By Alfie Hardman

Turning a placement into a job. 

We’ve just had a brilliant talk from Stu, the CD at Creature. It was about turning a placement into a job, in other words, making yourself indispensable to that agency. Here are a few important things I picked up from it. 

Work hard and be nice to people. It’s a lesson for life and might seem obvious but it underpins everything bellow. Do this by smashing every brief and bringing more ideas that challenge it. They might not land exactly but there could be a nugget of gold in your thinking that the CD can pick out. Don’t just write stuff for it to be made and answer the brief, try and push it further. 

Reference you thinking. At Wieden and Kennedy they have a massive wall where all the creatives put up photos, poems and anything that spurs their thinking for that brief. It will inspire other thoughts and you’ll be able to make links between them. It’s a good starting platform to answer a brief in a fresh way. You’ll be able to enrich your portfolio with this work even if it doesn’t get made. 

Be in the right place at the right time. I guess you can only try, this doesn’t mean you should be chained to your desk all day. Stu’s advice was that you don’t necessarily have to be the first one in and the last one out but you should always be proactive. Whether it’s working outside or going for a walk you should be showing work every day. Just don’t go shopping, past accounts involving Dave Trott seeing a placement team do this suggests this doesn’t go down too well.  

Walk around the agency purposefully. A little hack of Stu’s that makes it look like your busy and proactive, yes even when going to the loo.  

Never be quiet. Even when you haven’t got a brief find one. You are already familiar with the agencies clients so go out and make something to show the CD how clever you are. You should always have something to do. Try and befriend the planners and be in the know on the up and coming briefs. Go to the pub and be social. 

Before you start your placement have ideas for the agencies’ clients and know the work that has been done before. Be a bit of a showboat in this regard. 

Talking of knowing work, know which team has done it and congratulate them. They might become your new mum and dad (mentors for that agency). Kind words always go a long way and in this case cost nothing but a bit of time and research (which you should have already done!). 

Find an opportunity in everything. Have the attitude that there is no such thing as a shit brief. Use it in whatever way you can to tap into a culture or better still, create your own that lands perfectly for that brand. 

Sit in on reviews with the CD whenever you can. You’ll learn much more this way and hear it from the horse’s mouth.

Receptionist and PAs hold the keys to the kingdom. Treat everyone with kindness. Don’t be a dick.

Be generous with your ideas. Creativity almost always involves collaboration anyway.