A Grad's View Of The Marketing Industry

Every year RPM runs a graduate scheme, allowing us to welcome fresh talent through our doors with open arms. Once successful, the selected grads are offered the chance to work for a couple of months in each of our in-house departments: Planning, Production, Creative and the Account Teams, before being potentially offered full time employment.

We appreciate that the marketing industry is extremely tough and competitive for those wanting to get a foot in the door; which of course grad schemes are brilliant for. So in order to advice future grads on what it’s really like working in a fast-paced marketing agency, we interviewed one of our grads, Sam Haydock, about how she found agency life, what surprised her about the industry, and what advice she had for future grads or those looking for a career in marketing.

Over to Sam...

Sam Haydock RPM Grad 09/10: The main challenges have definitely been managing tight deadlines. When you’re still learning how the industry/agency/clients/suppliers work, managing deadlines becomes even harder when you have everything else of your plate. Sometimes the pressure is high, and you have to be really switched on; you definitely get thrown into the deep end, and often you have to learn on the job and end up having a lot of responsibility early on. I find this a welcome challenge though.

What has surprised me most about the industry is that it doesn’t stop and it’s constantly evolving. A marketing-savvy audience results in a need for constantly evolving ideas and concepts; making agency life an extremely exciting place to be. There is also an enormous amount of work by so many individuals- it becomes a really collaborative affair- yet often the end project could appear very simple.

My recommendations for future grads are be positive and focused on your end goal. If you want to get in to the industry, you will if you are determined enough. In terms of the research I did, the following websites are really useful for tips on interview technique, and industry insight: www.ipa.co.uk, www.milkround.com and www.prospects.ac.uk.

It is so important to make sure you are switched on; you can’t turn up to work in this industry and be vacant. Be prepared to face challenges and commit yourself, but also be prepared to love your job. Day to day tasks and repetition don’t really exist in this industry and- you’ll never be bored. In terms of interviews and applications, remember to be yourself and not what you think people want you to be. I was very surprised that on the grad day, the loudest and most confident characters did not get through despite thinking that they were what agencies offer