From Hogwarts to Hunger Games: What happened to training the next generation in advertising?
The advertising industry has moved from thoughtfully training its graduates to giving them a laptop, a bunch of logins, and expecting them to immediately become useful. Kenny Hill, the founder of Kopilot Consulting, explains that “an industry that refuses to train its young doesn’t get to complain about the standard of the work.”
Today, for many entering the industry, it feels less like Hogwarts and more like the Hunger Games
Picture a 22-year-old starting their first agency job this year.
They’ve got a degree, a laptop, a Slack login, and a vague job description. Then, they’re dropped into a fast-moving, project-based environment and told to get on with it. Be proactive. Be strategic. Be immediately valuable.
Some agencies still run thoughtful graduate programs. But for many young people, the experience is less apprenticeship and more trial by fire.
I’ve been in media 25 years and have been on both agency and publisher sides. So many occasions the client brief gets sent direct to the publisher from untrained agency staff asking us to come up with concepts and full campaigns they can present to clients as their own. Given the demand on publishers for innovative new ideas, we’ve had to adapt to stay alive, which has given rise to great unsung strategists on the other side of the fence. But even in publishing, training is rare, often the best you get is a good mentor and this seems to not only apply to agencies and publishers. Training is seen as expensive and time consuming, and at the expense of worker’s lunchbreaks. Give everyone a break – we all work hard to keep afloat, invest in your staff and stop expecting them to perform miracles when you turn their lunchbreaks into “lunch and learns” – the mental break from work is just what is needed to keep generating ideas and solid work.
Properly onboarding someone in to a businrss is an art, whether its a 1st timer, junior or even middle to senior management.
Its like a 1st date, after the initial courtship and flirtation (ie: the interview process).
The 1st day, week and even months are critical for the success of an employee…and rightfully said, the more junior the more critical it is.
Its not just about a laptop and some logins, its about understanding the right proccesses, right people etc…even if you have done it before in a similar company/role….and if someone is new to the industry its even more important.
If a very senior hire, business tend to look after you (because of the investment) however any less its a shame but its commonly becoming “….good luck, figure it out”.
Just like when you 1st meet someone, 1st impressions mean everything. The 1st date (day), the 1st week, 1sy month etc…reflects on how the future of the relationahip will be and if someone stays or leaves looking for a better option