An industry that was spoken about in our media guest speaker series was advertising. According to ipa.co.uk, “All businesses, charities, celebrities and governments depend on advertising to make themselves known and to relay their latest messages” (IPA, 2021) thus showing that advertising can be considered as a pivotal media industry. Personally, I have been interested in advertising as a career for a while as I enjoy working creatively and combining both practical work, such as graphic design, with more logistical work such as planning and pre-production. 

For this industry, the guest speaker was Penny Mason, an account manager for Birmingham based marketing and advertising agency WAA Chosen. Penny spoke about her specific role in the advertising industry, for instance how she isn’t very involved in creative roles anymore but instead is more involved with client liaison and project management. This caught my attention as during my practical work this semester, I have been involved in multiple group projects and have been trying to work on my leadership skills by acting as a project manager in many instances. This therefore shows mw that I am on the right path for a career in advertising should I wish to pursue this as I have competent creative skills and am working to develop skills which would be valuable in different roles. 

In terms of qualifications and experience, Penny mentioned that she studied visual communication and had a personal interest in art. Whilst she did clarify that this is not a necessary requirement for advertising careers, I feel as though it would be beneficial to have a sound understanding of creative practices to go along with my own personal experience, and so therefore I am considering looking for placements related to graphic design to get an understanding of creative work in a professional environment before I pursue a career related to this and potentially end up lacking in skill.

A key skill which Penny spoke about was the ability to stand out with your dedication and work ethic. This includes being ready to learn new skills and put in practice outside of normal work hours. This is an area which I definitely need to work on as my work ethic is not the strongest right now and, whilst this is not exactly detrimental as I never miss deadlines and always try to provide quality work, having the ability to put in extra work could potentially showcase me to employers as someone who is willing to go the extra mile and would therefore be a valuable asset.

One key point which has impacted the way I look at my own future plans was Penny’s emphasis on the importance of placements. Penny stated that she acquired her job via a placement through University. Thus far, I have not found any placements partly due to my aforementioned weak work ethic. This could mean the difference between finding a route into a media profession or not, and so therefore I aim to focus more on this.

References:

IPA (2021) Careers in Advertising. https://ipa.co.uk/knowledge/careers-in-advertising