Job hunting has never been so challenging
I can only tell you my own personal experiences, right? Then I want to start by telling you about how I got my first internship in a Toronto advertising agency.
It was August 2019 and I was only a 20-year-old second-semester college student, not really sure of who I was, let alone what I was going to offer a real agency with real clients that spend real money on real campaigns — it was overwhelming at the time. I had only seen that in the books and in Mad Men. Nonetheless, the story must go on.
It was a gorgeous summer day. I was on vacation. Vacation from school, I must say, because for me vacations were never about trips, cottage houses, and day drinking. It was more like ‘now I have time to work and save up for winter’, kind of like how squirrels bury their nuts for later consumption — although different than squirrels, I don’t forget where I left my savings 80 percent of the time.
My vacation routine was strict. I’d work in the mornings and afternoons and hit the coffee shop and study in the evenings. Studying was never a problem for me, in fact, I’d say it did me well. It kept me busy, and busy meant sane. So there I was, at my favourite coffee spot with the baristas I call buddies and customers who knew me too well. I felt home. As I studied at the table I called mine, with my laptop, my double espresso, and my ‘Media Planning and Buying in the 21st Century’ book opened, I heard “are you a Media person”?
“Are you a Media person?”. That question struck me like walking into a glass door and in a micro existentialist moment where the book was the last thing that came to mind, I answered “am I?”.
I later came to realize that she, a friendly face I’d seen so many times at that café, referred to the book I had beside my cup of coffee. We then talked for a brief moment, a special moment I would add, a moment I felt seen, heard, and somehow, appreciated. She asked to sit with me on another occasion and discuss the possibility of me joining her boutique advertising and innovation agency. And just like that, I, an international student who was scared dead of talking to strangers, landed my first internship at a Toronto ad agency.
Today, a year and a pandemic later, here I am again, hunting for opportunities. Something that was once blog-worthy, even movie-like, today seems rather impossible. Agencies are closing their doors, turning over staff, and turning down interns. What are we supposed to do? — I am not so sure what we are supposed to do, what I do know is that I am not quitting because what I felt that sunny day of August was an inexplicable feeling that I am certain I’m going to feel again.
