In the days before everything got blogtastic and before SupNorth, Interesting, APSotW and the Miami Ad School Planning Bootcamp, I don’t think Planning was the kind of career that you, ahem, planned to enter. Every Planner I know over the age of 28ish seems to have somehow fallen into it as a career by accident.
I left Uni convinced I wanted to work in PR, then nine months into my first PR job I got rescued from typing-contact-reports-and-cold-calling-regional-journos-hell when the agency’s board level Planner suggested that I might like to work with him instead. He took me on my first client away-day a week later and I did some very speedy learning on the job, with a few MRS courses thrown in for good measure. Ten years later, I’m still at it.
I’m curious – how did everyone else end up as a Planner?
Thanks for the SupNorth link!
I always wanted to be in advertising without really knowing what that entailed. Uni didn’t really give much guidance so I went out there and just applied for every grad job I could find (acc man).
At my second interview I spoke to a planner who said I should look into it as a career. I did, and from there I started my blog, kept applying and eventually got there.
I’m 24 and I ended up being a planner by… accident. Before entering an advertising agency, I didn’t even know that job existed. I studied social psychology and during the last year we had to choose a place to do an internship. I chose an advertising agency because I wanted to know more about consumer pshycholoy. During the interview, they asked me if I knew what I was going to do during the internship as a planner. I said I didn’t have any idea. And here I am. After the internship, I was sure about what I wanted to do for a job and I’m actually a planner.
Hi, I’m Tara, 23 years old. I’m just started my career as a planner by you know “accident”, I was so desperate wanting to work on TV until someday friend of mine recommended to apply for a job in advertising agency –called strategic planner.
It’s been a year, I work here. I love my job because I have a lot of chances to meet other people, translate the insights into thoughts and idea. Although, I’m still learning by doing as a planner :)