November 29, 2004
A: FROM MENTOR DENISE HARBERT IN IL
Hi Lauren! About a year ago, a different GEM-SET student named Caitlin asked
how advertising relates to technology. Her answers are at
http://www.uic.edu/orgs/gem-set/archive030825q4.htm. GEM-SET places
"statistics" in the "Science" part of SET, so my answer to Caitlin's question
can also apply to the science part of your question.

Your first sentence intrigued me - I think any career can be awesome for
someone with the right interest and personality for it. Likewise, any career
can be a nightmare for someone who does not have the right "chemistry" for it.
Advertising might be a bad career choice for someone who does not work well
under pressure. One of my cousins was a Vice President in advertising before
she decided to retire from it and change careers. She assures me that
advertising deadlines are intense and competition for business is fierce.
Most companies who have products to sell prefer to "outsource" their
advertising needs - they hire outside companies that specialize in advertising
to create sales pitches for them, then they hire the advertising company with
the best idea. You will be under pressure to come up with the best idea in
your company, then the person with the best idea in your company will be under
pressure to compete with other companies' best ideas. All of this competition
under pressure can be exciting, but it can sometimes bring out the worst in
people. An advertiser needs to have a lot of social skills (i.e., be good at
"politics") so that her co-workers don't try to steal her ideas or get angry
with her when she is rewarded for her work. In the same vein as social
skills, advertisers need to understand many different types of people in order
to be good at coming up with ideas. They may need to understand Caucasian
teenage boys just as well as they understand elderly Hispanic men or pregnant
African American women. There are many different types of products that need
to be sold and each one may have a different type of person who is the "target
audience" to buy it. A good advertiser knows that each advertising technique
works differently with different types of people. Selecting the right
technique for the right product with the right audience is just as important
as convincing others in your company and in the product's manufacturing
company that your idea will work best!

I don't think advertising would be a good choice for me. But advertising
could be a dream job for anyone who works well under pressure, thrives with
competition, loves people, and is comfortable with statistics and technology.
It all depends on the person!