I took alot from the presentations. It was an entertaining delivery from Sam and Will of the AdGrads blog, who gave 10 tips in managing your online presence and how this can help (or hinder) you in your application. Overall, a very informative and interesting presentation.

During the workshop, I talked to other students attending about their applications and what they had done at university. I was surprised at the sheer number of different courses people had studied, from French to Anthropology and even engineering. Not one person I spoke to had studied advertising or marketing.

This got me thinking about my own choices and if my decision to study Advertising and Marketing communications at university would give me a distinct advantage over the other advertising applicants. I can obviously understand ad agencies thinking that a wider range of graduates means more perspectives on certain issues but surely those who have studied the advertising industry for the past three years, had experience working on real client briefs and carried out numerous pitches should have a slight edge in the application process?