By Dounia Sitayeb

Never Give Up

I moved from Paris right after my graduation in 2012, with lot of dreams and hope, I thought that it would be easy to find an internship in Advertising. Bollocks. 

I sent applications, with my resume and my portfolio, but honestly I think at this moment I didn’t really know what a portfolio was.

After a week of sending applications, I received 0.5 answers, which means no answer and one automatic response. Giving me a false hope. I continued for fews weeks, still with no answer at all. I started to feel very anxious and frustrated. I didn’t understand why people didn’t answer me, even to tell me that I wasn’t good or that my portfolio was shit. I just wanted an answer. 

At the same time, Olivier my husband, was studying at SCA. He spent all his time working and working. We even had to break for a moment because we weren’t on the same page at all.

Today I understand why. I understand why nobody answered me, I understand why Olivier worked very hard.

Because if you want people to answer you, you need to work very hard no matter if you are talented or not.

So I decided to build a new portfolio and I did it in only one week. I spent all the week working on it. 

Day and Night. 

I wanted to prove to myself that I was capable of working hard too and build a portfolio on my own without any school, mentors or partner to help me with. 

I had anger and motivation. I was determined. 

When I had enough campaigns, I sent applications again. Guess what? Still no answer.

Hard work isn’t enough. 

Quality and Perseverance are also expected. So I kept improving my portfolio and kept sending applications until I had an answer. 

I wrote different, original, possibly funny emails. I also sent applications to agencies in New York. 

Because I had nothing to lose. 

And one day I had an answer. After 6 months of work, perseverance and lot of cry, I had an offer for an internship at DDB NY. 

Finally my dream came true.

But it wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to be hired. But I had no partner.

I decided to come back to London and meet Marc. I wanted to join SCA to find a partner. I wasn’t sure if Marc will accept me in his School, in the middle of the year. 

I came on a Friday and presented to him my work. He said nothing. It was the 3 longest minutes of my life. He checked his phone, looked at me and said ‘You start in 2 weeks and you have to read this, this and this’. 

It’s been 2 months since I joined the school now, and hard work, quality and perseverance are nothing compared to what SCA expects from you.