Some random advice, if I may.

Years of experience. You may THINK that you’re able to include your time working at Ruby Tuesday’s or housekeeping at Days Inn as “experience” on your resume, but it doesn’t work that way. If a job posting or a client I’m working with says “Minimum two years experience” – 9 times out of 10 they mean AGENCY experience. You cannot add up all the time you spent working at HoJo’s during summer vacation and magically get two years. I realize it’s a catch 22 – you have to have experience to get hired, but no one will hire you because you have no experience. Suck it up and keep your first job for a couple years so that you have consistent, relevant experience. The likelihood of you getting a better job at a better agency will be considerably higher.

Move it. I know your family and friends are all in Beantown, Iowa, but you have to face the facts. If you really value your career and want to have all doors open to you someday, you need to start looking at the advertising hubs. Obviously, cities like LA, NYC, and Chicago are the big ones, but there are also a lot of others that are popping up with more and more agencies. For example, who knew Minneapolis would develop such a huge industry presence? Other places with great agencies…Seattle, WA…Dallas & Austin, TX…Miami, FL…Atlanta, GA…and so many others. The point is, if you want a career in advertising that has you working with industry experts on sexy accounts, in general, the big cities are where they’re at.

An example just for fun. I once heard a story of a guy that really, really wanted a job at this great agency. It was a top creative agency and this candidate was from a nothing shop with zero background, but he was bright and KNEW if someone gave him a chance, he’d make it big. So, the hiring manager interviewed him and told him that he didn’t think he had enough experience “thinking outside the box” and that he was too traditional for their agency. But, of course, he’d keep the guy’s resume for future consideration.

Obviously, the candidate is bummed out. “Future consideration” basically means no.

But then he gets to thinking of ways that he can prove himself to this hiring manager. He gets this idea in his head and finally gets up the nerve to do it. Here’s what he did (and no, I am not recommending this tactic to ANY of my candidates)…he went to his local junk yard and found a used tire. An actual automobile tire. Then he had the tire couriered to Mr. Hiring Manger with a note that said:

This tire is the play toy of an 800lb gorilla.

If you don’t give me a chance, I’ll tell him where to look for it.

And then just signed his name scribbled his phone number. The hiring manager about fell over in his chair laughing so hard when he got the special delivery. Once he regained composure, he called the candidate and said “That’s the kind of imagination we need here. When can you start?”

Wish I could say that guy is now running a badass agency in NYC, but I really have no idea what happened to him. For the sake of this post, we’ll say he’s running the show somewhere now. Point being, make yourself stand out from the crowd – but I don’t recommend using a gorilla.