Celebrating our successes

One thing I'd like to do while you guys are away on internships is celebrate our successes, virtually. We're all going to be in different parts of the city and beyond, doing our own thing, but through the magic of the interwebs (and my affinity for blogging too much), we can still feel like a cohesive group - and cheer each other on. While you're out there getting your feet wet you'll run into some extreme highs and probably some lows. So it's going to be really important to celebrate your wins, no matter their size. So when you sell your first ad, let me know. If you get briefed on a really cool project, send me a note. And I'll share these things with the class.

This won't be a forum for bragging, but instead a way to encourage and support one another.

The first Celebrating our Successes story comes from Sheera. Back in December she had a solid run of meetings, and there's still more to come in January. While she hasn't yet landed an internship, she is definitely on the right track. I asked her to share with us how she managed to get face time with so many high profile agencies.

When I began the hunt to find an internship, I was determined that if I were to send out a whole bunch of emails some one would be bound to reply back.  A week passed by and I had not heard back from a single Creative Director.  I would leave my email open all day and at the end of each day, my nerves would build up at the lack of progress.

I finally decided that I would have to pick up the phone make a few calls.  I spent two days working up the courage to call.  I kept reminding myself that CDs were people and that they had once been in my shoes.  I did all the research I could about each agency before I called so I wouldn't be thrown off by any questions they could potentially have asked.  When I finally did call, I was surprised at how easy it was to get passed the receptionist;  I was always put through to the Creative Director.  The majority of the time I got the machine and would leave a detailed message with all my information and my story but stressing that I would call them back.  By the third round of calls people began to admire my persistence.  They had taken notice of my calls and email.  It was helpful that I emailed prior to calling so that after hearing a handful of messages, they could go back and find my email and reply;  It was much more convenient for them than calling me.

Most people are interested in seeing what students are up to these days.  Most people are interested in the Humber program considering it is new and they don't know much about it.  I would go into the interview giving the CDs the impression that I wanted feedback and once I got to the meeting I would suggest the internship.  A big lesson I had learned from Dave Watson and Taxi2 was that the majority of mail from random outside contacts goes straight into spam.  Most of the time they don't even get the email!  Calling is important and effective, but being persistent will get you the interview.

Currently, I have been to two interviews, I have four coming up and one agency is passing my work around!