By Krista Shepherd

We will get rejected a lot

Sometimes I feel like the more I learn, the less I know.  Whenever I feel like I’ve got it, cracked the code, found the formula for success and making great ads, something else comes about and I realise that I know shit. Excuse my French.

That is something I realised visiting HAVAS and W+K this Wednesday.

We went to Havas and had our minds blown: agencies want us. They want us to do good and succeed in our course, because we might one day become their interns. It was satisfying to realise that agencies are just as interested in us as we are in them.  

But then we went to W+K feeling a little bit more self-confident, having an attitude of young professionals rather than ad students, and they completely shook the ground on which we’d just started to feel balanced. Yes, they want us and they want to see what we’re capable of, but they also want to see every other person that leaves this (or a similar) course.

We are told that we shouldn’t go with the the first agency that shows interest in us, but we are rarely told that the agencies won’t go with the first person to show up on their doorstep. We are told to aim for the best, but we are rarely told that they aim for the best as well. I mean, we do know it. We just always assume that WE are the best.
No two agencies have the same philosophy of course. But when you think about it: there are thousands of people dreaming about that position you desire. Rejections are inevitable.