Smell that?  It’s Panama Jack dissipating off the skin of America’s workforce.

Summers are always a tough time to get hired. And recession summers make it all but impossible. But recession or not, the days right after Labor Day bring with them that new-three-ring-binder smell of optimism. Creative directors are back from their lake houses. HR managers are back at their desks. And if you’re smart, you’re back to the hustle.

Just like January 1, Labor Day should be a time of renewed commitment, complete with resolutions. What would you like to change about your (un)employed self? What would you give up? What would you like to improve? What new things would you like to try? Here are a few Employment New Year’s Resolutions to get you started as hiring managers return to their natural state of pale:

1. Stop Whining: Lost your job? Join the club. There aren’t a lot of sympathizers anymore. The best thing to do is figure out how to compost this lop of shit into some sweet fertilizer. As Churchill said, “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
2. Get Trained: They say a recession is the best time to go back to school. Maybe you don’t have the unlimited resources to get your MBA, but there are some skills you can learn to become more marketable.  Places like Lynda.com offer great, cheap (sometimes free) tutorials that you can take on your own time.
3. Make Things Perfect (but don’t let perfection inhibit action): Remember all the instances in your career when you thought, “I wouldn’t have done it that way?” Well, now’s the time to do things according to your own vision. Redo everything in your portfolio. Organize an event to your own exacting standards. Start a social media campaign to raise money for your favorite cause. Who’s going to stop you? There’s one caveat…don’t let the idea of making it perfect prevent you from getting started. Reality is, the standards you set are your own. As long as you aren’t cutting the corners you’ve established for yourself, what makes for perfection is yours to decide.
4. Help Others: Karma is real. It just is. No matter how much I do for others, it always comes back manyfold. But here’s the rub — you can’t really do something kind for the sake of getting something kind in return. Whatever you do for someone else, it has to be for its own sake. I don’t know if there’s a Karma playbook anywhere, but I have to think this would be rule #1.
5. Start Your Own Thing: A quick parable: Right after I lost my job, I met with the owner of a small suburban agency outside of Boston. He had six employees, a gorgeous converted firehouse as an office, and a nice roster of clients. We went to lunch, and as he described how he came to start his company, all I could think was, what’s the difference between him and me?  I mean, he was intelligent, but so am I. He was creative, but so am I. The only discernible difference between us was that he decided to be an entrepreneur. While I was putting all this energy into finding my next job, people like him are out writing business plans and hustling for clients. There’s no magic to starting a company. But there are balls. And they need to be sizable.

So, imagine that this is the first week of the employment new year. Then ask yourself, what can I do differently? I’d love to hear what you come up with. -Erik

What To Do With Account Service Downtime – By Josh Copeland

Note from Erik: The following is the first in series of articles written by Josh Copeland for people with careers in account service. This feature will appear every Thursday.

Some view our job as sales. A few consider us consultants. Others say we’re micromanaging pencil-pushing yes-men. Ultimately, I believe that my role as an account service person is to be part chameleon, part sherpa, part listening booth.  The skills we gain over the course of our early careers drive our ability to know clients’ business better than the clients themselves.

But if your agency eliminates your position, what do you do in the meantime? As an account person with some extra downtime lately, I might have done one or two of the following things recently:

1. Served dinner for friends, arranging every detail down to seat assignment and conversation topics
2. Followed up with a dinner “report” to those who attended, outlining key next steps for future gatherings and opportunities for improvement on menu items
3. Created elaborate excel docs comparing and contrasting the various criteria for a friend’s new HDTV
4. Provided critiques of street art on the finer nuances of primary messaging, calls-to-action, etc
5. Oversaw (project managed) reorganization of closet, junk drawer, attic, and garage with timelines detailing key milestones & stakeholders using MS Project

All kidding aside, when an account service person is suddenly thrust into the world of the funemployed, there are even better uses for free time while considering the next job option.  I’ve run across a few worth sharing:

Pro bono
The Taproot Foundation enables people with the drive & desire to help others connect with non-profit organizations that need assistance with medium-to-large scale projects. Account service professionals will likely gravitate to volunteer roles like Account Director, Marketing Manager and Brand Strategist.  The projects occur across the US and provide an opportunity for continued growth & development. Not to mention, volunteer work feels good.

Freelance
elance, odesk and guru are three well-known freelancing job websites that connect a variety of businesses with professionals who have the skills to complete projects online with relative speed & ease.  Account professionals (digital & traditional) should look at the “Marketing & Communications” and “Business Consulting” sections of the site for opportunities closest to their skill set.  But I’d caution against relying too much on these sites as much of the work appears to be extremely limited.  Still, worth a look.

In addition, you can reach out to companies like Creative Circle that have standing relationships with agencies to fill temporary positions.  And before you make the mistake (I did) of pricing your hourly rate ludicrously high or low, here are some suggestions from About.com.

Free-to-be-paid
agencynil is quickly becoming well-known for breaking the traditional agency model by charging clients only what they believe the work is worth. They’re already busy with project work and they’re seeking extraordinary candidates for freelance assignments. The revenue stream may not be steady but the work will likely be very interesting. No harm in trying.

Networking
Get out of the house.  Bypass the coffee shop once in a while.  We adfolk are a socializing bunch. Ad leagues and interactive marketing associations may be expensive, and most “networking” recommendations don’t provide much detail.  I suggest getting to know at least a few of the 2.2 million people on Twitter that have registered at WeFollow.com as a good start. Then, consider attending a Tweetup. They happen regularly across the country and don’t have an $80 cover charge.

AgencyScoop is another social net for ad professionals. There’s a forum that doesn’t seem to have a thread dedicated to account service, so there’s ripe opportunity to start one.

And finally, check out Meetup to find a local advertising or online marketing group in your region. Meetups also happen regularly (monthly in many cases) and enable true connections with other account guys & gals. And if you don’t see one you like, start one. It’s the single best way to establish yourself as an authority.

Criticize (constructively)
Think critically about brands and share your point of view with them. Look on the bright side- it’s not like anyone can fire you for having an opinion now. Enjoy it.

With all these opportunities, you’ll either retain your passion for this business or quickly find you’re ready for a change. And the enormous upside to all this downtime is that it’s completely up to you.

——-

Josh Copeland is a 10-year digital account service veteran with experience managing Whirlpool Corporation, ExxonMobil, Frito-Lay and the Clorox Company.  Josh has worked for Tribal DDB, Arc Worldwide and Elevate Studios, and his campaigns have been featured in AdAge, Adweek, OMMA, ad:tech and Creativity Magazine.

Have any stories you want to tell? Got questions about the beta site? Lemonade? Swing by at 2:00 PM EST. We won’t bite.

With less than the three years of experience and barely two years of financial comfort under my belt, I was laid off in May.  Like a lot of folks here on PFTA, the time off allowed me to have some fun this summer.  But unlike a few of the contributers, I want back in.

I still want to work on something big, win some awards, and learn more.  I want to contribute to my 401k and buy a bunch of expensive things. I’m young, and I’m not over it yet.

As I scour for freelance, I have noticed an overabundance of web design, developer, programming, and flash gigs.  Even most art director jobs these days require interactive experience with a knowledge of flash and html.  To boot, the great interactive agencies are few, and in the long term I want to work on campaigns, not just websites.

The few site and banner designs I have done are below my own standards, so they don’t go in my book. Is it time to find a place for it on my website? Is this the part where I sell out?  Are conceptual art directors still going to get hired?  Are non-html/flash thinkers obsolete?

I have strategic, well thought out, way out there ideas, and I don’t want to make banners that animate just because they can.  I can make things look cool.  I have a ton of energy and I am hilarious.  I was the social queen of my last office.

When New York’s summer ends, there won’t be as many fun things to distract me from the reality of unemployment.  And when the industry kicks back in, I need to be ready. So do I change?  In the future, will creatives be replaced by robots? When this industry bounces back, will I still fit in?

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Cristin Burton is a New York based Art Director.  You can view her work at http://www.cristinburton.com

Over the last few months I’ve come to realize that to graduate from college these days is to awaken like Brendan Fraser in Encino Man – confused, scared and armed with tools that are obsolete.

So what’s the problem, and what are the some of the caveman tools we’re wielding?

Ugh – No Want Work For Someone Else
Most of us graduates don’t have experience in the industry past the internships/mentorships we’ve completed. So we need to work for somebody in order to gain experience before we go out on our own. Not to mention needing the experience to gain confidence from potential clients. But is working for someone else really the most effective way to learn how to work for yourself? Much like a 50,000-year-old caveman’s loincloth, this needs to change.

Square Wheel No Roll – Need Learn New Way
I’m not biting the hand that taught me. The teachers I had were great. I’m merely asking why traditional Universities don’t prepare students to be entrepreneurs regardless of major. This could include teaching students the basics of freelancing, marketing themselves, even prospecting clients. Career Centers focus on finding students jobs, why not clients?

Getting Burned Best Way To Make Fire
As Hernan Castillo, another recent graduate pointed out in an MSNBC Blog by Bob Sullivan “I wish I’d gone to prison instead of college. At least I would have learned a trade or two and started being independent once I got out.” It’s obvious that there are several things that we can only learn in the real world. Universities should evolve with the economy at large to accommodate that learning.

Teach Others To Walk Erect
To those of you who have successfully made a career in working for yourselves — pass on the knowledge. Thaw our Encino Man minds toward self-reliance. Take on an apprentice. Teach them the ropes while getting some cheap/free assistance. By doing this you could ensure that the next generation doesn’t stay trapped in the stone ages.

_____________

Follow Scott Rostohar on Twitter: @Srostohar

In Ad-Job Drought, It’s Time to Think Outside the Industry

by Erik Proulx

This article originally appeared in the TalentWorks section of Advertising Age.

During sustained droughts, the yellow-bellied slider turtle instinctively relocates toward the direction of the nearest body of water. He doesn’t wait in cracked mud for a deluge that will never arrive. He doesn’t look at other dying pond dwellers and think, “Well, it may not be raining for them. But I’m different.” No, the yellow-bellied slider marches, slowly and deliberately to unfamiliar land in search of water.

Such is the choice facing some 65,000 advertising people who have lost their jobs since this latest recession began 476 days ago (but who’s counting?). We hang onto hope against hope that this isn’t really happening. Maybe the phone will ring. Maybe so-and-so HR lady will return the e-mail. Maybe it slipped the headhunter’s mind that the creative director wanted an interview.

Maybe it will rain.

Those who choose to stay put in their once-upon-a-pond are discovering just how hungry the vultures are getting. Bankruptcies in March rose 41% from a year ago. Foreclosures in the first quarter of 2009 were the highest in recorded history. In other words, it’s pretty dry out there.

So, where’s the water? In the past month alone, I’ve spoken to an account manager who is relocating his family from Connecticut to San Francisco, a writer who left Detroit for a job in Seattle, an art director who left an amazing life in Tennessee for a staff position in Pittsburgh, and another who is considering a creative director job in Dubai. Personally, I’ve moved from Boston to Cleveland to New York and then back to Boston during my own agency-relocation marathon that began during the 2001 recession. All of these anecdotes represent a major lifestyle change for their protagonists, as well as for the left-behind loved ones who can never fully grasp why someone would relocate just to write jingles.

Then again, maybe they have a point. Cross-country (or cross-globe) moves, while sometimes necessary, are only one path to water. As an alternative to packing U-hauls, many out-of-work adfolk are employing a different, but no-less drastic, strategy: skill transfers.

Embracing other opportunities
Consider the agency account planner who gets laid off after 10 years of psychographic research and focus-group moderation. Does that mean he is only qualified to look for another advertising position? How many industries are there that need his skills? Actually, I can’t think of one that doesn’t need the targeted research and insights that planners provide. The same logic applies to laid-off art directors, copywriters, account executives, art buyers, producers, traffic people — anyone who has honed their skills in our chosen trade.

Yes, advertising is a cool career. “The most fun you can have with your clothes on,” as they say. But you know what’s not fun? Eviction notices. And if people can learn to embrace an entire universe of opportunities outside of advertising, they might just discover a new love.

I share the example I know best, my own. I’ve spent the better part of 15 years learning and practicing my craft on both Madison Ave (literally) and Main Street (literally). What skills have I gained, other than the ability to turn a phrase or produce an occasional television spot? Turns out I have a pretty intimate relationship with advertising’s innards and a better understanding than most of just how much amazing talent is out on the streets. So, for the time being, I’m repackaging this experience soup into a blog and soon-to-be job site for unemployed advertising talent called Please Feed the Animals.

And I am just one of countless unemployed advertising people who are applying the creativity once reserved for clients to their own lives. Take my friend Amelie Loyot. She’s been an art director her entire career, much of it as an associate creative director at Arnold. Now, she just finished designing a book cover for a major publishing company. Then there’s Lisa Hickey, who over the course of her 25-year advertising career has won almost every conceivable award as a writer, art director, creative director and agency principal. Today, she is fast becoming one of the country’s leading social-media strategists. There’s also Matt Lindley, a former agency executive creative director who has repackaged his digital and brand-building expertise as a product manager for the emerging media company LocaModa.

You will survive
Would we all still rather be under the employ of advertising agencies? I can’t speak for my friends and former colleagues, but I know I would not have chosen this ordeal. Getting laid off sucks. Networking is a chore. Health insurance is highway robbery. (Any unemployed people not for nationalized health care, raise your hands.) But these are the cards we’ve been dealt. And with the right perspective, it’s a pretty good hand.

In Bill Bryson’s must-read book, “A Short History of Nearly Everything,” he reminds us that well over a million years ago our newly upright ancestors left Africa, navigated treacherous mountain ranges, and crossed deserts that were far more arid and precarious than they are today. (Can you imagine the appetite on a prehistoric dino-vulture?) “Yet somehow they managed to find their way around every barrier and to thrive in the lands beyond,” Bryson said.

Our ability to survive is powerful and instinctive. Unlike our ancient hominid relatives, most of us modern ad geeks can search for water metaphorically. We might find our oasis in a new, big city like New York, or an emerging town like Pittsburgh. Or perhaps, we’ll find it in a place we never thought to consider — our own talent.

October 15, 2008. The day in my personal history that life became a blank page.

Today alone, I am writing a blog, editing a movie, meeting some animals for lunch and preparing for my first experience on the other side of a classroom desk.

I am challenging myself creatively. I am accomplishing a set of goals that are my own. I am meeting artists and writers and business coaches and creative directors and students and coffee roasters and documentarians. I am turning down job interviews. I am spending more time with my kids. I am bonding with Kathryn. I am exercising more.

I’m starting a business! Me, the chronically employed advertising creative. Me, the guy who bought a house he couldn’t afford, had a couple of kids, and encouraged his wife to stay home with them. Me, who has a list responsibilities longer than a child’s letter to Santa.

Every day, something new. I can freelance. I can commute to my basement. I can take a nap with my daughter. I can buy one of these to remind me that home is home and work is work. I can have lunch with my wife. I can mow the lawn on a Tuesday.

I can make a movie if I want. I can host an online chat if I want. And, although I find it nearly impossible sometimes, I can take a day off if I want.

Technically, I am unemployed. Yet it’s the most fun and rewarding time of my professional career.

Whoda thunk?

The first time I went through the unemployment process was after 9/11. I was let go in the 13th round of layoffs at my agency (read Joshua Ferris’s book: “Then We Came To The End” and you’ll know exactly what it was like). But I consider myself one of the lucky ones. Before my team was escorted out of the building, I lined up a long term freelance gig. I wasn’t scared. I thought for sure I would come out unscathed.

The long-term gig was good. I was able to pay my bills and have some fun. But the small agency I worked for couldn’t keep itself together. Internal fighting brought it down and everyone ended up on the street, including the owners.

After that, I freelanced here and there, but the gaps between grew larger and larger. By August 2003, there still weren’t any ad jobs available. So I had to get another job. ANY job. I needed food money, but no one would hire me. Not even the corner video store. Finally it came to the only job I knew I could get: bicycle messenger.

I was one of four females on the streets of downtown Chicago and the only one who was 40. It was really hard and scary . . . so scary. I cheated death 3 times a day. But something cool happened. Not only did I get in shape, but I realized that instead of choosing a job that garnered no respect, I actually gained respect from my peers. I even had a total stranger approach me on my bike and tell me how brave I was.

I’m not saying you should go out and be a bike messenger (unless you love fear and confronting your mortality continually throughout the day). I’m saying do the best you can for yourself and you won’t be disappointed. Something wonderful will come out of it like the lotus that flourishes in the mud.

My messenger career ended when I got hit by a car and “only” broke my leg. Part of me is thankful because it took me out of that game relatively unharmed – a broken leg heals in a short period of time. Karma must have been paying attention because I picked up another long-term assignment a week after that happened and then got a full-time job until last year.

Now I’m going through it all over again, but this time I won’t be a messenger. I had health insurance then and I don’t have it now. I’m living from gig to gig with gaps in between. I’ve managed to stay afloat. I believe that I’ll get through this and that I will come out better, stronger and more creative.

Actually, I’m already better, stronger and definitely more creative. It’s as if the great muse has camped out on my shoulder to whisper sweet ideas into my head and has decided to settle in. With every project I work on, the client seems to love my first concept with minor changes. I’ve never tasted such continual success, except that there isn’t a constant flow of projects and I don’t always work for money.

Hope remains in my heart, though. Nature abhors a vacuum and an end will come to these dark days. Staying positive and counting my blessings help me through the tougher times. Looking at my future in small measure is less stressful than questioning the big picture. I stay on top of my responsibilities, so I won’t have any undue surprises later.

In other words, we do the best we can with what we’ve got. And I know one thing… when I look back I won’t be disappointed.

————–

Every agency has their Untouchables. Those few, proud right hand men and women who are the last to go. They are the rain makers and award winners. They bring a little bit extra and contribute more than they’re paid.

One thing’s for sure. They aren’t dispassionate or un-opinionated. The people who’s jobs are most safe aren’t hiding in their cubes, waiting for the storm to blow over. They are making shit happen, redoubling their intensity, and going out of their way to separate themselves from the Touchables.

If you’re still working, what are you doing to gain Untouchable status? If, like me, you were not among that elite, what more could you have done? While it’s true that many of us are simply casualties of the economy, it’s probably true that there is someone with your same title and salary who is still there.

If I had one regret, it’s that I didn’t shake things up more. Don’t get me wrong, I worked my ass off. I gave my life to my job and did the best work I knew how. But I did so quietly, apolitically, and a little too safely. Winning a Lion or two wouldn’t have hurt, either.

I was Touchable. Few of us aren’t. So what’s the distinction?

I’ve gone through the interview process several times now since losing my job five months ago. Many gave every indication that I would be the next person on their payroll. Then for one reason or another, the process came to a halt.

Now, I know that sometimes a person just isn’t right for a certain position, and that sometimes personalities don’t match. But these were situations that I had never experienced before. I’ve defined them as the following:

• The Houdini Job: A position which vanishes into the ether sometime during the interview process. What was an open rec just disappears. Poof.
• The Flounder Job: A position that was advertised at one level, but then moves up or down the seniority chain to another level.
• The Blackjack Job: A speculative position that may become real if certain things happen, i.e. a new client or lifted hiring freeze.

This is reality, and usually there’s nothing the candidate can do. Or is there? Here are a few proactive tactics both the job seeker and hiring company can take after both parties end up empty-handed.  Hopefully it spurs some healthy debate and people comment with options I didn’t consider.

If you’re a candidate recently informed of the lack of a position (because of one of the above phenomena):

• Be gracious: after the initial white-hot rage, take a moment to process. Give the company the benefit of the doubt that they did the best they could to get you hired.
• Kindly, gently ask for a referral: if you went far enough in the process that a company wanted to hire you but couldn’t, it could mean they still want you in their network. They should be receptive to referring you to others that may be seeking candidates for unpublished jobs.
• Discuss specific plans for future consideration: if the company is suddenly not hiring but has said they are interested, discuss plans with them to check back in on specific regular intervals (monthly should be fine) and follow-up! This one’s on you.

If you’re a hiring company that is genuinely interested in a candidate but, for reasons beyond your control, cannot pull the trigger on an offer letter, please consider the following:

• Communicate: Job searchers understand that 95% of the responsibility in the interview process is on their shoulders. Be considerate enough (as one recent company did for me) to have a specific time-path-to-hire in mind. Communicate in that time period, answer questions that come via email and generally keep candidates in-the-know. It’s easy to forget that these are living, breathing humans on the other end of this process whose livelihoods depend on your telephone call.
• Please do your homework: Each candidate has (or should have) done their research about you and your company. Consider doing the same to make sure the position is approved to be hired for, and that the role is set. It’s also delightful (and obvious) when hiring managers have done just a little more than review a candidate’s resume. The interview process is more efficient and the conversation quickly turns to how candidates’ experiences are valuable to the position.  And in this socially-networked world it’s easier than ever to investigate.
• Honesty trumps all: If a position you were recruiting for should suddenly get eliminated or if a hiring freeze suddenly takes effect, please explain it to the candidate(s) you were considering, even if it’s the ugly truth. People respect honesty a lot more than an easy answer. And the ugly truth usually makes sense.

Hiring managers aren’t required to help a person in the job-search process. But if the candidate was a good one and you just couldn’t make it work, these little tips go a long way to build future supporters — even if they don’t end up there. Plus, if you became known as the company that cares about it’s candidates (both hired and potential) enough to help them in their search outside of your own walls, well, that’s the kind of thing that always, always comes back to you in one way or another.

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