Jimmy Gilmore – Writer – Director

This is an open let­ter to the many who have asked me, and will ask me, about work­ing in an tough industry.

I’ve been slammed lately, seems like there’s just as much work these days but I’m doing a lot more things rather than cre­at­ing ads. So I’m apol­o­gize if it’s taken awhile to get back to you but I’m busy adapt­ing to all the changes in the industry.

Like you, a lot of peo­ple that are just start­ing out their careers have asked me about work­ing in adver­tis­ing. They usu­ally want my opin­ion about their spec ads or work they’ve cre­ated for a friend. Some­times they’re offended by what I have to say. I’m sorry for that, but I think it’s impor­tant to be hon­est with peo­ple rather than take the easy way out. I’m not the kind of per­son who will stroke an ego, I’d rather tell peo­ple what they really need to know if they want to work at an agency.

First the good.

It’s good that you’re get­ting out and talk­ing to peo­ple. You need to be on the top of people’s mind if you’re going to be hired, no one is look­ing for you. I know it’s tough to do when you’re unem­ployed and feel­ing down.

It’s good that you’re direct­ing peo­ple to your Linked in pro­file. You’re let­ting peo­ple know what they need to know about you and they’ll be able to link you instead of los­ing your resume.

It’s good that you have a blog. It would show that you’re cur­rent with the indus­try if it didn’t have pic­tures of your cat and posts about that crazy road trip with your brother. So you may want to start a professional/career blog like this guy. It may be a lit­tle over the top for you, but it will give you an idea what peo­ple should do to stand out.

Your port­fo­lio site has a cou­ple prob­lems. Mostly user expe­ri­ence related. Hav­ing stuff fly around your site for no rea­son is a prob­lem these days. Cool for cool’s sake went out of style with cor­po­rate jets and $100 ham­burg­ers. Peo­ple want value for their time and you’re wast­ing it with flash intros and gizmos.

I need to see where to click and how to find infor­ma­tion in a sim­ple and attrac­tive exe­cu­tion. And, frankly, your port­fo­lio doesn’t need to be more com­pli­cated than an extra page on your blog. Or heck, it could even be your blog.

I’m also con­fused about what your try­ing to sell your­self as. You site tells me you do it all. You couldn’t pos­si­bly be the best at every­thing. For exam­ple, I’m not qual­i­fied for a senior job on a phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal account but I am an expe­ri­enced adver­tis­ing writer with more than a pass­ing knowl­edge of online pro­mo­tions and social media. I’ve pro­duced a lot of dif­fer­ent types of adver­tis­ing over the years but I’m not sell­ing myself for all of them, just what’s cur­rent and in demand.

To para­phrase Tim Williams , take a stand for per­sonal brand. Why are you impor­tant to me? I need to know right away or I’ve lost interest.

The tech­nol­ogy of the site is out­dated. Flash is out of favor, unless their is a really good rea­son for using it – like demon­strat­ing some­thing, play­ing a video or a way for a user to mean­ing­fully inter­act with it. These guys are at the fore­front of the indus­try and look at their site. Still think you need to do some­thing flashy? Cre­ate an app or do some­thing in html 5.

Now this is part where I may lose a friend. Sorry, but the qual­ity the work on your site is uneven. While there are some bright spots, much of it looks more like some­thing that might be pro­duced in a mar­ket­ing depart­ment. If a cor­po­rate client is com­ing to an agency, they’re expect­ing some­thing they can’t do in house. You’ll need to be tougher on your­self if you want to get in the door.

There’s never been a worse time to be look­ing for a job in adver­tis­ing, your com­pet­ing against out-of-work peo­ple with great resumes and bril­liant books. They lost their jobs for no fault of their own and they’re smart, tal­ented, and fast. For some per­spec­tive on this visit Erik Proulx’s won­der­ful site.

If you really want to work as a copy­writer or art direc­tor, now may a good time to reach out to my friend Norm Grey at the Cre­ative Cir­cus. Sharpen your skills and wait out the reces­sion. Or, if you’re look­ing for a job in pro­duc­tion or account ser­vice, con­sider offer­ing to work for free and get some free train­ing. You need the train­ing more than they need you right now.

Good luck, Jimmy