Last night, we went to BBDO for a meet and greet session with one of the Account Manager. I had experienced “coming back home” feeling when I got to the office. Especially when I met some of my ex-colleagues, a lot of flash backs about the good old days at BBDO. I even got a chance to take some pictures with some of the awards I’ve bagged during my days with the agency.
EFFIE Award winner for effective advertising
It had been a great privilege to be able to organize a tour with the agency. The main objective of the meet and greet session was for the students to get a sense of how working life is like in the advertising and marketing world. The entire session went on for close to 3 hours. I hope most students have truly enjoyed this trip like I do. I got quite carried away seeing old colleagues, and had quite a catch up session after the tour ended. Which also meant I had a rough patch for going home late last night. But of course, that’s not the topic for this posting. Let me share some of the key take outs I had from last night session at BBDO on career development.
TIPS on career development:
1) Have a career plan
– Having a goal helps provide a direction so that you will not be side tracked, and also to avoid feeling lost during your career development journey.
2) Soft skills
– People management skills will be one of your core skill sets that you will need to achieve harmonious working relationship. Working is not the difficult part but it is the people you are working with that makes the work difficult. You need to know how to communicate with your working colleagues using your “conversation management” skills.
3) Degree is an important stepping stone
– Having a degree helps you to be qualified for many job applications as most of it requires a min degree level for your education. But the type of degree might not matter as much.
4) Attitude is key to getting hired
– You may have all the potential and skill sets required for the job. But your interviewer will not be able to verify all that till you are hired. Thus, one of the best proof that you could be the right hire will be your ATTITUDE. How well you can blend into the team, and how fast you will be able to learn and horn your skills is largely dependent on your attitude. Watch “Karate Kid” by Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith to have a better insights into the importance of having the right ATTITUDE.
5) Better chance of getting a job through referral
– Some of you might despise the word referral. It gives people a feeling that you are depending on others to land yourself a job. You got your job through RELATIONSHIP / CONNECTION, or whatever you like to call it. If you are having that thought, I suggest for you to ditch that thought. Referrals and word of mouth is one of your most effective and powerful tool to land you your job. It increases your credibility and gives you an edge over others. You decide for yourself if you wish to have that edge.
6) Knowing what matters to be good
– Having soft skills is important, but your hard skills are equally important too in your career establishment. Thus, it is key to demonstrate to others consistently that you are good at what you do. Which means you are capable of walking the talk, and not just good at talking.
Thank you Amy Tan for helping making this meet & greet session a success, and making this session such an insightful event.
Last but not least, i think it’s time i invest in a better camera. So sorry folks for the poor photo quality.
