Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

Becoming an art director will take about 10 years of experience. You will have to work as a designer or account executive first to learn the ropes. You will have to develop your own style and approach.

how many people have a masters degree in advertising? have you researched it? Marketing yes, but in advertising? It seems like a clear differentiation for your personal brand.

Plus, you will have an option to teach part time or full time. I would do some research. ask partners in ad firms what they think. see if a really good design school offers this program.

I would go for it. Good luck.

Steve

Hi mcdan88,

First of all, congratulations for coming this far :)

My advice for the future would be work full-time and study part-time, that way you will get the industry experience and the paper work! I got my degree in Marketing Management last year, took a “gap year” (so to speak) this year to get started in the industry full-time and I applied to do my Masters degree part-time next year – hopefully I get accepted! Re schools, I’m South African so I can’t really help there :) All the best for the future!

Dear Mcdan88,

You're what? 22? 23? I dunno. I'm just guessing. You have two ways of looking at this issue: yours, and that of your potential creative director.

But first, graduating is one thing, long projects and endless deadlines will soon be a thing of the past. When you find a job, THAT'S when you'll start learning. So far, all you've probably been taught is the college way.

Now, soon, you'll see that life in the real world is somehow, different.

If you've the money and the time and so on, sure, go and get a masters. But ask yourself what it will give you that will make you more valuable and more employable than someone who left college at the same time you did, but who got a job as an art director and who has two years or so under their belt while you, master certificate in hand as may be, you do not have that same level of real world experience?

All right. how's about this then:

Let's fast forward two to three years. There's this peach of an art director's job with a great firm in a cool city and it's come down to two final candidates. It's a mid level art director's position but there's great potential for sublime work and ... well, it's THE DREAM job.

The final runners are you with your masters certificate and no real world experience, but all neat and scrubbed pink. And some kid who's a tad rough around the gills and with no sign of a graduate degree, let alone a masters certificate.

It's in the bag, right?

Er? No.

What the other kid DOES have that YOU LACK is a killer book with two solid years of real work, for real clients, with real problems. Problems this kid has solved brilliantly and solutions this kid can also prove helped increase sales.

Ro-roh!

Sorry to be the one to tell you this but if you're both interviewing with me, with my 25 years or toil, graft, pain, and scars from the trenches behind me, I, as I suspect you'll find might be the case with many seasoned creative directors, I'll go with the kid with two years experience.

For me as your creative director, the real world has greater significance than the masters class room. As your creative director I don't care about your masters in advertising. In truth, it proves nothing. But a book with six to eight great campaigns of real work for real clients and half a dozen one offs AND two years worth of real agency experience says "commitment, staying power".

I'm just spelling it all out here. The choice MUST be yours.
If you still want to go for a masters, then NYU Syracuse and VCU's Brandcenter are among the best, as are The Portfolio Center and The Creative Circus. All great schools. Check the out. ALL OF THEM. And move form there.

Perhaps the best reason to enroll is because, as others have said, right now, jobs are not exactly a dime a dozen. But if you land a job within the next few months, why not stick with it and THEN go for your masters a year or so from now?

If we go back to our job scenario above and you've got real experience AND a masters, then you might find yourself being taken more seriously, even by grumpy old cynics like me.

But when you check into the programs you want to go to, do as much as you can to visit the school, talk to the staff, and to the students. But also carry out a straw poll of creative directors.
A short e-mail to CDs you admire asking them what they'd advise might also help you.

Most top CDs are not as unapproachable as you might think. True, they're busy people, but trust me on this. All you have to do is ask. The results might surprise you, AND give you even more food for thought.

To become an OK art director will take about 3 years. To become a good art director, about 5. To become a GREAT art director? Seven to 10 years. So, how hungry are you?

I hope this helps and I truly wish you the best of luck.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA

What the heck is a 'Masters in Advertising?? "

Who would teach such a course if it actually exists??

The problem that I have with most Masters Level Qualifications is that the people who teach them tend to be academics. Many of them have little or NO actual experience in the industry. If they were actually good at it; hey wouldn't be teaching in school, they would be making millions in the game. SInce they are not, they are probably not :-)

The other problem with wasting another two or three years n college is that you may miss the boat on your career.

The sooner that you can get into the actual work place and start building your experience, the sooner you can get promoted. The earlier that you can get your first second and third promotions; the better it will be in the long term for your career in the industry.

You could be CEO by the time you hit 30 or 32.

The advertising business is fast paced, fluid, creative and challenging. The sooner that you can get into the game in a real way, the sooner you can start to FORGET everything that they taught you in school and start to learn what the real business is all about.

Good luck.

Matthew