What I Want To Be When I Grow Up

An advertising manager?!
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As I near the end of my days of schooling in the Chapel Hill/Carrboro City school system, I realize that I must start thinking about what I want to do with my life, or I will have no aims, no goals for the future. There is also within perhaps all of us an unquenchable desire to search into the future, to predict what might happen. Considering my future is unavoidable. The need for planning is, however, sometimes not a priority among many people today. This project is a step in the right direction.

When I took the self-interest test (see Section Two), I began to realize what I was in for before I even tallied the results. I knew for sure that Art would be one of my “clusters.” It always has and probably always will. My interest in Business surprised me slightly as I took the test, probably because I have never been exposed to this area. Art can be a hobby as well as an occupation. However, business is not a commonly known hobby done in one’s leisure time.

I had considered what type of occupation I would want in art in the past. Comic book artist was an old favorite, but more recently, as I realized that I wanted to earn a decent living, I had considered being a commercial artist. Thus, advertising had first become a possibility in my mind.

My three job clusters were Entertainment, Legal, and Business. I knew that I would want to be a leader in any of these positions. The Legal cluster is like being a leader in itself. In general, I would have leaned towards being a lawyer, which I do not consider as having a hierarchical ladder of leadership. In business, obviously the head of some corporation or manager of some department thereof would be my choice. Entertainment…well, this could be interesting. I looked at the list, and there it was. The very last occupation listed: Advertising Manager.

I was not even exactly sure of what an advertising manager was, except by simple common sense. But what exactly did one do? When I began to research, I hoped it would turn out to be as interesting as it sounded.

And it was. Advertising covers a wide range of skills and responsibilities. These duties are generally divided up among departments in larger companies, but the variation is so expansive that I am convinced that almost anyone could find enjoyment in advertising. To be the head of an advertising agency would definitely be a job worthy of note (perhaps the reason for a salary of well over $100,000 per year). These people are vital to the consumer world, for they are the ones who link the suppliers of products or services with the consumer. Without advertising agents, the consumer would be in the dark as to what there is out there for their very needs and wants. It is this incredible importance, along with the wide range and variety of jobs an advertising manager must be able to handle (and the acceptable pay) that compelled me to enter the realm of advertising and marketing.

To be an advertising director, one must have dozens of abilities if they desire to be successful. As an advertiser, one must have a two-faceted mind, able to handle both creative ideas and logical problem-solving. This includes having good judgment, analytical and statistical skills, and a thoroughness and meticulousness that exceeds what the average person has. One must possess an inner drive to succeed and to understand. As Mr. Kurtz said in his interview (see Section Six), an advertiser must be a “student of life.”

As a director, one must have skills to lead and influence others. There must be a willingness and a capability to work with others. In order to do this, good communication skills, both visual and verbal, should be developed. These skills should be used to persuade others (clients) and to set standard of work (employees). One must also be capable of taking some credit for successful work, as well as share any blame for unsuccessful work.

But before any of the above can be accomplished, an ultimate understanding of the human mind must be possessed. This great psychological requirement was stressed in all of the sources I looked at. As Mr. Kurtz stated, one must desire to find the “why?” behind all matters, and the climax to this is the “why?” behind the human mind. The whole point of advertising is to get into the consumer’s mind and to convince him that one certain product or service is better than another. This cannot be done without comprehending their deepest desires first, and this is the idea of psychology itself. What would make someone desire to do something or to not do something else?

This may seem to be a lot, and it is. An advertising director must be able to do many things and work under high stress. Pressure is intense when there is a deadline coming up, and the deadlines are many in advertising.

These are only the requirements for success. When someone goes out for a job in advertising, it is highly unlikely that they will instantly become a manager. There is a definite ladder that must be climbed, as explained later. At first, one will work under an employer, who generally looks for minimal education after high school.

One source claimed that it is possible to get a job in advertising without a college education, but higher education was so stressed in other sources that I do not believe that this is a viable option. Generally, a bachelor’s degree is the minimum looked for. A master’s or higher is preferable. The range for majors is wide, as the field of advertising is wide, but some repeatedly recommended ones are listed below: advertising, business, communications, journalism, liberal arts, marketing, and psychology. The courses in and out of these majors that relate to advertising are so extensive that I dare not list them here or I would be continuing for pages to come.

Despite numerous sources’ marked stressing of the importance of training, especially Mr. Kurtz, it seems that training in advertising is becoming a rarer and rarer thing each day. It is nearly impossible to get any job in advertising without a college degree, and thus getting training is hard. However, if training is gained, according to Mr. Kurtz, its value will have no end, for to him, experience is the most important thing to an advertiser.

One cannot understand anything until it is seen working in real life. It is this experience, too, that will lead to a quickened climb in the ladder of advertising.  Looking at the college offerings, I found there to be an extensive number which provide advertising majors. I had to narrow the number down, so what I did was to look for colleges that were extremely difficult to enter. This narrowed the number down, but not enough. What I wanted was to find a short list of several colleges that were just right for me. So I limited other factors as well. I decided I preferred to go to a college with a medium sized student body and in a large town/small city. I decided I wanted it to be co-ed. As I continued I found that had actually slashed all but one school: Trenton State College. It fell into all of the above categories, as well as ones I did not mention. I smiled slightly in satisfaction that I had succeeded and got a small printout. This was acceptable.

The activities of an advertising manager totally depend on the agency. In a small agency, the activities will cover a broad range, but their quantity will be much less than in a larger, more powerful agency. In a larger agency, there will be more work, but it is generally divided up among separate departments. In addition, the type of agency must also be considered. In an agency that is hired to do advertising for different companies, the variety of products worked with would be much greater than in an advertising department of a certain company, exclusive for its own purposes. Below I will describe the process through which an advertisement must go before it is revealed to the public. Keep in mind that for each step of the way, there may be a separate department handling the situation, or there may bei^as little as justj one man dealing with everything.”

First, the agency must meet and negotiate with (they client5to find out what their needs are. There is extensive communication between the two to make sure that the agency knows precisely what the clients want. Research into past advertising ventures of the client are performed to predict what is necessary this time around. But the research does not end there. The agency further studies consumer attitudes and demand and gathers information for demographics on the client’s product. They also conduct surveys to find out what exactly the consumers themselves want. This information is compiled for further study.

Next, the client’s desires, the demographics, and any other information are put together. An appropriate mode of advertisement is chosen and planned out. A budget must be prepared, broadcast time or publishing space must be bought, and talent for producing the advertisement must be found.

Then, production begins. Copywriters write copies of the print for publishing or script for broadcasting.

Artists draw up layouts of various pictures or set designs for the advertisement. Actors prepare for their roles in the ad. Materials are bought for production. The clients are constantly checked back with to make sure that the production is going as they initially wanted. All of this comes together in the end when the advertisement is either taped or printed. Thousands, maybe even millions, of dollars go into advertising and the final step must be perfect, or all that money has been wasted.  At last, the advertisement is ready to be introduced to the general public. Its effects on sales are recorded and studied so that either the same tactics may be used again, or entirely different ones are brought into play.

All of these things are in the hands of the advertising manager. They must supervise, plan, and participate in all of these activities. Unwillingness to do any of these things will result in lack of success. Of course, one may take to the road of being a department head and attempt to avoid some of these responsibilities. While this is perfectly acceptable, the head of one department is always in contact with the heads of other departments so that they can keep up-to-date on the newest developments in the advertising campaign.

All of this work is hard and tiring. The stress and pressure levels are extremely high. There are constantly changing schedules and deadlines, and the hours can become increasingly long as extra work is being put in at home and on the weekends.

These conditions are somewhat made up for by the comfortable surroundings that generally accompany being an advertising manager. Work is mostly done in a well-lit, air-conditioned office at a computer console. Especially with work in small, in-house agencies, an advertising manager will remain stationary. In fact, it is a disadvantage to move about, for many vital local contacts and friends would be lost. However, some travel may be required in larger advertising agencies. Clients from all a over the world must be met and they can tend to demand that the agency comes to them, rather than they come to the agency. Shooting commercials on location at foreign shores also requires travel. There is also travel of managers from regional headquarters to national headquarters for meetings of large corporations. Travel will certainly increase as advertising and commerce together become global.

Obviously, there is a ladder to climb in an advertising agency, as mentioned above. This ladder is as follows: worker, assistant director, director, department head, chief executive. Because of the tremendous variety in advertising, “advancement” occurs often, as responsibilities change. Advertising agencies provide extra education for those interested, so they can increase their knowledge in the field and increase their chances for advancement. Much can also be self-taught and a truly dedicated hard worker will find himself rapidly advancing in the field of advertising.

The salary range for advertising varies from as low as $15,000 to far beyond $100,000 per year. This is entirely based upon one’s specific location on the ladder and his personal experience. Generally, a beginning worker with a bachelor’s degree can expect anywhere form $15,000 to $25,000 per year. As one’s experience increases his salary increases with it. An experienced worker could get as much as $40,000 per year. However, I intend to be working as a manager before I reach this level of experience. Managers usually do not get less than $20,000 per year. On average, they get about as much as an experienced worker, $40,000. Generally, most managers will not get more than $60,000 per year, but salaries as high as $100,000 and above are not unheard of, especially for chief executives of independent advertising agencies. The above figures are only round estimates of generalizing specific data from several separate sources. They are not hard figures or statistics.

Other benefits that advertising managers get include stock in their company, paid vacations, holidays, and sick leave; insurance; and money towards retirement. The extent of all this is based on the amount of responsibilities the manager has, his skill, and his experience.

But how does one first begin to climb the ladder and gain experience? As explained earlier, entrance into an advertising agency generally requires at least a bachelor’s degree. College placement offices and state employment offices are a good way to start. Scrutinizing want ads in the classified section of any newspaper is sure to turn up results. Sometimes, one may be approached by agency scouts who are actually looking for workers with skill and talent. But one should always be on the lookout for job openings. Constantly improving education through school and training (if available) will increase the chances of getting a job in advertising.

In general, the chances of getting an advertising job in the future will increase. As we head towards a global economy, there will be increased amounts of advertising going on. The potential for new jobs is incredible. Competition will be high, especially in independent advertising agencies, as opposed to in-house agencies. The ladder will become ever-longer and no doubt salaries will constantly be on the rise. Advertising is a booming business now, and it can do nothing but increase with time.

I have found the field of advertising to be broad and fulfilling. It is all that I expected and more. I cannot possibly say now that this is what I want to do with my life, but it is certainly a possibility. There are thousands of other jobs out there, and if I find that they all possess as surprisingly broad a range of duties as advertising, I will certainly become a very confused individual.

However, I am sure that if I do decide to go into advertising, that there will be no end to the variety that I demand in a job. It is this variety that am finding to be ft «, most important to me. I find that I enjoy doing many things that are not necessarily related in any way to each other. .h But advertising not only provides the variety that I am A looking for, but it provides it in many different forms. For example, I could be the department head in a large advertising agency and deal with dozens of different types and kinds of products and consumers, becoming an expert in one aspect of each (research, planning, production, etc.) as we work through the advertising campaigns for each one. Or I could be the advertising manager of a small in-house agency, dealing with only one type of product, but handling all aspects that come up about it. The only question would be where in this vast world would I choose to make my start.

All of the other values that I stated as being important to my occupation are realized in the job of being an advertising manager. With the long ladder to climb, a life in advertising will be one constantly improving in work, salary, and power. All of these things are important to me.

I have also found that I am quite well suited a job in advertising. Many of the personal requirements demanded in an advertising manager that I talked about above I already meet. Obviously, advertising is a big possibility for me that should not be ignored. This will way heavily in the future.

In fact, this may be my future. One never knows, and it is good that I am being prepared for my future at this stage in my life.

SECTION 3; Bibliography

“Advertisinq Agency Workers,” #113. Chronicle Guidance. Moravia. N.Y.

“Advertising Agent,” Occupational Outlook, # 6. Careers, Incorp. Largo, Florida.

Kurtz, Steve. Marketing Director, UFAB. Interview, Kurtz residence. 2:00 P.M. February 29, 1992.

“Marketing, Advertising, and Public Relations Managers,” Encyclopedia of Careers and Vocational Guidance. 81th ed., Vol. 11, pgs. 386-389.

Sales Promotion / Marketing Manager.  12 2 7. Careers, Incorp. Larqo, Florida.
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Originally written for Mrs. Brooks Advanced English I class at Chapel Hill High School.