August 19th will be an important day: My Graduation. Usually good things happen to me on the 19th, no matter the month. I don’t keep looking forward on the 18th to see what will happen the next day, but when the events happen they like to appear on that day.
Anyway, believing or not in signs, I am about to finish my Masters. Therefore I started thinking about the best way to find the job that I want. Even after 6 years of experience, I still feel like it’s the first time that I am going out to find a job.
Going back to prehistoric times, specifically 2001, I was graduating from University. In those days you couldn’t send a link of your portfolio; you had to go there and show your book, everything nicely printed.
Professors used to encourage you to be as creative as you could be. You heard stories about weird and original objects created to surprise Creative Directors. So I came out with this idea: a dynamite model made of cardboard straw. I had ideas all the time, so it was a symbolic BOOM, hahaha nice! Inside you could find different prints selling “Martha, the Creative”.
I was trying to sell myself by selling a product: me. And that was a mistake. People found it egocentric while I found it like any other campaign -simply extolling the benefits of the product.
Unfortunately, when you get a job you realize that people laugh at agencies about such models. Sometimes they work but most of time they don’t. And don’t take it personally; try imagining if someone showed you something funny. So don’t waste your time thinking about HOW you present your work (You can waste 3 weeks of effort blending cardboard like me) Think about WHAT you are presenting.
It doesn’t matter if you are going to call, send an email, an original package, start a campaign online or even visit them. If you have something good to say, they will get the message.
6 hours ahead 