experience matters

Emily Bontje | Critical Mass Calgary

After my first post (A Week in the Life of a CM Intern), I got a lot of reactions about my comment that I learned more in 10 weeks at CM than in 4 years at university. I stand by my comment — in a creative, evolving, fast-paced industry like interactive marketing, the only way to stay in the game is by playing, not watching. Even the rule book changes every day, which is why courses become outdated so quickly. However, there is no question that I have gained valuable skills and ideas at university that have prepared me for my career at Critical Mass. And, thanks to the wonders of the Co-operative Education program, I will go back to school for my last year starting in September, applying my new thoughts, my new experiences, and becoming a better student and employee.

Here are some of the similarities and differences I have noticed between University and CM in my past 4 months:

THE SAME:

1. Sometimes, you have to work with difficult people. You don’t have a choice, and you can’t throw a tantrum. You just have to deal with it.
2. Marketing 101: “What does the customer want, and how can we give it to them?” This is still the main question we try to address in Account Services, but the answer isn’t usually black and white.
3. People dread PowerPoint presentations. So keep them brief, visual, and don’t read off of them.
4. Knowing how to work with Excel (and other applications) will come in very handy. Learn the hotkeys and the formulas and you will make friends quickly.
5. The parties always make for fun and crazy times (just check out the pictures from CMMY’s if you don’t believe me!)

THE DIFFERENT:

1. There is no marking schematic for how to get an “A”. Sometimes you will do your very best work and the client will just hate it.
2. Processes are faster, hotter, and crazier. There is no time for an hour-long interview with each stakeholder on their ultimate goals for each project. Briefs, Statements of Work, and creative reviews often need to happen on limited information under very short timelines.
3. The project triangle (schedule-scope-cost) taught in university states that when one element increases, another must decrease. This is never satisfactory. There is always a pressure to do more, with less time and less money.
4. Unlike university, the course never ends. There is never a “Phewph-glad that semester is done!” The project may end, but the relationships and results will live on.
5. I am not only accountable for myself, and my grade. I am representing CM as a whole. Particularly on Account Services, I am part of the team responsible for keeping our client happy.

I remember when I started at CM I was amazed by the number of business grads in the company. I had assumed (blindly, of course) that everyone who worked in an agency had a working knowledge of PhotoShop and could pull brilliant creative concepts out of thin air. I was worried that I did not have the necessary technical skills to thrive in this industry, until I met a great deal of young CMers with similar degrees and backgrounds to myself. This encouraged me to use this opportunity to pick up the technical skills they don’t teach in university. While it may seem trivial, I am proud to say I can now discern a .FLA from a .SWF, and a .PSD from a .TIF. I can talk to developers and designers, and actually know what I am asking them. Not that I necessarily understand the response. I have also seen the inside workings of a Content Management System, learned about liabilities, media buying, asset management, and learned to speak a whole new language of acronyms. This is the stuff they just don’t teach you in university.

My experience as an intern is part of my education, so it’s really not fair to split up “work” and “school” in such basic terms. What I do know is that I’m learning something new every single day!

Emily is an Account Management intern in the CM Calgary office, working on Nissan and Infiniti accounts.