The other day I was listening through some of the older episodes of the AdVerve podcast*. In this particular episode they had Erik Prolux, the guy in charge of the Lemonade movies, and said something that got me so excited I had to write a post about it.
He tackled a wide variety or topics about his movies, his passions and other people's passions but the most interesting part for me was when he talked about applying for a job. Specifically he was talking about applying to W+K (if you don't know about W+K hit this link and inform yourself.) What he said was after he applied he got a call back from them, but it wasn't to hire him. The person from W+K said that his book had tons of good ads in it. Also, it was clear that he was a very good copywriter.Then she paused and said, "But we really want to see anything but your ads. We want to know what you passions are."To me this was a pretty cool thought because W+K is arguably one of the most consistently great big agencies in the world. A lot of that success probably comes down to the way that they hire.They're not looking for the person with the most polished book or the best headline, they're looking for people who are truly passionate about something. Because most of the time that passion transfers over into their work. I thought that was a pretty important lesson for aspiring juniors to hear.
Having an incredibly awesome book is just the bare minimum. You should assume that anyone else applying for the job you're applying for has a book as good as yours, some may be better. So it's important to have something else that you do, something else that you're passionate about. For me that is this blog, video work and photography. That works for me because I always jotting down little thoughts to turn into full blown blog entries or short videos. Even if the one thing you really enjoy is making ads take that a step further, do something different because that thing will help you get a job. A great headline is a great start but being able to show off your passion seals the deal.*If you don't listen to AdVerve you should give it a try. Bill and Angela put out some of the best discussion about marketing and life every week. Get you some AdVerve!