Was at York for the CSSA's professional evening last night, where students can hear from alleged professionals like me about their career of choice. There were many great questions, a lot of enthusiasm, and a lot of curiosity about how to build a book.
A few of them wanted to know what program I'd gone through. Knowing that some of them were now in hands-on college advertising programs, or applying for one after they graduated, I hope my answer was at least delivered gently. "Um, none."
I fell in to this thing. A lot of people I know got into it the same way.
I graduated, had no idea what to do. Heard about a job proofreading at Eaton's in-house marketing department, applied, got it, worked for 18 months at absurdly low pay. When a writing job came up, I applied, got it. I had a lot of exposure to retail writing before I was ever allowed to commit it myself. And I was already writing for myself.
I can't imagine a better training ground. Unfortunately, it doesn't exist any more.
Market pressure, competition and technology have combined to kill off the gradual introduction to working as a creative, under the auspices of a paid gig. So, much as I think school programs tend to produce a lot of conformity, these days they're the best way to build a book, and learn at least a little about the world you want to work in.
But remember, no matter what your profs say – yes, the concepts in your book are the key; they'd better be interesting and engaging, across several media, and spelled right. But almost as much as your work, there's one thing the schools don't seem to teach: talking about your work, sharing your thinking, can go a long way toward impressing a CD. Because talking about our work (with clients, suits and each other) is after all what we do for a living.
It's what you could be doing for a living.