So here’s one we thought you guys would find interesting, given all the discussions about attracting talent and the lengths to which The Kids These Days will go to score an internship at no-name shops like, say, Droga5. (They had an IG hashtag.)
As the tipster who sent us this link put it, “Your readers would be better off knowing this is still(!) happening.”
Laura-Litman Maruscak is a veteran recruiter currently with Omnicom Health Group. Seems that her college-aged son wants to go into advertising and needs an internship, so she posted on the public Facebook group page NYC Ad Jobs and Networking, which is run in part by Saatchi & Saatchi L.A. ACD TJ Bennett.
The post was pretty straightforward.
…and a contentious conversation ensued.
Many of the group’s 15,000-plus members found this all to be kind of amusing given that quite a few aspiring ad professionals use the page to look for job listings. The sentiments ranged from “I can’t believe this guy’s mom has to help him look for internships” to “Wow, you people are a bunch of judgmental dickheads.”
Bennett was hopeful.
This event appeared in our inbox without any real context. But one could find a larger point in that advertising–like most if not all other industries–is hard to break into and still involves a good bit of that old nepotism despite all the talk of talent and diversity and aspirations toward assembling the perfect work force. (Media is quite obviously no different, but you knew that.)
Also, the comment threads on this blog are not the only places where people voice their often vociferous disagreements on the state of the business and related topics.
We realize that we will probably get blocked from this public group now. But we found the back and forth legitimately interesting! And internships are, if anything, more competitive now than at any point in the past.
(We had to pick this “interns” stock image bc do not even try to claim that dude on the left is under 30. He looks like Charlie Day, FFS.)