Try not to let your ego get in the way.
If you were hired as an assistant art director but someone asks you to run an errand, don't moan and groan. Keep your mouth shut and do it. When you're first starting out, any little chore will teach you something, even if it's only where the freight elevators are.
Sometimes, though, no matter how hard you work, no matter how hard you try to keep a job, things just don't work out.
"Well, I'm sorry, but we're going to have to let you go."
Those simple words have put more young advertising people into a coma than any others ever spoken. If you should ever hear them, you've got to try to remember that it is a time for clear, calculated thinking, not emotions. Right, wrong, or indifferent, try to accept your fate graciously. It's too late to do anything about it at that point anyway. Overreacting will do nothing for you. Your best bet would be simply to thank your employer for giving you a break when you needed one.
Then see how much you can salvage.
Ask for the moon. Settle for any little scrap you can get. If it's the beginning of the month, ask to stay until the end. That'll put a couple of extra week's salary in your pocket. It'll also give you two extra weeks to look for a job while you're still employed. And for some reason, it always seems easier to find a job when you're employed than when you aren't.
If you're working on a project, ask to stay until it's finished. If you're in creative, you'll have one more feather in your cap. No matter what department you're in, whether it flies or flops, you'll get paid that much longer.
In short, do anything you can to stay on the payroll.
If you're in creative and haven't been keeping samples of your work all along, ask for them now. You'll need them. Your samples from this job will have a lot to do with how easy it is to get your next job.
If you're leaving your first job, you might still be in a position where you have a lot of spec ads in your book. If so, fine. There's nothing to worry about. In fact, if your spec ads are better than the ads you produced during the course of your first job, then your spec ads should be the only ones in your book anyway.
When you've arrived at a separation date, see if severance pay is negotiable. If two weeks are offered, respectfully ask for four. What do you have to lose? Even if they come back with an offer of three, you come out ahead.
At some point, you might ask your supervisor if he knows of any job openings anywhere. He has many more contacts in the business than you. If he likes you and knows of anything, he'll probably help you find out. Ask the people you work with the same question. That kind of "inside" help can mean the difference between a one-month and a six-month job search.
Ask your supervisor if you can have some office space to work out of for a while. It'll be good for you psychologically, because you'll have a place to go every day. It will look good to prospective employers, because you'll have a secretary to answer your phone. And, chances are, if you're quiet and keep a low profile, they'll let you use that office a lot longer than they originally agreed to.
Try to leave on friendly terms. You never know when someone's going to call your old employer for a reference, or when your old boss will turn up standing next to a prospective new boss at a cocktail party.
