Asking the next question
Not too long ago, the advertising program at The Academy of Art University hosted an industry panel with senior level creatives from some of top shops in San Francisco. It was an opportunity for students to gain useful insight to the process of landing a job in a local agency. I personaly learned a lot from this panel. Not so much by what they said, for the most part their answers where straight forward typical recitals of the process they use for vetting talent. What I learned was the importance of the next question.
Now you have to consider that I earned a BS in Communication; a great deal of that BS was earned on the school paper. While I never wrote a story for that paper (I was an advertising and news designer) I did take some journalism classes. What I learned from these classes was AP Style, research methods but most importantly the importance of asking the right questions.
Now there are the right questions, the expected questions, the questions everybody wants to know the answers to. These questions will get asked; these questions will be asked by everyone. These questions will be asked often. These questions will lay the foundation for the mental barriers that will seal you out from the insight you seek. And then there are the RIGHT questions.
Back at the industry panel. It was held in the form of a town hall meeting. Students lined up behind a microphone and did everything short of ask for a job. I take it back, there was one student that did just that.
“What does it take to break into the industry?”
“What are you looking for in a new hire?”
“What should I have in my book?”
You know, all of the questions we all stay up at night wondering about; fretting over; pulling our hair out trying to figure out. The problem is, industry professionals don’t think about this stuff. In fact they haven’t really thought about these questions since they were trying to break into the industry. It’s just not a topic that’s really weighing heavily on their minds. They left that uncomfortable phase of their existence long ago. I’ll give you the answers so you don’t have to think about it ever again either.
- You need to show great work
- You need to be “likable”
мека мебел
That’s pretty much it. You now have the answers that every Creative Director in the world will give you. Do those two things and you’re in. Now, you can stop asking them. No really, stop it. You’re wasting your time, and more importantly the one who actually has a job and is “donating” a minute for your cause, that persons time, you’re wasting it too. So stop it. Now.
The panel was noticeably uncomfortable. Not, “these chairs suck” uncomfortable, more “I don’t have 217 jobs to hand out tonight” uncomfortable; “I’m not a guidance counselor” uncomfortable; “I really don’t feel comfortable signing your chest” uncomfortable.
I don’t know about you, but when someone asks me uncomfortable questions, I don’t like it. If it continues, I start to feel less inclined to like the person asking the questions. The key to your success is asking a great question.
This particular night, I stood up as the meeting was coming to a close and asked one such question. I’m not going to say it was that I was any smarter than anyone else in the room. I’m no more talented than just about anyone else on any given day. Every once in a while I just get lucky. And this night I figured something out. These people geek out about something. What do these people want to talk about, what do they WANT to share?
So I stepped to the mic and bent my massive structure over to speak directly into the mic positioned exactly 4′9″ above the declining aisle floor and I blurted out these words. “When was the last time you had a Tommy Chong ‘Wow Man’ moment?”
It got really quiet for a long second or two. Then something different happened; Panel folks started smiling. I sat down and listened to some very interesting stories. If you’re interested, I took notes.
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