When I was on work experience in London, years ago at a great agency, the copywriter who joined me actually took a two-week holiday from his ‘real’ job, in the hope that we’d land a gig in adland.
He was married with kids, so what on earth was he doing? He had responsibilities, he had bills to pay and mouths to feed. Things the fifty quid a week definitely wasn’t going to cover, not to mention the two weeks holiday his family would be never get back.
We got into work before anyone else, we worked later than everyone else and we worked on as many pitches as we could, hopeful that if our idea won then we would surely get a full-time job. We even worked the weekend in-between. I was beginning to wonder if he hated his family…
So why was the copywriter willing to do all this? Because… “If you love the job you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.”
Imagine if your career’s officer shared these gems with you when you were at school…
There’s a job where you’ll be required to come up with ideas all day.
You’ll do that with a mate, because for very good reasons we still work in creative teams.
You won’t have to actually work ‘in the office’. All that’s required of you is to create the most original thinking you can muster. (So if you nail cracking ideas in the shower, stay in there until the water runs cold.)
The people you work with will fire your imagination and encourage you to create better and more outrageous campaigns. They won’t tell you to pull your head in, in fact quite the opposite, encouraging you to break some boundaries.
Of course, it will be challenging because most of the ideas that you reckon are brilliant have already been done. So there will be a few late nights, trying to find originality before the deadline finds you.
You’ll work with really smart people from all walks of life, who think strategically, have brilliant craft skills and can produce miracles to help your ideas come to life.
The vast majority of your ideas will die, so it’s essential you learn to be resilient. Experience will show you there’s numerous ways to skin a cat.
The best thing is when you do nail a big idea, you’ll get to make it.
It might be a film with a well-known director. It might involve a famous actor. It might require you to travel to an exotic location.
Or you might commission a top photographer who’ll help you see things in new way.
You could be creating an art installation or working with a famous animator. Perhaps you’ll collaborate with a composer on an inspiring soundscape.
Or it could be an inexpensive social campaign that goes viral, not because of the money behind it, but because of your thinking behind it.
Or maybe it’s a funny radio spot that makes your friends laugh when it pops up on a road trip.
You could actually shape our country’s culture through a tourism idea that “shrimps” anyone. Even help put people into jobs, take homeless people off the streets.
Even better you could actually save lives by creating effective ideas to promote road safety or quitting smoking.
And even if you gave it a red-hot go and then decided it wasn’t for you, you would have learned a great skill - to think without boundaries. Which is something that will set you up for whatever you want to do next. Just like these ex-admen David Bowie, Salman Rushdie, Sir Alec Guinness and Terry Gilliam.
Oh yeah, if nothing else, all the media you consume, from Netflix to your favourite music is tax deductible!*
Unfortunately, that copywriter and I didn’t convert our internship into a job. But somehow I did wangle an extension to stay on and work with Executive Creative Director. (You should have seen the looks on the faces of the other creatives when reviews were happening…)
One day, eager to learn how to unlock this amazing ‘Everyday Hollywood’ career, I asked the ECD, “What would you do if you were in my shoes?”
He said, “Give Australia a go!”
I’m glad I asked him…