Graduate Panel 2018

Are you prepared to graduate? This is the question you should be asking yourself as your degree looms closer over your head every single day. What field of advertising will you go into? How will you acquire that first job? What should I be doing to prepare? These are all questions that were answered at our alumni graduate panel last Tuesday. We had a slew of recent graduates come in to talk about their brief journey out in the real world. All of them had interesting stories to tell. Some were about casual Fridays that included kegs in the office, to inspirational speeches that helped ease everyone’s minds about catching their first job. While it was a learning experience, it was also very casual. After all most alumni were only a few years out of school and had very relatable and easy to understand advice.

A common theme throughout alumni advice: Get involved on campus, and stick to Ad Club. Most of the alumni had been involved in Ad Club and NSAC throughout their college careers and stated that staying involved helped them accomplish where they were today. Whether that was meeting a professional, that eventually gave them a job or internship, or keeping in touch with other ad students. They also informed us that while Grand Valley’s Advertising and PR program is one of the best around, there are some gaps in the content. The business is very fast paced and things are changing every month. Its important to stay relevant in current advertising news and media. Its also important to learn skills that you don’t know much about, a great creative writer might want to freshen up on account planning. Being versatile is a great way to advertise yourself to potential employers as well.

Overall, the alumni’s stories and advice should’ve given you a better grasp on what goals you want to accomplish in a few years. Whether that be getting involved or working on extracurricular projects, ad club is here to help! A great start would be attending our Career Compass event on Thursday the 4th at 6pm at Rockford Construction Co. Similar to our graduate panel, this event will also include professionals who have been in the advertising business, but for a much longer period of time. These are going to be experts at the craft who have been popping out content for years. Make sure to signup at

https://gvadclubcareercompass.eventbrite.com

Once again we’d like to thank all the alumni who came to the event and for giving us great insight into the advertising community and ourselves, Thank you!