Latest CAREER articles

Reality Check

“Do you really want to learn how to fight or do you want to go home and forget this ever happened?”

That’s what I was told when I left Mark Mikita’s Dojo in the middle of Venice Beach, California. Years of martial arts training and I got the shit kicked out of me by a witty French dude and the son of a famous actor. I felt like crap and a bit of a wanna-be. I wasn’t sure I was going to come back to this hell ever again.

You’re a Creative, So Act Like It

You’re a creative. Even if you are not an “Art Director” or “Designer,” chances are you fancy yourself a creative thinker – an idea person – a game changer – on the bleeding edge. According to Dictionary.com, creative “results from originality of thought, expression; imaginative.” That’s all of us in marketing and advertising, right? Can I assume that like me, you and your teams work tirelessly to impress your clients with your cool ideas? Your designs? Your wordsmithing? Then may I ask why so many of us drop the ball when it comes to our presentations? Why is that our presentations lack any imagination or creativity? Why do they have to be…so….so….bad?

Your Soul for a Ping-Pong Table

Can creative people think themselves to freedom?

My friend hates his job. This wouldn’t be worthy of an opening sentence anywhere, except he has a job everyone is supposed to envy, in a place everyone is suppose to love – a creative place.

Are We There Yet?

Here’s where we are as an industry: 85% of agencies have no idea how to predict where their income will come from in two years. The leadership at most agencies wouldn’t put money on which current clients might leave, or why. They are even hazy on which services will be bringing in revenue, at what margin, or even if some of those services will still be in demand in the not-too-distant future.

The Portfolio of the Future

I know it makes me sound old but eleven years ago I was job-hunting for my first art director job. Since I’d decided to study web and art direction at the same time, I had a combination of interactive and print campaigns in my book. The advice I got from CD’s was always the same: “If you want to be a web developer, make a web portfolio. If you want to be an art director, make another one but don’t mix them up. We don’t care if you do web.”

How to Push

No one gets into this business to be average. Or at least no one would admit that to anyone. Including themselves. I’ve never met a young person trying to get into the creative field just to coast for while. We want to be great. If no part of you aspires to greatness, stop reading.

The Road to New Ventures: A Fury of Decision

When I think of the beginning of my advertising career, the genesis of this passion, three names come to mind. David Ogilvy, Donald Draper, and Helen Hunt.

When I was but a lad, 15 or so, I came across the endlessly acclaimed What Women Want. Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt play two advertising executives, competing for a promotion while chasing Nike. In the film, Gibson attains the ability to read women’s minds, which afforded me what would prove a revelatory experience. It allowed me to observe the mental maelstrom of a creative, to witness Hunt twist word and turn phrase to produce “Nike. No games, just sports.” I had an epiphany. I realized then that creation was a career. Immediately I was sold. From those strange beginnings was born a man bent on ideas, innovation, inspiration.

Swim: A Very Special Ask Jancy

At IHAVEANIDEA, we are always looking to better the future of the advertising industry, which is why we launched the category-less Tomorrow Awards, why we use the forward-thinking crowdsourcing approach of Giant Hydra, and why we try incessantly to link up-and-coming creative talent with a dream job through Portfolio Night and sage career advice like the “Ask Jancy” column.

Random notes about e-publishing my second book

Over the last twelve years, I’ve slowly been polishing a manuscript titled Thirty Rooms To Hide In: Insanity, Addiction, and Rock ‘n’ Roll in the Shadow of the Mayo Clinic. It’s a memoir, and the best way I can describe it is “The Shining… only funnier.”

Does the world need yet another touching memoir?

Advice to Ad School Grads: Think Small

Graduation season is upon us, and that means a slew of aspiring writers, designers, creative technologists, planners and brand managers from great programs like VCU Brandcenter, Miami Ad School, the Creative Circus, SCAD and others are polishing up their portfolios and looking for their first big break.

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