Latest CAREER articles

ihaveanidea @ VCU’s Executive Education for CDs, Days Four & Five

The sun was shining bright and the weather was hot — but not too hot — when I stepped out of the hotel to head on over to the Brandcenter this morning. The concierge warned that the weatherman called for thunderstorms this afternoon, but I was in too much of a hurry to grab an umbrella. Besides, how bad can a little rain be?

ihaveanidea @ VCU’s Executive Education for CDs, Day Three

I didn’t really need that 7 AM wake-up call from the hotel front desk this morning; instead I was awakened by the pounding of rain against my window. Yeah, this weather is truly leaving a lot to be desired. Oh well, I’m only a block away from the school, so with umbrella in hand, I headed out for Day Three of the Executive Education course.

ihaveanidea @ VCU’s Executive Education for CDs, Day Two

I’m not sure if I’m relieved or disappointed that Richmond weather has been pretty close to Montreal weather on this trip. Sure, it’s still early in the day — and early in the week, which promises to end as a scorcher — but when your mind is set on bayou-like conditions, 85 degrees seems like a bit of a let-down.

Breakfast is served at the first full day of Digital Leadership and Management Skills for Creative Directors, with plates piled high with bacon, sausage, ham, egg and cheese croissants, fruit salad and yogurt, as well as a staple of the South, iced tea. Nourishment is going to be important today, as Kelly O’Keefe, Managing Director of the VCU Brandcenter says this will be one of the busiest days of the week.

ihaveanidea @ VCU’s Executive Education for CDs, Day One

A long time ago, way back when the VCU Brandcenter was called the Adcenter and was located in a considerably less swanky building than the renowned ad school is found today, I had the great pleasure of travelling down to Richmond one summer to be a fly on the wall for one of VCU’s Executive Education programs.

Books are improving. Now skip the “advertising”

Creative directors look for different things when evaluating a candidate’s work. We all want to see demonstrations of “creativity” but each of us defines it differently.

In my case, I judge the work on how effective it would be at building a client’s business. I try to answer the questions, “Could I sell it to the client?”, and if I could, “Would it connect with the target and build the brand?”

Getting laid (off): Diaries of a copywriter gone rogue

I felt a bit bad for the HR woman. But just a bit. And I got over it pretty soon. When I started feeling worse for myself. Her job was like the angel of death. When she showed up at my desk and asked me to come with her, that look of pity on her face, I told her flat out no - I didn’t want to go with her. Handcuffs and chains crossed my mind. I could just refuse to go with her. I could totally chain myself to my desk and just not move. Ever.

How To Get Headhunters To Do Back Flips For You

Distinguish yourself as being one of the best that every headhunter wants to know.
1. Learn what we do and who we do it for.
Sorry to break it to you but, headhunters do not work for you ~ the talent. They work for the company that is seeking talent. Some might tell you they [...]

Oh, So Now You Love Me?!!?

Recently I presented what I thought was an overly generous offer to a young creative team who, I felt, were capitalizing on the current dearth of talent to artificially inflate their salaries. That said, the sun was shining at this point in their lives, so a bit of over-zealous haymaking was to be expected, [...]

Pay Them All

Since we were old enough to leave the house without our parents, many of us worked at a variety of jobs to earn some extra spending money. We marveled at the little bank-book we were handed when we deposited our first paycheck, and thoroughly enjoyed the experience of purchasing something for the first time without [...]

The Nothing - We’ll Bend Over For You

I’ve been contemplating writing a book for the past several years. This book, that we’ll refer to as THE NOTHING, would be auto-biographical and recap my life over the past decade. During those ten years, I experienced a volution* of my career in the ad industry. I say volution*, since my career did not really [...]