Advertising is a wonderful mix of art, science and creativity. To break into it and do well in it you will need to possess a combination of intuition (into ideas, business, and crucially people) and creative instinct. These are innate skills which you may or may not have noticed you have. They are difficult to create from scratch. But there is plenty we can do to help craft these core skills of account management and planning.
All great agencies claim to take training seriously. Here are a few details about what we do to promote your development and how we do it, then you can decide if we feel like the sort of place that makes a real commitment to your continued professional development.
First and foremost there is our Entry Level Training Programme (previously known as our Grad Training Programme), arguably the most important piece of training you undertake in the first year of your career. We’ve honed it over the years to create a great introduction to advertising and to Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO. It’s a 3 month programme that gives you hands-on experience in every department within the agency. Not only will you spend time in account management and planning, you will do everything from being a creative for a week to delivering the post to every person in the building (which is, by the way, how Peter Mead started his illustrious career in advertising!). This scheme allows you to truly understand how AMV operates and engenders invaluable relationships throughout the agency – relationships that will enable you to do your job brilliantly when you start working on accounts. There will also be several key sessions with external agencies and contacts (eg BACC, RACC, DAS, media agency, etc) which will provide a great grounding in the nuts and bolts of the job and the industry.
In broader terms, there are weekly training sessions (every Wednesday morning) which cover both practical and more creative subjects - everything from how to manage TV production and how to handle clients brilliantly to the latest digital thinking and the evolution of planning. We also have a monthly speaker programme which invites inspirational figures from the world of advertising to share with us their unique experiences.
During your career you will have access to the best industry courses (run by bodies such as the IPA, D&AD, WACL and APG), the best network opportunities (BBDO University, Omnicom University, DAS Graduate courses) and the best AMV Group development schemes (Young Talent Secondments, Levels 1, 2 & 3 of Group Integration Courses). And if that isn’t enough, there are also a host of training initiatives that will be tailored to your needs at specific times in your professional life – “presentation skills”, “how to be a great manager”, “negotiation skills” and “how to develop a business mindset” – and the list will go on as you seek to progress your career.
When we meet you we hope to see a spark of unique, intelligent, creative ability. We know that it’s up to us to help you develop that into an enormously fulfilling career in this wonderful business of ours.