That said, anyone aiming for any one of the available advertising jobs must be willing to start at a lower level position and rise through the ranks as they gather industry experience. Getting a good advertising job is often contingent on having a relevant educational background. Advertising positions can be grouped into a number of categories: marketing executive, account coordinator or traffic manager, media planner, researcher and art director.
Several universities offer advertising degree programs. Most universities will place advertising degree programs under the business studies or similar-named faculty while others will have advertising fall under communications faculty.
Advertising students who join business faculties will normally be required to study marketing courses too as the two disciplines go hand in hand. In this case, advertising is considered just one of the arms under the greater marketing umbrella. Other courses that the student must study are psychology, economics and humanities.
For universities where advertising falls under a communications or similar-named faculty the course work will lean more towards creative and media classes. The creative classes will cover computer aided design as well as copywriting skills. The media courses on the other hand help students gain essential industry skills such as media planning, media buying and selling. Media coursework will also include training on how to harness the power of the Internet in effective targeted or mass communication.
Once armed with the appropriate academic qualification, it is important to note that jobs in advertising require a number of innate or inculcated skills in order to complement the theoretical knowledge. These include:
- You must have the ability to work with different people. Some advertising jobs will require that you negotiate with a broad range of client. The demands of one client will differ from the next and you must be flexible enough to accommodate the unique requirements.
- Good communication skills are an integral part of all advertising jobs. This refers to clarity in both oral and written communication. You must be able to write good copy that will have the target audience attracted to whatever it is you are advertising.
- Ability to work under pressure - This is part of any job but advertising marketing jobs have to grapple with the sometimes very fluid demands of the client. Decisions have to be made quickly, amendments may be urgent and it is not unusual to find people holding jobs in advertising working extended hours just to fulfill a client's demands.
- Creativity and advertising go hand in hand. The very reason for advertising is to distinguish a product or service from any other competing one in the market. It is an attempt to be heard over any other ‘noise' and get your target audience's attention.
- You must be willing to start at the lower-end rungs of the advertising career and move up from there. Do not expect to earn a high income immediately after completing your studies though this does not mean one should not be ambitious and aim for the higher paying positions.
