Expert: Peter Gabany - 4/11/2005

Question
Hello, I am a student and the Art Institute and I just had a few questions about the Advertising career, Its my second quarter and I am a little nervous about choosing this major. could you please help me by just giving me a summary of what this business is about, the process, the people, the career choices I have.  This would be a great help to me just to get some one elses insight on what Advertising is like. thank you.

Answer
Miriam,

I would love to tell you all about advertising but I would be writing a book. The movie - what women want - is very much the ad business. Advertising agencies are broken down into three or four departments. It's not that I don't know it's just that there are small agencies and larger ones and the larger ones will have the additional departments. The departments are Accounts, Creative, Research and Media. The Creative department can be the largest as there can be a host of services wrapped into this department.

The climate within the advertising agency can be caustic - especially within the larger agencies while the smaller ones are a bit more forgiving. By caustic I mean that the business is HIGHLY competitve and highly charged. You have heard about those that come in at 7 and leave at 9 or 10 at night - well it doesn't only happen in large law firms it happens more often than not in large ad agencies. It may seem that I am against larger agencies, but the truth is that I'm not. They get the plum clients - nike, sony, apple, panasonic, colgate, Bud, Dare and the like. The smaller agencies may get one or two assignments but the fact is that most of their stable can be made up with B2B business.

Now for the good part. Are you easily bored with routine? Do you like a new job each day? Are you an achiever - i.e.: start things and see them through to the bitter end? Do you thrive on the roller coaster ride of big highs and crashing lows - can you survive them with a 60 beat per minute heart beat? Is your creative prowess such that most would envy? Can you write about as well as you draw or use InDesign and PhotoShop? Then advertising may be for you.

If you feel that you don't fit this mold and you would like similar creative challenges, but uncertain that you could ever survive the competitive atmosphere of an ad agency, then I recommend that you look into joining a design agency.

Please let me know if this is of any assistance. Feel free to call me or write promote@limelight.org - 905-885-9895 and I will expand on anything that I have mentioned here.

Pete