Over the years you learn new skills you’ve never knew you had and never thought could exist in one person. And managing the resultant multiple personalities you have to adopt can make or break you!

A few of the additional talents that you pick up on the way include:
– “Juggler” – The talent of managing oh so many things at once, without dropping a ball
– “People Pleaser” – The important skill of executing the entire project with method of carrot, not stick
– “Diplomat” – The ability to smooth the rough edges and stay neutral, no matter what
– “Magician” – “Abracadabra!” and you can deliver the complete project in a blink of the eye
– “Mathematician” – The skill to create formulas where one plus one equals five
– “Psychic” – The ability to read people’s minds and foresee the future
– “Handyman” – Applying your self-learned tricks in design programs to fix a few things here and there
– “Creative” – We all want to be the creatives in this world, but you’re lucky if you have a natural talent for it

Ultimately, you really need to have a passion for all things in advertising and marketing in order not to regret your career choice during the first few years.

And, of course, the big pay off is when you see your campaign come to life in the pages of magazine, online and especially on the huge roadside billboard you pass every day.

Elena A.
Senior Account Manager

Ok, I think the words administration, process and protocol should have deterred most, if not all, creative reading this! So I’m guessing it’s just me and you now, the suits.

So suits, here is a very well known fact – creatives (in general) hate ‘creative’ suits. Creatives don’t come to your desk, lean over your shoulder and critique your budget forecast. They don’t make you pin your creative briefs on the wall in the boardroom and take potshots at it or claim that they’ve ‘seen something like this before’. Nor do they ask you to increase the size of the font in your WIP report to something above 6 point!

They don’t do this because they, rightly, have no desire or need to. Consequently, they can be a bit prickly if we start to do the same with their work. So, rather than being the person who shoots down ideas at the end of the creative process, be part of the process from the beginning.

Your task is to arm them with insights gleaned from your client about the project and these should be incorporated into your clear and concise creative brief. But it needn’t stop there. Be involved. Not only in the briefing but request (demand if you have to) to be part of the brainstorming process. You should be in a position to bring insights and ideas to the table (if you’re not then I would suggest you reconsider your vocation in life) that can act as catalysts for the creative team’s thinking. No one is expecting you scamp up the creative direction but if you’re going to be in a creative environment, have a voice and contribute.

The realm of creativity shouldn’t be seen as a closed shop for the creative team alone, you too should have a positive contribution to make, just don’t tell them I told you so!

David Wright
Irritating creatives since, well forever.