How to get your first job

20 top tips from 20 top creative directors.

1. Work hard.  Yes, this sounds obvious. But even the most talented footballers, for example, put extra hours into their practice sessions. The result? The difference between just making the squad and winning trophies.   
2. Persist.  You’ll face professional and personal knock-backs – from an unhelpful crit to a shortage of rent money. Remember your goal and be tenacious. There are many candidates with the right talent and qualifications, few with the required perseverance.  
3. Listen. Be willing to learn – not just from creative directors, but anyone and everyone you come across in the industry. A healthy helping of humility goes a long way. God gave us one mouth and two ears for a reason. 
4. Ask for opinion. Keep asking for views on your work. The answers won’t always be consistent, but a consensus should emerge. Asking lots of questions is also symptomatic of the right kind of attitude. 
5. Kill your babies. Be ruthless with your own portfolio. It is better to have fewer, but consistently brilliant pieces of work than pad out the book with “good-ish” campaigns. If you can’t be your own creative director, ask your creative partner.
6. Find a good partner.  Not all, but most employers for jobs at trainee or junior level ask for a creative team. Make sure you are working with someone you respect and who complements your skills. If not, find a new partner.  
7. Decide roles and mean it. Who is the copywriter? And who is the art director? Don’t busk it. Be serious about your roles. A copywriter must have a love of words; a designer or art director a passion for typography.     
8. Develop your craft. Practice writing and designing – even when you don’t have a concept, let alone a brief. Keep a scrapbook or journal of random thoughts, ideas, scribbles, reference. 
9. Do speculative campaigns. In the absence of a creative brief, write your own. Make it a realistic problem for a real product. Avoid big brands with famous advertising. Instead, find a company or organisation that engages your personal interest.   
10. Vary your work. Creative directors appreciate young talent that is mature beyond its years. Make sure your portfolio addresses wildly different audiences in a variety of tones of voice. Work for all kinds of brands across the whole gamut of media.  
11. Go beyond your comfort zone. Tackle the briefs that you find most difficult or tedious. Pensions rather than condoms. If you can find an inspired solution, then you have made yourself much more valuable to an agency.  
12. Read. Create your own list of books, magazines and websites that build your knowledge of the industry – its roots, history, current best practice, and future.
13. Go on courses. Various industry organisations – D&AD, IDM, DMA – offer courses on craft skills and marketing disciplines. Look out for talks and lectures, too.
14. Do your homework.  When you’ve got an interview, read the agency website, Google the creative director. Get a sense of the agency’s point of view on marketing and the creative director’s idea of what makes good communications. 
15. Stand out. Sell yourself as you would a brand. It is not enough to crack the brief. You have to be prepared to explain your thinking and justify your approach. 
16. Use your personality. Creative directors are looking for people who will fit into their department – humour, intelligence, passion, eccentricity, can all be good. The greatest crime? Dullness. 
17. Know interview technique. Ask tutors, recruitment consultants (headhunters) and NABS about how to handle an interview. 
18. Build relationships. If an interview goes well, follow it up with emails, phone calls or exchanges on a social networking site. Volunteer to go back and show the creative director how your book has developed. Keep in touch. Keep top of mind. 
19. Network. Very few jobs are advertised. You are more likely to get a job through a recruitment consultant or your own connections. However tenuous the link, if you know someone who knows this industry, stay close to them.  
20. Have fun. If you are having fun, your work will be better and interviews will be more successful. Good luck!