Knock knock. Who’s there? IRONY! Now shut-up and LISTEN!

Since my last entry was harmless and a little kitschy, I felt I had to rant about something that just pierces my soul.

Daily, I almost suffocate in the greatest irony that a Creative Recruiter deals with… that advertising people cannot sell themselves. It is true. Those who create the most poignant, complex, groundbreaking, subtle advertising that the world has ever seen, more often that not would be better cutting his or her tongue out and burning any resumes/portfolios within site before an interview.

Self-celebrating and bombast are not interviewing techniques; I don’t care how many lions, pencils, or addys you have won. You are human and sometimes your work reflects that.

Sometimes you just sucked.

Now that’s not to say you are not great. Did you know that often times Leonardo Divinci would paint over his paintings multiple times before he was happy with what he created? Art scholars can often times tell the authenticity of a Divinci painting by looking at it with a microscope and seeing layers of other work beneath the final product.

So what does that mean? How does that relate to you? Well, you need to let go. You need to listen to us, your recruiters. Remember, those that cannot do, recruit.

We know how to sell you. We know what agencies are looking for and what they do not want or need to see. Often times we come across creatives that want to leave in a piece that admittedly might not be the best produced work. The argument for keeping it: I worked sooooooo hard on it. Ask yourself this, is there anybody that has made it more than a year in the ad biz that has not worked hard? Working hard on a piece is not good enough of a reason to keep it in there. Our job is to show your moments of brilliance to potential employers.

We are not here to placate. Often we have to tell you things you do not like to hear. Candid feedback is something that is understandably not often embraced. We know why it is tough to hear, but you must know that ultimately our job is to help you. We do not get sick pleasure out of saying which ads work and which do not work when you are looking for new employment.

Once we begin the candidate recruiter relationship, we have the same goal: to get you the job that you deserve. We both have different roles to play in this, and there has to be trust on both sides. We trust that you are not a psycho killer or serial-douchebag. You trust that we know the industry and what the clients are looking for. If we tell you that something does not belong in your portfolio or on your resume, then it probably does not.

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