The market is an absolute b*tch right now.
Of course, everyone knows that, I'm not sharing any great insight with you.
But if I do have a tip, it's don't be afraid to ask friends for help.
If you know someone from your program who's got a job, ask them if they're hiring. If they say yes, ask them to pass along your book.
The worst anyone can say is no. Especially if they're a junior :).
I got a couple interviews, because a friend of mine passed my book along to a creative director.
At one agency, I sent my book into the creative recruiter and never heard back. Three months later my friend asked if I'd like him to pass my book along to his creative director, and within a week I was interviewing there.
Recruiter's have busy schedules, they get enough .pdfs/link e-mails a day to crash a g-mail account. Despite how great you might think your book is, sometimes it gets lost in the cracks. Sometimes a recruiter's having a bad day and may not like your work.
So that's my first tip, ask your friends.
My second and the one that affected me the most of these past six months, is keep an even keel in regards to an agency showing interest.
It's ok to get excited. If you don't get a little excited every time an agency shows interest in you, then you're in the wrong field. Go out and find something that does excite you, like biological waste removal.
But don't get crazy. The first couple of times I had an agency talk to me, I was convinced that this was it. I had gotten my first job. When in all actuality, it wasn't it, I had impressed one person and I had a longer row to hoe than I thought.
You have to be willing to consider the thought that you're not "exactly" what they're looking for.
The reason you can't get euphoric until someone's offered you a job is just that, they haven't offered it to you.
You know what the most embarrassing thing in the world is?
Telling everyone you're expecting an offer any day now from an agency and then 6 months later telling everyone you're still expecting that offer any day now.
I did that twice and let me tell you something, humble pie tastes even worse as leftovers.
But even worse than eating a piece or two of humble pie, is the crash you get when you're told that "We don't think you're the right fit for this agency." If you had convinced yourself you were going to get the offer.
And trust me, right now you're going to hear that.
Sorry, unless you've got the next 1984 in your book, you will probably hear that phrase at least once.
And that's why it's important to stay level-headed. Until you sign the contract you don't have a job. And it hurts when you think you have one and then get the rejection note.
Finally, accept the frikkin' offer and be happy. I'm paraphrasing from a great post of Greg's blog, Makin' Ads, but an offer in hand is worth two on the way.
I had two agencies on the verge of hiring me. One a small, very creative place and another a monolithic monstrosity of global proportions, but a great shop none the less. One didn't hire me because I turned down their immediate offer of freelance work. A guy who had been a senior elsewhere accepted it, even though it was a demotion, and got the job a few months later.
The other offered me an internship, which I was on the verge of accepting when the Dow dropped 600 points and the agency went on an immediate hiring freeze.
Now, one of these I could have changed with a different decision and one I couldn't have. What's my point, you never know when the offers going to come, so you can't afford to pass up on one that's been made.
To recap.
1. Take advantage of your friends with jobs. Send them your books, as them to pass it along. Sometimes they can, sometimes they can't but the worst they can say is no.
2. Keep a level head. Sometimes the place that seems the most interested in you, isn't the one that hires you and sometimes the place you think that is blowing you off is.
3. Accept the offer.
Get the job, start a blog, become a rockstar.
Later,
PJL
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