At first I wanted to get into specifically PR/Events for an agency or a client that primarily dealt with luxury women's cosmetics. Eventually I realised no one was going to hand that to me on a plate, I started applying for any job at any company that even mentions the words "marketing" and/or "media.
I found that your dreams generally aren't handed to you.
(If this is TLDR, and you just want important advice, then scroll down to Keep Left and read the learnings there.)
Here are the ones I got interview from:
King Pro:
The very first interview I was offered was for some place called King Pro Marketing.
Their website seems to have disappeared.
I remember sitting down in the lobby with about 6-7 other people for the group interview session.
Black Eyed Peas "Time of my life" was pumping on the TV and I thought "fuck, if they play this music every day, I would shoot someone."
A guy walks out with a poorly fitted suit and invites us all in the meeting room. I filled out a very impersonal form with all my information and handed it to him. At this point I'm still trying to figure out what this company actually does.
He explained that he had offices in 2 other Australian cities, he was originally a backpacker from London and built this business from the ground up. I eventually figured it out, he was looking for door-to-door salesman. This "marketing company" was a 3rd party provider of door-to-door sales people, not what I was looking for.
Despite the dude offering me a second interview, I had to decline. It wasn't what I wanted.
Learnings:
A group interview generally isn't a good sign that this is gonna be a "proper" job
A bad website usually means a bad company
It's very funny to me that this website has also since been shut down it seems.
A friend of mine actually came across this company and recommended me to apply there.
They had an OK website, couldn't tell what they did, but then again lots of marketing companies seemed to be like this.
I rocked up in my suit and what do you know? Group interview.
They also provided me a form to fill out that was exactly the same as the one from King Pro.
A suave english-man comes out (this time in a well fitted suit) and welcomes us into the board room.
He explains he listed these positions as "Marketing and Media" and not "Sales" as he didn't want the standard sales person.
The room was full of interesting characters whom I assumed superiority, I got into a conversation with a guy who apparently was about to go to Korea for exchange. He was also shocked to find that North and South Korea were different countries, he was even more worried when I said they used different currencies. "Which currency do I get??" he says.
Eventually I realised that this company was exactly like King Pro (door knocking), absolutely terrible. I realised this when the Managing Director was proud that his team rocked up to a marketing conference all in white suits (badly fitted no doubt) and hired people to break dance in front of their stall.
He was also originally a backpacker, from the UK.
Learnings:
Stay away from companies started by british backpackers
Probably not the right type of "marketing job" if the owner has never heard of the position "Account Manager"
If the MD is proud of extremely tacky things, chances are the company is tacky
The first company on my list to actually still exist it seems.
As far as I am aware, these guys seemed to be a graphics design agency. They have many offices around the world and deal primarily in FMCG packaging/ad design. Pretty cool.
I had a brief dabble into graphics design myself, and by brief dabble I mean it was a high school dream that was crushed by reality.
But hey, working as an Account Manager at such a company would have been way cool.
The office is in South Yarra and it was my first interview at a company I thought I would actually want to work at.
I was asked a lot of questions that I think I nailed, but obviously its the ones that you didn't nail that stand out in your memory.
The question was:
"Do you see a problem with a cosmetics company making products for children? If so, why? How do you mitigate this?"
I spent many minutes talking around in circles and it really looked like I was missing the keywords that the interviewer was looking for. I got a bit desperate and kept talking to fill in the time hoping if I said every buzz word I knew, I would eventually hit it.
I did eventually hit it, but only after I was slightly prompted.
What she wanted to hear was "Yes, but certain cosmetic brands position themselves as "care" rather than "beauty" which is why they have no problem making children's products.
Looking back, those 2 words was what cost me the job.
Well and the fact that the job description said they needed someone with 2 years experience.
Actually I definitely wasn't qualified.
Learnings:
Its OK to pause to think and to ask the interviewer to clarify a question
Rambling and dropping buzzwords doesn't impress anyone (who know what they're doing)
I applied for a position at a company called Adconion in Feb.
The first interview went extremely well, but after an awesome 35 minutes, I really still had no idea what the company did.
I distinctly remember my interviewer mentioning the words "digital distribution platform" and "providing the technological solution to media agencies". I had no idea what this meant, all I knew was I interviewing for a position of "Campaign Manager" at what seemed like a media company. Sounded pretty cool. Managing digital media campaigns.
I left the interview with a great feeling, I pretty much assumed I've already got the job. I also made the mistake of presuming this position was a creative one, similar to an account manager. This would heavily influence how I approached my second interview with who would be my direct manager.
Essentially, I got this role completely wrong. A campaign manager required meticulous attention to detail and a knack for doing something extremely repetitive.
So obviously when the interviewer asked the question "Are you more of an analytical person or a creative person?" I gave the wrong answer.
I was very sad when I didn't get this job, it seemed like a great company, cool office, cool director (first guy that interviewed me). Especially when I pretty much felt like I had already got the job after my first interview.
Learnings:
Don't get too attached to your applications
No matter how good you feel about the interview, the job is still up in the air until you get that email
Don't preemptively paint a picture of a role unless you are absolutely sure what it is
Keep Left is an independent PR firm based in South Melbourne. By this stage I had completely given up on actually landing a PR gig. So I was quite excited when I got this interview offer.
It was a lowly 35k a year junior account role but hey, this is a good start. Especially considering I didn't even do communications at university. I saw it as my ideal opportunity to break in.
I got up to the 3rd stage with Keep Left, but by this stage I had known better than to assume that I got the job.
The 2nd stage was a written Press Release, I had never written one before (I didn't do PR or Comms at Uni). How hard can it actually be? Well... not that hard actually.
A friend of mine who was doing PR at the time helped me and gave me examples. I wrote a mock press release for Crust Pizzas, who was one of their clients at the time. Seemed to go all pretty well and they liked me enough to invite me back for a final interview.
The Account Director interviewed me in my last interview. Again, the only thing that stood out to me was the sole question I didn't nail.
"What types of media do you consume?"
"Mainly digital"
Wrong answer, you don't go to a PR agency and tell them you only consume media on your computer, regardless if you're actually reading The Age or GQ's website.
I'm not actually sure what happened with this interview though, because I got very good feedback after the interview but a job offer never officially came. And no one ever emailed me to reject me. I think that the HR screwed this up. I like to tell myself I actually got the job offer.
Learnings:
I learnt the most valuable interviewing technique in this interview, something I share with everyone when they ask me for interview advice.
Tell the interviewer what they want to hear.
It seems obvious now, but its amazing how everyone overlooks it.
Every time an interviewer asks a questions, they are looking for a particular answer. Think to yourself what the answer is.
Example: If someone asks you what types of media you consume, obviously the answer is as many as possible. If someone asks you are you a creative person? For a creative role, say yes. Or you shouldn't even be at this interview.
You can deal with the consequences of a lie later, but if you don't tell them what they want to hear now, you won't even get a chance to prove yourself. (obviously depending on context, remember how I said its OK to gather yourself and clarify the question and think about the situation?)
If you take away anything from this blog, its this.
L'Oreal:
I lied at the start of the article. King Pro wasn't my first interview offer and dreams sometimes are handed to you on a plate.
At the start of 2011 (as soon as I graduated), I got a phone call that seemed too good to be true.
A recruiter at L'Oreal had somehow gotten a hold of my CV and was "extremely impressed" by my experience in Shanghai. She also offered to skip me past the barrier test that apparently thousands of grads applied for. I really thought I was dreaming.
I absolutely nailed the first interview. She pulled out a few bottles of perfume and asked me to identify what kind of people they were marketed towards and why.
I don't think there was any way that this interview could have gone better for me, I was asked if a particular bottle shape was to be adapted to target 40-50 year old women, what would I change?
I said "the shape needed to communicate an elegancy". The recruiter's eyes seemed to have lit up when I said "elegancy". She tried to get me to meet a few people I'd be working with but they were all out for lunch.
I got offered a 2nd interview and found out exactly what the role was. If I remember correctly it was for a Grad Product Marketing Manager for the Yves Saint Laurent range of fragrances. As far I was aware at the time I didn't do too poorly in this interview.
I didn't hear from them for 6 months, I chased them up so many times but I didn't hear any responses. This was the first time I felt shattered. Mainly because I had no idea where I went wrong.
Learnings: ???
Adconion Media Group(again):
It's September now, and I guess I've kinda been desensitised. I had just finished my rounds at Keep Left.
Someone calls me from Adconion again and offers me an interview. By this time I had actually forgotten who Adconion was until I saw the address. I have applied at 80+ places at this stage, faced almost just as many rejection letters.
2 positions were available actually. Media Operations Executive and Account Executive. I still had no idea what Adconion did at this point. All I knew was I didn't want to be in Sales, the AE role was apart of sales.
So I went for the MOE, whatever the hell that was.
There were 2 people in the boardroom. I was asked a wide range of questions about the internet.
What stood out in this interview though, actually had nothing to do with the job.
The Media Director was scanning my resume again after asking me a series of questions.
"It says here, you dance. What sort of dance exactly?"
"In high school and early university, I did breaking"
We spent the rest of the interview talking about breaking. That very afternoon, I got a job offer. Sweet! Or was it? Complications arose about a month later, I'll get to that in a sec.
Learnings:
Almost everything I had learnt in previous interviews was applied to this interview.
It was extremely important that I showed personality on my resume, no one cares you worked at a MacDonald's when you were 15, but people do care that you play the guitar, sing(or in my case, dance), etc.
I never asked my director or my manager why I got offered the role, apparently after my interview, the director couldn't stop talking about "this guy who breakdances".
Complications! 1 month into my new job at Adconion, (which is about 6 months since I had last heard from L'Oreal) the same recruiter calls me.
She explained that the previous role has actually disappeared due to restructuring. I got lost in admist of this restructuring and they were still super interested in me.
I was in a dilemma, angry and happy at the same time. How could they just forget about me for 6 months? I had just found this company that seemed to be awesome.
I decided that I couldn't pass on this opportunity, my heart was still in marketing. I still had no idea what Adconion actually did 1 month in.
First, I made the mistake of driving to this interview. I was effectively 15 minutes late due to traffic. Not only this, the receptionist was at lunch and someone was filling in, the person filling in didn't know how to ping anyone on the phone, and when she found out how, the interviewer was actually from the Sydney office and she didn't know how to reach him in Melbourne. another 15 minutes very quickly passed and to my interviewer I was 30 minutes late to an interview that was meant to be 1 hour. He wasn't impressed.
I don't really recall what he asked me in this interview. I do recall him pretending to be interested in what I had to say, being 30 minutes late really ruined any chances I had. I never got a reply but I assumed he wasn't impressed.
Learnings:
Don't be 30 minutes late to an interview
Because I already had a job, I approached the interview very half arsed, don't waste their time (or your own) if you are ever going to go to an interview half arsed.
Conclusion:
I guess in the end you never know where your career might take you. I still wonder where I would be if I got the job at L'Oreal, certainly not at Google (or maybe?)
Would I have been happier working in an industry I had dreamed about working in?
Or discover that its nothing like I imagined and that every junior role is mundane by nature and really depends what you make of it?
I finally figured out Adconion did after about 3-4 months there. I ended up working at Adconion Media Group for 1.5 years, made friends for life, learnt tons of stuff about a new fast paced industry. The experience I gained and work I did there resulted in recruiters at Google knocking on my door but thats again another story.
I'm grateful for all the opportunities I was given, and to everyone that rejected me...
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I now work at Google
Thanks for reading!
