-: I think that's what's so amazing
and complicated about the advertising industry
is that it actually really doesn't matter
what degree you get.
A lot of the times, the interviews,
they really value real world experience.
Did you intern anywhere?
Did you, for your organization,
did you ever like create an ad?
Did you ever like, I don't know,
think of a strategy for that?
And a lot of the, I always say,
like my job isn't rocket science.
Like I feel like a lot of people,
and especially people at UVA, like anybody could do it
I think if they just apply themselves.
And I think skills are teachable,
but your personality isn't.
So I think a lot of times in the interview process,
they really lean heavily on behavioral assessment
of just like is this somebody that can like
hit the ground running that is willing to learn
and actually passionate about the subject?
I think the easiest sort of jumping off point
or like first job you can get out of college
is sort of what I got, which is sort of
like a media agency job, because you really get a sense
of working with different platforms, different clients.
You kind of learn like the basics of media planning,
what's a CPM, like what's an impression, you know.
It's like sort of you start off in that basic level
and then you get a lot of experience.
It's longer hours, it's a little bit challenging,
but that's sort of what you'd expect
from an entry level job.
And then I think from there, you can think
like do I want to continue being at an agency?
Do I want to go to a platform?
Do I want to go to an actual brand and run media there?
To get experience in the field, I think at least how I tried
to do it was I started with the organizations
on campus, like on grounds.
I first joined a bunch of different organizations
and volunteered for anything that was more
in the photography, videography media
or maybe creating flyers for meetings and events.
Like that's, you know, graphic design, that's marketing.
Or maybe it was running like the Facebook page
or something like that.
So I started there, and then from there,
I got some internships.
I think there are two types of internships.
Like there's the classic summer internships, obviously,
where you can do something.
And I wouldn't say like you have to be a third year
and then you get an internship.
Like you can get one like after your second year,
after your first year.
Like it really, you can do it if you set your mind to it.
But then even during the year, I sought out
some remote internships that I could do.
And so to get those internships,
I would build off of some of the experience
that I've gotten like at an organization.
You have to start from somewhere.
Maybe at first, I would start with some unpaid internships.
But then ultimately, you know, I'd get some paid ones
and kind of just keep building on top of each other.