By Harry Fowler - Group Digital Recruiter for AMV Group

I was recently at the D&AD new blood creative talent show. Finding myself on the Great debate panel it was interesting that a couple of us there to talk were coming to the same conclusion. Education seems to be stifling creativity although not on purpose I hasten to add. There were lecturers in the discussion and they had their say - too much testing, ‘how do I get a first?’, lack of vocational time for students and so on. There were comments from the panel, why do we always see the same old book structure, why are things safe, where is the creativity going?

Later I had a look round and I saw some interesting work and I did speak to a few people who I’ve already followed up with so let’s see what comes out of it, with a bit of luck, some sweat and possibly some tears we’ll have some shit hot creative teams delivering great work across mutiple platforms. But the gap between university and comercially aware employees remains around 2 years.

What’s stopping us having our very own HyperIsland where we can develop our own talent and be the bridge between Uni and real life.

 And a big congratulations to the D&AD for putting the show on at Earls Court.

By Harry Fowler - Group Digital Recruiter for AMV Group

I think we can all agree that the finance markets around the world are not exactly stable at the moment and whatever happens in those markets will have an effect on the digital, advertising and communications sectors.

So with that in mind, where does this leave the digital market and more importantly where does this leave recruitment as we move forward?

I’m not wanting to talk us into a recession - but I remember the gaping holes that were left in the industry from the previous meltdown - very few people being hired, everyone struggling to keep their heads above water and PM’s working for £30k or less in some instances just to pay the mortgage! (I know, £30k for a PM - and a bloody good one at that!)

Now the knock on affect from that was felt sometime later when trying to find candidates with 1-2, 1-3 years experience. They were few and very far between and of course supply and demand drives the price.

So are we strong enough to ride out the storm? Yes, I believe we are - but be very wary.  If the market does take a wobble please don’t resort to the traditional tactics of cutting back on the service levels to your clients, getting rid of juniors and cutting out graduate hire. The industry continually needs new blood.

Keep feeding it please.

By Harry Fowler - Group Digital Recruiter for AMV Group.

Since 3GSM has recently finished in Barcelona and I never made it, again, I thought I’d give you my user experience on mobile recently.

It’s taken a while, but eventually Orange and T-Mobile are finally getting round to it.

Recently I signed up for Sky Sports TV via my N95 whilst I was sitting on a train heading to Edinburgh. £5 per month, cancel any time you want - not a problem you think. Then you get to the quality. It’s shit. Now I was on a train admittedly so I gave it the benefit of the doubt and tried it again when in a fixed position and with full connection - still shit. The sound is brilliant, but the picture morphs between static players and that really trippy bit from the end of Space Odyssey 2001. Not exactly the premiership quality I wanted (and not the bottom end of the league you understand)

I can’t work out whether it’s the machine or the signal but neither seem able to keep up with the pace - and as the old joke goes - “he/ she has a great face for radio” - let’s hope the digital radio stations are better quality (hoping the GCap haven’t ditched all of them by then)

Must remember to cancel that Sky mobile subscription.

Moving swiftly on Android looks like it has the capability to stretch even the most brilliant tech genius. If you are technically gifted then please get your head round this and maybe, just maybe people will start building applications into phones that we, the customer, the consumer and the payer of bills actually might need.

And they had better work properly.

MMS…….more like FFS

By Harry Fowler - Group Digital Recruiter for AMV Group.

Thanks to all who made it to the discussion last Tuesday (29th Jan) - the above title may give those of you who didn’t make it a wee taster.

Ok, moving forward.

I was recently on a panel at the Deloitte Fast 500 which recognizes Telecoms, Media and Technology companies that have achieved the fastest rates of annual revenue growth in EMEA during the past five years.

More than half of the companies surveyed said they plan to expand their workforce by more than 25 percent, with the vast majority wanting to grow organically, but the biggest challenge to these companies is “finding, hiring and retaining qualified employees”.

So it’s not just digitally led agencies in London (oh sorry and other places like Bristol) – a small consolation no doubt.

So, is this then a grass routes issue?

Educational bodies cannot keep their teachings in line with the advance of technology and therefore one could assume that we will always have difficulty in delivering resources in the numbers that we require?

Doing some research at graduate level – via Prospects website - there was some interesting reading. We may need to face the reality of being priced out of the market for top class talent.

Average starting salaries are higher in the following areas: Banking, Legal, Consulting, IT, Science, Engineering, Accounting and Financial Management.

We need to start getting ahead of these, or at least start competing on a more even keel.

There are opportunities to work on world changing products and services here, and I’m not going to disparage any of the aforementioned sectors, they’re all interesting in their own right, but why are we still not getting the volume of talent we need if our industry is apparently so cool and trendy?

We also need to do a lot more to promote the industry overall, from career progression and training to competitive salaries and working environments. Does job security become a factor? Successful paths must be made available to prospective employees. Does the outside world actually know what we all do for a living? I doubt it.

Should we look at developing a recognised body to further promote our sector within educational bodies? Is this something that we should discuss with the IAB, BIMA, D&AD to champion on our behalf?

I for one, am off to speak to them and see whether they have any thoughts on the matter.

harry

Chinwag Jobs is pleased to welcome another guest blogger to the Chinwag Jobs blog, Liam Morgan from Cogs Agency. Liam is joint-owner and head of creative recruitment at Cogs Agency and has been headhunting and recruiting creatives, from designers to writers, since 2000, both off and online.
I don’t want to start by biting the hand that ‘rss feeds’ you so I won’t. However, I have been wondering lately how agencies can respond to an increasingly skills short, but rapidly growing and evolving market…

The paradox has always been that many Creative Directors needing to attract a wide-ranging group of free original thinkers and who can also produce effective, relevant, well-executed and engaging campaigns, end up falling into default mode when it comes to making the brave hiring decisions. In the same way agencies berate clients for going for the safe option, so too do agencies when it comes to bringing in a fresh perspective. I’m not advocating a return to the days before the bubble burst, when agencies were recruiting irrelevant skill sets to run interactive accounts. Our sector has matured but that should not mean that we become set in our ways.

So think inside and outside the blog, get out there and do a bit of face-to-facebook and see what people really have to offer, look at the huge talent and brain power outside digital too, be inventive, challenge convention. Take skills from elsewhere, who else can make brands famous in this space? Balance commercial need with out of this world thinking. Just because something is ground breaking in its creative approach does not mean it has to be commercially flawed. Consumers are increasingly sophisticated and discerning, we just need to find the right talent to come up with ways of reaching them and with the executional skills to then engage them.

Do you have these skills as someone looking at a career move? What do you want to get out of your next step? Not to go all JFK on you, but ask not what an agency can do for you but what you can do for the agency (and it’s clients) Many of them need people “who dream of things that’s never were” (JFK Dublin 28th June 1968)

So what is your ambition? Why are you different? Where does your passion come from? As one CD always asks ‘why do you want to change the world?’, perhaps more importantly how will you do it? They’ll reward you for it - because if they don’t in this market there might just be someone else who will.

Chinwag Jobs welcomes Harry Fowler as a contributing blogger! Also a longstanding contributor to the Chinwag community’s email discussion lists, Harry is Group Digital Recruiter at AMV Group.

Cast your minds back to 98, 99, 2000 and 2001 (ok ok, 2001 to a lesser degree). The digital market sector had been sweeping all before it, dotcoms were starting up daily and there always seemed to be a launch party of some sort, with a free-ish bar.

There was a huge influx of people coming into the sector who had all the passion but few had commercial acumen. ‘Suck it and see what happens’ would have been a fair reflection on the hiring policy of many a company and that in certain cases would work, so long as you had enough people who know what they were doing and could teach/train/imbibe to those willing and eager to learn.

What we have in front of us now is a larger, grown up market, still on the cutting edge, still breaking boundaries and continually evolving. If we didn’t have a skills shortage don’t you think it would be bloody worrying as we’d all be behind the game.

Good people are hard to find in any market, that’s what makes them good. When you find them, look after them, nurture them and make them even better. They’ll work harder and you might just find that loyalty is not dead after all.

If as a graduate you had the option of say.. a) coming to a major city and working in a sector where the starting salary was £25k or b) coming to major city and working in a sector where the average starting salary was £20k, where would you go. And before anyone jumps down my throat and with the ‘money isn’t everything’ line, it still has to be taken into consideration.

If you want the best grads, the brightest minds, the most ambitious bastards out there, then start competing again. Take some risks, look at different sectors, look abroad. Invite people in, don’t wait for them to knock your door down or if you do, don’t complain about a skills shortage.

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Harry Fowler is on the panel at the forthcoming event Chinwag Live: Skills Emergency on Tuesday 29th January. Book now to get the early-bird rate of £25+VAT (expires 25th Jan, £40+VAT thereafter). Price includes drinks and snacks.