Guidance

10 Ways to Turn Your Internship Into a Job

How to Turn an Internship into a Job

By Judy John

Here are my 10 tips: 

1. Be prolific. Think of 50 ideas. Do 30 layouts, write 100 headlines. Somewhere in there will be something good. Creativity is a muscle. You have to work it and it does gets easier.

2. Over-deliver. Whatever you’re asked to do, never do the bare minimum. It doesn’t matter what you’re asked to do, do it really well. You have to help find stock photos and they need three? Find 50 options.

3. Have a good work ethic. Don’t be the last one in and first to go. Be hungry and self motivated.

4. Be useful/helpful. Offer to help out on whatever needs to get done. Let it be known that you’ll help out. No job is too small—be willing to do whatever. Be around. Stay busy, People will start to say good things about you.

5. Don’t be a wallflower. Get out of your office or cubicle. Get out there, get to know people, volunteer—play sports, go to parties. You want people to know who you are. Agencies are social.

6. Find a mentor in the agency. You won’t always get a lot of time with the creative director. Find a senior creative or group CD who can mentor you. Be useful to them in exchange for their advice. Often we assign a mentor to our interns.

7. Be empathic. Understand what motivates people. Why people do things. Then bring this to every thing you work on. Study human behaviour. That’s what insight is. That’s how you’ll get to good work.

8. References of good work. Know what is great work. Follow up on award shows. They help you do good work. And when you share work, it helps to have reference so people see the vision for what you are trying to create.

9. You are your own brand. Think about what you want to project. Be the useful, passionate, eager-to-learn one. Not the know-it-all, entitled one. There are a lot of people out there who want that job—we choose people we want to work with, people we like. So have a good attitude. You can defend but don’t argue. Listen. A lot of people know more than you do. Don't be a jerk—to anyone.

10. Have fun. It’s advertising. It’s hard work but it’s supposed to be fun. When you have fun, you do better work.

Judy John is  the CEO of Leo Burnett Canada and CCO of Leo Burnett North America

Back