“A lot of agencies have their own internship schemes or ways of entry”

Creative Career Conundrums is a weekly advice column from If You Could Jobs. Each week their selected panel of professionals from the creative industry answers your burning career questions to help you navigate the creative journey.

This week’s question:

“I am a recent graduate trying to get a junior role, ideally in strategy but I’m also open to accounts. My current method is looking for jobs on job boards however I am wondering if this is how agencies are looking for junior members, or is it through other ways such as recruitment, referrals or cold emails? Also in a similar vain I would love to get a role in strategy but it seems that no one is posting strategy roles. Is this the norm or just that these roles aren’t currently in demand?

Where and how do you get into accounts or strategy roles as a junior?”

Shanice Mears, co-founder and head of culture & communities at The Elephant Room:

​​Hey, so in my experience to know that you want to be a strategist early on is a good thing, but it’s a hard role to enter generally so don’t feel too disheartened. You’re on the right track when it comes to looking for Junior roles in accounts because typically if you find an agency that is open and flexible. It could give you get a sense of their strategy department. You’ll also be able to potentially spend some time there to see the work and if it’s for you. I would also consider the bigger agencies when you are applying –  I think they will give a good understanding of how to pivot and the type of skills you need for each role.

A lot of agencies have their own internship schemes or ways of entry, look into Ogilvy’s The Pipe, and Wieden and Kennedy’s The Kennedy’s. They’re the first that come to mind but there’s a lot more out there, take a look at If You Could Job's sister company, Creative Lives in Progress, it’s opportunities board is really good.

I would also recommend searching different companies and looking for people in the role your after, or are working somwhere you would like to know more about. Don’t be afraid to reach out and just ask for 15 minutes of someone time because nine times out of ten people will give you that. Be really intentional, say you like the company they worked for, or you saw a piece of work they did and wanted to learn more.

Continue to try and learn more about the industry too. Read trade press like Campaign Magazine, Marketing Week and Creative Brief. They’re also good publications to see interesting work and learn about different hires etc.

In answering your creative career conundrums we realise that some issues need expert support, so we’ve collated a list of additional resources that can support you across things that might arise at work.

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