Hi, everyone. I'm Al and I work in an advertising agency called Panorama as a senior funder, underfunding direct.
I'm simultaneously very prepared and totally unprepared because I give a talk every year.
Westminster school called Why not to work in advertising. I love my job.
There's a reason and but it's more relevant.
So those boys,
because they are generally very arrogant public school boys who make sweeping statements about how much money they're going to earn in business.
And so the reason I talk to them, this is sort of try and pull apart some of the things that they think is going to happen in their lives.
And I don't know whether anybody here is interested in working in business at all.
And I'm the only person representing business today. So I have a degree of responsibility to talk about business based jobs.
Can I just ask, is it. Is everybody here?
Definitely didn't go into jobs like in your minds right now or raise hands if you're interested in maybe having a business job.
OK. So it was really interesting actually here in the introductory speech,
because I think that's the bit that carries who don't usually include the fact that when you choose your job, you're actually choosing your life.
And actually, that only starts coming into play when you get to being about twenty five.
Well, between 25 and 30. I turned 28 this year.
And it's interesting because I've got friends who got completely stuck and didn't know what they were going to do and
took many jobs and have only just found what they're going to do now and everything sort of kind of falling into place.
I've got other friends who've gone to work in business and always know exactly what they wanted to do.
Often they decided that they wanted to basically sell the good years of their 20s in order to make a lot of money and now eventually retire early.
But that's like when you're 40. That's early. So that's quite a big compromise, I suppose.
And my my sister at the moment, he's a English graduate.
She's a bit stuck. She doesn't really know what she's going to do. So what I thought I would do is tell you a little bit about my life right now.
Tell me a little bit about my job. Tell you how I got into it.
And then I'll tell you why not to work in advertising, because the thing that takes longest is finding out what you don't want to do.
And all of these graduate programmes, I also don't believe that graduate programmes are the right entry path for advertising.
If you if you've got definitely got an Oxbridge degree.
But also, there are so many other ways to get into it. Talk about that as well.
But yeah, basically finding out what you don't want to do takes the longest.
So if I can dissuade anyone from applying to advertising, then that is probably the most helpful thing that I can do today.
So a little bit about my life. I am turning 28 this year.
I know stuff. About five minutes, depending on what you like.
I've just bought a house. It's been a proper struggle. I don't.
I probably own maybe a third of what my friends who work in banking on. But I've done very well in a short period of time.
So yeah, I've just bought a house in the future. Working in advertising will give me the ability to quite easily work a four day week.
So if I would like to have a baby, then I could do that.
I'm not having a baby right now, but something that I think it's important to recognise as well as doing my day job.
I also write a lifestyle blog, which I don't put any paid support behind.
So it just gets organic reach. But that has a readership of about 10000 people a month.
It's called Flow. And Al, I wrote it with my sister and I. I do that because it's completely inane writing a lifestyle blog.
It's this space where you just write about like what you had for lunch, but with a little bit more interest around it.
And it's it's really good to find your writing style.
So I do it because I like to write regularly and if I start writing properly or if I start writing.
I also started writing a play last year that didn't.
But when you when you do that kind of writing that you don't really have to think about what you're saying,
then it allows you to find your writing voice. So that's something that's important to me.
And I just about have time to do that. And then the other thing that has happened this year that I've I think I've probably been
working towards without really realising it from the beginning of working in advertising,
is that my company has just signed off to pay for a Web site, which I proposed to them,
which is called Fair Pay to Have, which will be a not for profit organisation to help push the pay gap.
And the only one. Well, I thought yeah, the only one in the UK that isn't an activist feminist Web site.
So I would describe myself as an activist feminist.
But this Web site basically encourages men and women to tell stories, and the stories get submitted anonymously.
They're about things in the workplace.
It might be a guy telling a story about a colleague who had a baby and came back and works some flexitime and got information that he wanted.
And then the women, a woman who works in flexitime talking about how she actually works around the clock.
She feels guilty about her flexitime and those two stories would be matched.
And the idea of that is that I think that the pay gap is normative.
It's based on things that are inherent within the way that women and men talk about money,
the way that women and men interact, the way that families make decisions. And nothing recognises that.
All of the websites that I've seen basically act like there's a big male top down conspiracy to keep the women out.
That's not true. So they just funded this Web site, which is going gonna be sort of a creative exercise.
The reason that I'm telling you this is because I believe that advertising has the has the capability to move people in interesting ways.
I actually wrote my thesis about academia's inability to acknowledge art or.
He made money and to discuss them seriously because of that postboxes hangover's.
And I also write a lot about printed ephemera in my first year.
So it was always very much what drove me. It was anthropology, the way in which visual and images can move people and can create behaviours.
And that's what advertising does.
Back in the 50s, it was evil because it used to make housewives buy lots of products that they couldn't necessarily afford.
And it was truly manipulative in a different way from is from the way it is now.
But now I think it has the ability to add value to people's lives day to day,
because the reality of our lives is that we are surrounded by friends in the West.
And so if those brands can add a little bit of happiness or I guess play into your individual mythologies, then that's not necessarily a bad thing.
It's just the reality of how we live now. So I guess the way that I describe this in a job interview, which I didn't get,
was that I thought that to be an advertiser was to be a parasite on the capitalist vehicle, hunting it down.
Well, we just had a big argument with me about capitalism at that point.
But, yeah, so I, I do all of these things outside of work.
I also do work probably between 10 and 14 hour days,
but I get recompensed for it satisfyingly and I like my life and I think that I have the flexibility to do what I want with it in the future,
whether that is to go more into not for profit and sort of feminist stuff and pay gap stuff,
because I want to feed into what the government's doing or whether it's to just stay in what I do to end up being the head of my department.
So that's my life. My job is to be an advertising planner.
What that means is very different from media planning. People often think it's the same as media planning.
What that means is that businesses come to an advertising agency and they explain what that what they think their problem is.
So it might be something along the lines of Sainsbury's has a distribution problem
and people aren't going to big grosses anymore and test case has overtaken them.
What we need to do is to make people feel much more woman fluffy about Sainsbury's than about Tesco.
And then I'll look at the data and I'll look at cultural trends. So some of it's quite scientific,
but some of it is totally non-scientific and it's just sort of things like hypotheses
about the way that people are moving or the way that people are feeling about something.
And I'll go back to them.
And it's my responsibility to be like the intelligent client facing person as the person who's like, hey, hey, let's go for drinks.
And I'm the one who's like, yes, I agree with you. This is your problem.
Or actually, I think that your problem is that if and this is the famous Sainsbury's case study.
If people put one extra thing in their basket every time they went shopping, then you would be fine and you'd be able to compete with Tesco.
So that was the every little helps campaign.
And it was also the one that they did with Jamie all about why he basically was like, hey,
your food's boring if you put chilli and then it's great if you put some cheese on top, then it's great.
And so people were just picking up cherries and cheese where they weren't before, and that uplifted their profits by a certain amount of money.
And it also meant that people were eating nicer food. So it did a good thing as well.
It's not evil. So I have that conversation where I say, yes, I agree with you.
No, I don't agree with you. And I present them the strategy.
So based on what the business needs to achieve and then therefore what I think we need to do,
what kind of behaviour we need to effect, and then we have that discussion.
And then I take it back into the agency and I write what's called a creative proposition and a creative brief,
which has varied greatly from things like radio.
One needs to help young people break the rules because they feel like they're constrained by rules or Red Bull
needs to act a little bit like laughing gas does on the human body and on the whole way up and down people's legs.
And then the creative teams go away and they start thinking about stuff.
It's got some more like it's got some more behavioural stuff in it, that brief.
But it also has this big sweeping creative proposition. And then they come in, they have work in progress meetings with me.
And I need to make sure that somehow that I'm saying the answer is to blow a massive
balloon and float it across the whole world onto Fellman and for that to be the TV ad.
But also we'll do like amazing land drops of glitter.
I need to make sure that that's going to work to move the business problem. And then I need to measure it once it's life.
And if it doesn't work, it's pretty much my fault. So that's that's what advertising planning is.
The other roles in advertising are much more relationship based and administrative.
They don't just take people out for drinks. It's nothing like madmen. We don't drink whisky in the office every day.
We do sometimes. And then there's also the creative side of things.
But the other thing that nobody tells anybody is that if you want to be an advertising creative,
you basically have to go to a design school or to an art school and put together a portfolio with another person and then
go to one of these shows where you show your work as a path so nobody can just go into advertising and be creative now.
So that's my life and my job and how I got that.
I was actually freelancing as an advertising planner in the holidays off from second year.
So I've been doing this now for about seven years. And I was really lucky to have realised that that's what I wanted to do.
I run a small I guess I ran a small advertising agency style thing when I was here.
The strap line was against Pace's flies and paper wasters and it basically generated advertising through teaching people about advertising techniques.
So I'd run a workshop on PR, a workshop on writing, a press release,
a workshop on doing a experiential marketing strategy workshop, poems or poster design or even Photoshop.
Either me or like getting other people who knew how to do that stuff in the room.
And it was across Oxford and Oxford bricks.
And then during those sessions, we would generate the Work for Life brief for something like the Oxford Playhouse or or like a charity.
So basically, people got free little bits of advertising education that they could go off to
interview with and talk about and maybe even a Post-it that they could take with them.
And these people would get their marketing done for them for free.
The way that that came about was actually that I went and did a Y did an internship, which was expenses paid but unpaid at the ACA.
And I was there for three, two months in one summer.
That was the summer of first year when I went there.
It was a really amazing experience. It was really amazing to feel like you were part of this artistic institution.
But I realised one really fundamental thing that meant that working within the gallery press office wouldn't be right for me.
And that was that. When you've got an exhibition to get people to come to it, which is sort of the interesting thing that you're trying to do,
you can't really do anything interesting with the creative idea because that's already that it's the artwork.
So. Well, you can really do is say this artist is really great.
He's up and coming and often talk about how valuable his work might be in the future, what it sold for last year,
or you can say, come, there is champagne and that's how it gets written about by Tantalus.
And. And so it's basically your work is based on the merit of your little black book, which it is also NPR.
But within Galla, within the gallery. Well, it's very much about making that network of contacts within the small world.
That is London and that is the London art journalist scene.
And having been somebody who was very interested in behavioural, I guess, behavioural economics, like how when you do something, behaviours change.
And also to have come here to do my undergraduate, I had to realise, I think,
one of the hardest things I've ever realised in my life, which was that I wasn't going to be a fine artist.
I always thought I was going to be a fine artist. I grew up saying I was going to be a fine artist.
And I dropped out of art school before I came here. It was really difficult.
And then I managed a pub for a little bit, thought about not going to university because I was out hunting right here.
That would have been ridiculous. Fix it one way, take it to Peru, lost my passport and all my money.
Got stranded next door with no shoes for three months, my career.
And so in that moment at the ICAO, I was like, I don't feel that there's anything creative that I'm doing here.
I, I feel like I'm quite good at writing press releases. I'm quite good at selling stuff.
I know that. But what I'd like to do is to work with people and to work with their behaviour a little bit more and to work,
I guess, with me media vehicles by say that in its broadest sense.
Because I was very interested in like the printing revolution as and I'm very interested now in the digital
revolution and the way that I go into my career was kind of three or understanding digital stuff a lot more.
So at the ICAO, I thought to myself, right. I don't think I want to advertise art or market art because R is a fixed creative entity.
Well, I'd like to do is build brands and build commercial mythologies that I think add value to the world.
I mean, that's a bigger discussion, but that's what I decided that I wanted to do.
And so I didn't apply to any graduate schemes. What I did was I sent my CV to.
A Google search result of small advertising agencies in London, and that came up on a A to Z list.
And I sent my CV of two A's one day and I got a call the next day.
Say hi. We're a really small financial advertising agency. We called Alphabet and we've got an email account manager.
We were only fifteen people. We've got pitch next week. Come to our office, please.
I want to interview you. So I went to the office and he asked me why I wanted to work in advertising and I gave him a very philosophical response.
And then he said, What are your favourite ads? And I said, I know because I was completely unprepared for that interview.
I knew what I. I knew I was there from a personal level. I think that's the thing that people are often missing.
Often people know much more about what they're going for.
So that you do that kind of superficial research so that you can talk about stuff, because that's what we do in our essays, is what we're good at.
We're good at sort of regurgitate tainting information in an interesting way.
But having both of those things, knowing why you that inside you and knowing a bit about what you're talking about and what you like,
those two things are absolutely necessary.
So when somebody over in an interview, because everybody goes and regurgitates injured in formation in an interesting way.
Very few people can give the personal responses to why they're in the room.
But he was desperate. So he hired me anyway. And I did two weeks of work experience for him, which he paid expenses for.
And we won the pitch. And then he turned around and said, right, okay.
Well, I think that you're a planner. I think that was an awful interview.
Never do that again.
And he asked me to come back the next summer and to work under a freelance planner because they couldn't afford to have a full time planners,
because planners of the most expensive people in the agency and when it comes to flight rate cuts.
So I went back and worked for him twice. He's now sold his company and is actually in VCP, which is one of the biggest networks is doing amazingly.
By the time, you know, he was just the head of a tiny financial advertising agency. I call him my ad daddy.
I ask him any time to make a decision now. And he's always that helping me out.
So after university, I did apply to a grad school and had a really awful situation, which is why I don't think the grad schemes are the right way.
I'm basically having now got to where I've got in an agency, in a senior position looking at the way that graduates are treated.
They're brought in usually between 16 and 18 grand.
And then the agency does everything it can to keep them there and to kind of buff them away when they ask for a pay rise,
because what they manage to do is create this really hierarchical structure.
If you come in as a grad, then you're part of that hierarchical structure.
The reality of advertising is that it's not hierarchical and there shouldn't be that
kind of structure in place and you should be as valuable as the value you can add. And usually it's the grads who had the most value.
So what I would say is don't apply to a graduate scheme.
My my experience was absolutely horrific. But that's a whole other thing.
It's not worth sharing that with you. Horror stories on helpful. But, yeah, it's definitely worth going into a smaller agency.
And I'd say that that's true with a lot of things.
It's I think it's also true with management consultancy, even though it does mean that you don't get one of those big shiny entry level pay packets.
It's like forty five K, which are advertised everywhere on all of these Big Bang Web sites.
In reality, only two people get those anyway.
And so when you look at retail consultancy jobs that are smaller, it's definitely worth just not thinking about the money when you initially go in.
But yes. So that's why I don't think she work as a graduate.
And then I went into a digital agency, got very, very specialised within digital, went through a couple of those, actually.
And then I applied, applied, applied for things that didn't sign, I mean, just as a digital person.
So I've not made a single TV ad up until last year.
I was very, very specialised. I was quite senior, quite specialised, very difficult to hire, basically,
because I didn't want to take a pay cut and I wanted to go into an agency that would allow me to do digital advertising,
but also do TV advertising and to pull all of that together. And finally, it happened.
And so now I'm in my role and I've been in my role for nearly a year.
I think my advice is giving small specialise and then go broad because you'll end up getting senior faster and getting paid more,
but also getting more out of it because it means you have something that you really
know to bring to the table so you can be confident when you're talking about stuff.
So then why not to work in advertising quite quickly? Well,
I have to talk a little bit about the difference between advertising and
management consultancy and about how I get paid less than my friends in banking.
But I don't know if it's not widely known why that is so basic.
Advertising isn't a profession, and most business jobs are a profession, a profession is defined as a job that requires continuous learning.
So it's basically like being a lawyer, being an accountant based mr.
If you look at what a sin, what an accountant does to a client's bank balance,
they basically tell them how much money they have and how much money they have spent.
And they get paid so much more than the advertisers who make them money.
So that's completely counterintuitive advice because our job doesn't require continuous learning.
Whereas in accountancy, you're getting better every single year.
So it's not profession and therefore it doesn't pay as well, and therefore it's not as hierarchically structured.
And you are in it on your own. Fighting for every single promotion you get, every single pay rise that you get.
That's why I'm making my website, because I think that what I've seen women not ask for pay rise this properly.
I made the decision very early on that I was just going to. This is horrible.
It's a horrible phrase, but I was just going to act like a man.
And I basically sort of looked at this guy was like next me was like right now I said, hey, every time he asks for a pay rise.
And I only did that for a little bit. After a while, it became completely natural. I don't know how asking for a pay rise is going to go.
Next time I ask because obviously I've now got a pay rise web. So my boss is looking at me like that.
Yes. It's all just ahead because they want a raise. Yeah.
So if you if you feel like you can sort of swim with the fishes up current and that you can do that for yourself,
then I think advertising is a great place to be. But if you would rather go into something and if you'd rather choose business because it offers the
kind of security and the kind of hierarchy and the kind of guaranteed ladder climbing that it does,
then I think advertising isn't the right thing. The other thing is that there is no shame in any of this.
There is no shame in wanting to have your name in lights. There's no shame in wanting money.
There's no shame in wanting actually to work for five years and then just have a family life.
It's all completely fine. And I think we have all of these weird, idealistic views of what isn't fine and what is fine when we leave university.
And also this view that if you work hard and if you do the same thing that everyone else does,
then you'll all be okay, because that's what school teaches you. But that's not really true.
The truth is really empowering once you embrace it. You can do whatever you want to do.
I was just talking to a group of students who I was interviewing for a new one,
which is how I made it OK to come here to kill two birds with one stone.
But this guy was like, well, what I really want to do is, you know,
spend time with horses and have lots of free time, but also probably have, like an empowering business job.
And and that's just, you know, that doesn't exist, doesn't know lechery that exist.
My friend does that. She's about five years more senior than me in the same job as me.
And she now is gone freelance, which means that she can be very flexible with her time and that she can get paid
enough money in the time that she does work to spend half the year in South America.
Horse whispering I mean, you know, each their own. But it is absolutely possible.
And choosing something which you can have flexible working within, which you can freelance within,
gives you the ability to wake up aged 27, which she did, and think that's what I need to do.
And that's an amazing thing to do. Also, career changes happen.
And that's something that I think we forget when we start choosing what our job is going to be and who we are going to be.
But lots of people absolutely shop and change.
The other thing about working in advertising that people often think that they want to work in advertising because of that is a creative job,
is a creative job, if you like, creative thinking.
But if you like of pure creativity, then advertising literally kills it because you've come up with an amazing idea and your client says,
yeah, can you make the logo bigger? And also, it would be really great if you could put like the terms and conditions really beg in the middle of it.
And so for people who have gone into advertising because it's creative,
because they love creativity and they want to see it flourish, it can often be quite disillusioning.
I don't find it disillusioning, but it can be. And I've seen people become disillusioned by it comparatively to other jobs.
It's not that well-paid and it takes a while to get well-paid. And do you have less autonomy than a management consultant as well?
Because management consultancy allows you to go into a business and to be the business partner immediately.
Whereas as appetisers we want to be the business partners. We believe we can be the business partners.
But I think the client is always going to see you as a little bit more fluffy.
So if you want to sort of go into something and be very business focussed and always get yourself a miniature MBA,
then management consultancy is much better than other.
And the other thing is that if you're interested in marketing as a whole than being a client is much easier.
And it's often much better paid. So to go to be a marketer within Cadbury's, for example, where you basically are the boss of the agency.
You have much more input with the business side of every single brief.
And you also get to choose what creative you like. That's an easier job at shorter hours.
It is better paid, but it's, I think, much less interesting.
So that's a lot about me and it's about why not.