How to Find an Advertising Internship
What you need to know before you start looking
There are three different types of organizations that offer jobs that would be appropriate for advertising students:
- Agencies: agencies are third party organizations that work on behalf of a client company to promote their product or brand. These days, agencies are rarely called "Advertising Agencies." They are usually called "Communications Agencies" or "Marketing Communications Agencies." When you approach an agency to inquire about an internship, be ready to answer the question: management or creative? And don't say "both" or "I'm not sure," because you will have blown your chance.
- Media companies: all magazines, newspapers, television stations and radio stations; media websites such as C|Net, Yahoo!, and Google generate revenue through the sale of advertising. Advertising sales is a very common entry-level position at these types of companies. The best way to find an internship at a media company is to call them and inquire.
- Large companies that market a product or service, and that are big enough to have an advertising agency working for them. These types of companies have advertising managers in their marketing department who may need interns. We have placed interns in the marketing departments at Sun Microsystems, Cisco Systems, Intel, and other companies in the Bay area. In the advertising business, working at a company like these, in the marketing department, is called "working client side."
Most internships are NOT advertised. The most effective way to find an internship is to contact companies you are interested in and ask whether they offer internships.
It's never too early to start looking. Agencies that have formal, structured internship programs, for example major agencies such as Edelman, TBWA, and JWT, recruit for summer interns in the fall and early winter. Companies like Cisco Systems, Apple, and Sun Microsystems devote sections of their websites to instructions for prospective interns.
Finding an internship is a numbers game. You need to contact 25 companies in order to get, if you are lucky, three interviews, and, hopefully, one job offer. That means you need to work in "parallel processing mode."
Follow up on every possibility you initiate contact with. Don't take no for an answer, until someone tells you no. In other words, don't assume that because you didn't hear back from a company you contacted, that it means anything. It is your responsibility to follow up with them — and the ability to follow up is a skill that will impress a prospective employer.
Join the Spartan Ad Society or the PRSSA, the clubs for advertising and P.R. students who are seriously interested in one day having a career in those fields. The SAS is the student chapter of the AAF, the American Advertising Federation, which is the trade association for advertising professionals. By joining, you can state on your resume that you are a member of the AAF, an item that will get your resume noticed. As a member of the SAS you will have the opportunity to network with advertising professionals, and those contacts often lead to internships and, later, to jobs in advertising.
Your internship must be your job. There is no such thing as a "part time" internship at an advertising agency, so don't even think about doing an internship and having some other job at the same time. Reputable companies such as Apple, Yahoo!, and Sun Microsystems would never expect an intern to work for free, so you shouldn't need another job while you're doing your internship. Major advertising agencies, unfortunately, often do not pay their interns, which means that in order to get a prestigious internship, you might need to make some financial sacrifices in the short term. The bottom line is, your internship needs to be your top priority during the time that you are doing it.
Resources to help with your search
Join the Spartan Ad Society (SAS). You can join the SAS at any time during the school year. The SAS offers many ways to help with your search for an internship.
An organization called ihaveanidea.org has a comprehensive directory of every advertising agency in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, including links to each agency's website. Use it to construct your first list of 25 agencies you'd like to intern for.
Go to the library. There are two books that will give you useful tips: Breaking into Advertising by Jeannette Smith, and How to Get a Job in Advertising by Ken Haas. Ask the reference librarian to recommend other books to help with your search.
The best resource is the agency or company website. All advertising agencies, and most large companies, have a link on their home page that says something like "Work here" or "Jobs at X" or "Contact us." Look for internship information. If you don't find that, specifically, then look for a contact in the human resources department. Then contact the company and begin your inquiry.
Bookmark the JMC Jobs & Internships Blog and check it frequently.
MAIP (Multicultural Advertising Interns Program) is a national internship program that places students from under-represented groups in major advertising agencies around the country. This is a highly competitive and very prestigious internship. In 2007, SJSU student Rita Kandamkalam won a MAIP internship. Applications are available online in September.
The MAT (Multicultural Advertising Training) program is based in southern California and places interns in major agencies and broadcast companies all over California.
The Vance and Betty Lee Stickell Student Internship is awarded annually to 20 students. Applications for this internship are administered through the AAF. Applicants must be nominated by the faculty supervisor of the Spartan Ad Society, and must be a member of the SAS. Nominations are due in February. Only one student per school may be nominated to apply for this internship. Maria Muniz from SJSU was a 2006 Stickell Intern.
Students enrolled in ADV116 make up the advertising sales staff of the Spartan Daily, Spartan Daily Online and Access Magazine. The class provides real-world experience in selling and managing advertising space; the practical applications of newspaper layout; and the use of market research. Enrollment in this class is equivalent to an advertising internship (and it pays).
How to choose an internship
Remember, your internship will go on your resume, and your resume is what gets you an interview when it's time to look for a full time job. Choose your internship carefully, so that when you put it on your resume you can be proud of it.
If you dream of working in an advertising agency one day, then you should intern at an ad agency. The name of the agency you list on your resume as the place you interned at will have an enormous influence on your marketability when the time comes for you to look for a full time job. The more recognizable the name of the agency, the more impressive it will look on your resume. An internship at Goodby, Silverstein in San Francisco, or at TBWA\Chiat\Day in Los Angeles will impress a future employer. An internship at Fred's Ad Agency in Milpitas will not.
If you have an interest in magazines as well as advertising, then search for an internship in the advertising sales department at a magazine. Local magazines such as ON and Wave hire this type of intern. But if you're willing to travel for your internship, don't be afraid to contact your favorite magazine, wherever they might be.
If you're on the management track, and taking marketing and business courses, your career path might lead you to work in the marketing department of a company like Macy's, or Nike, or Apple, or Cisco Systems. All companies exist to market a product or service, so all companies have a marketing department, but you need to focus your search on companies that are large enough to have a large marketing department, with an internal advertising manager. Fortunately, you live in Silicon Valley — there are hundreds of these kinds of companies right in your back yard.
Don't settle for doing any old job just for the sake of getting through the program — at least, not if you're serious about wanting to work in advertising after graduation. Ogilvy & Mather won't care one bit about all the waitressing and administrative jobs you've had. They'll want to know what you've done that shows that you are passionate about advertising.
Some recent and current advertising internships:
Online:
Google — Account Coordinator, Google Book SearchAgencies:
Wieden & Kennedy Japan
Loughlin Michaels Group
Amazon Advertising, San Francisco
JWT, San FranciscoMarketing:
AT&T (San Jose office)
Audible Magic Corp.
Sun Microsystems
Aquavista
eSurance (job title: Brand Marketing Intern)Sports marketing:
SJSU Athletics
Silicon Valley Sports Entertainment (San Jose Sharks)
Golden Baseball League, Dublin
Oakland Raiders
San Jose StealthAdvertising sales:
San Jose Mercury News
Scoot! quarterly
Santa Clara Weekly
Dulin Advertising
Mountain View Voice
East Bay Monthly Magazine