edumacatin' that there ad thing

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.