Blog Portfolio?

Interesting debate heating up here at Update Graphics regarding blog portfolios. We’re starting to see more and more and there are some mixed feelings.

My opinion? Always showcase your work in the best light possible – blog portfolio or not. Make sure the user understands how to navigate the page and keep it professional. Make sure your site is easily searchable and includes key search terms such as Social Media, Banners, UI Design, Microsite, etc. If you are a social media ‘budding’ expert, show me that you get it.

Doing a great design and showing how successful you could make your blog, would obviously work. If you are an excellent writer, and post accordingly, showcasing your work in a fashion which is user friendly, then this could be the space for you. However, if you simply post your most recent projects in a date order format in which you have to scroll the page accordingly…we are sorry to report that this does not work. Unfortunately, we’ve seen a lot of this, hence our debate.

The interesting thing for us about your site (blog site, trad’l port) is that it often leads us to determine the creative value of an individual. Sites like Behance, Coroflot, Carbonmade and Creative Hotlist make it easy to show your work but it doesn’t necessarily show me what you are able to create completely on your own if given the chance. If you have your own site, I get an idea of how you think creatively – this is how you are choosing to represent yourself. If you have a blog portfolio, the same train of thought applies. I get the opportunity to see how you think. Not such a bad thing. If you are good.

The Creative Department As We Know It

Is it dead? http://bit.ly/3IFF5

At the Click NY Conference, some big name Creatives from big name shops asked this very question. Here, at Update Graphics, we’ve been mulling over this very question for some time now. In staffing, we have seen significant shifts in how agencies utilize freelancers. The big agency model does in fact seem to be evolving.

In a blog post by Patrick Burgoyne (posted 2 October 2009), Patrick stated that at the Click NY conference Ty Montague (who is co-president and chief creative officer of JWT North America so he has a major interest here) wondered aloud whether you “could outsource the whole creative department” so that the agency becomes just about working out the strategy, then choosing the best creative freelancers to come up with concepts and execute whatever needs to be done.
This, pointed out Lars Bastholm of Ogilvy, is how movies are made. But as yet there is no culture of doing that in advertising. Perhaps, he suggested, if everyone fired their creative departments overnight, it would create the requisite talent pool but, as others on the panel pointed out, there could be massive problems in finding the right people to work on the right project at the right time.

What we are hearing out there is clients don’t want to pay ”hiked up” hourly fees to have Creatives sitting around 40+ hours a week when they are only actually working 20-30 hours. Then, of those 20-30 hours, they end up working primarily over the weekend because the work didn’t come in until Friday (yes, we hear all the jaded stories). In the end, they end up putting in 60 hours that week and working only half of that time. If you were on a creative freelance model, you perhaps could have saved $9K in the process by bringing in the talent when you have the work in hand.

Another reason for the evolution was touched on by Patrick Burgoyne in his Blog Post (link above). Campaigns are becoming increasingly complex, requiring a range of skills that one agency cannot hope to have completely covered in-house and certainly not by the best exponents all the time. As the freelance model shifts, freelance Creatives are getting used to making their own schedules, working out of home, and making a good living doing so. If they are making $200K freelancing, in any given year, why would they accept a staff position for $100K? Some of the best talent out there is freelance only. Then, as others on the panel pointed out, how DO you find the right people to work on the right project at the right time?

That’s where we come in. People think staffing agencies bloat and are therefore expensive. Here at Update Graphics, we don’t bloat and we aren’t expensive. We provide an exceptional service and for that service, we have fees. I used to feel apologetic that we have a mark-up because of the prevailing belief that what we do is easy, but, it is not easy managing personalities, expectations and environments. I find it interesting that people think we are expected to find great creative talent at little cost, the phone bill alone would bring most people to tears. Our fees cover supporting our business, paying our employees, our rent, employee and freelance benefits (including 401K, paid time off, health plans), paying unemployment insurance, payroll taxes and worker’s comp, etc. We are a BUSINESS. And to that end, I apologize to NO ONE.

While everyone thinks they can be their own recruiter/staffing agency, it’s quite a task. Managing thousands of freelancer’s time on a daily basis, knowing who is available now, their rates, their successes, their failures, their personality…oh the list goes on. We manage the process for you so you are left to do what you do best. Create. Execute. Deliver.

In another article, posted by AdWeek http://bit.ly/k3r3c titled “Shops Get Social in Talent Hunt”, they talk about how Creative Directors or in-house Recruiters found a new hire on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. That’s great. But how effective is it for, say, volumes of hires over a year?

There is nothing there that replaces a database of over 10K targeted candidates in which there are people dedicated to managing the freelance, freelance to hire or full-time process for them. What happens if the agency needs to reschedule the freelancer over and over again? What happens if they end up not paying them for months at a time? We handle all of that. You need to reschedule, we let the freelancer know and try to find them other work to compensate for the loss. They get paid on a weekly basis and we in turn, send out an invoice.

In the AdWeek article, it states that they trust these social media sources because they are coming from people they know. The clients that I work with, they KNOW me and they trust me and my decisions. I have worked with many of them for years. And we know our candidates on a business level. We judge them by the work they have accomplished, their success at our clients, how they interact with us and our clients on a personal level. We run criminal and background checks. We have history. And that cannot be replaced by FB or LinkedIn or Twitter. Nor can the process by which we manage their time.

So for the pitch, when agencies move to the new model of bringing in creative freelancers instead of having full time staff, we’ll be here for you, managing your staffing process so you don’t have to. You do what you do best. And we’ll do what we do best to make it happen for you.

Let me add, I do see two downsides to this model. One, there is nothing that can replicate synergy. The synergy of a team that has worked together time and time again and before the other can even say it, they know what the other is about to say. That is only created by time and campaign after campaign. And two, hitting the ground running by knowing the client inside and out.

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

(Thanks Nathalie Heywood and Carmela Davis for your insight on this matter)

A Meeting Never Hurts

I’ve been asked a lot over the years if people should still go on the interview even if the job description isn’t “perfect” for them. One thing I can tell you is that job descriptions are never perfect – they are a wish list of sorts and are often written by people that have no affiliation with that dept. Plus, you never know the internal workings of a company.

The other day, I had a friend approach me about whether or not to go on a job interview (unrelated field). She wasn’t excited about the job description sent to her by her recruiter but she had no other prospects and my advice was to go anyway – you never know what can come out of a meeting. Lo and behold, she went on the meeting and got a job offer – but not for the job she initially interviewed for. There was a job opening up that was not released yet and was exactly what she wanted to do! She accepted.

Everything is not always as it seems. Keep your options open.

The State of Freelance in NYC

Lately, we’re hearing the same question over and over again – what are we seeing out there? So, here goes.

Let me start by saying that what we see and hear as a recruitment agency is what we see and hear as a recruitment agency – our numbers are based on who we are placing. Information is gathered from conversations we are having with candidates and clients alike. Freelance budgets get slashed, and one cost cutting measure is to alter the way they are using agencies, usually this is temporary. And when companies start hiring directly, our numbers do get skewed.

However, we do hear a lot of what is going on via our candidates and industry contacts. Both in print and interactive. It’s an interesting market out there right now for freelancers. We do have a lot of people currently on the market for new positions – that weren’t a year ago and how long they’ve been looking is also telling of the current economy and state of our industry.

We were hit hard this past Spring, saw some life back in June, July was rough again and now we’re starting to see some life again as we enter “Pitch Season”. We’ve had a lot of long term positions get slashed, open positions cut last minute, and clients reassessing how they use agencies via RFP’s, Vendor Priority Lists, etc.

Where we are seeing life is in the small to mid size advertising agencies – many with integrated needs. We’re seeing a lot in pharma – including big agencies. We are hearing more and more about people moving in the direction of social media and mobile – many needing developers with this kind of background. Also, we’re seeing movement in the areas of gaming, broadcast, cable, and blogging. Interactive still continues to see life – especially as some larger agencies build out their interactive teams.

If you care to add your own personal assessment, your comments are more than welcome.

Letting go…of past work…

Some people have a hard time letting go. We understand that your work is all very personal to you. However, when you start talking about campaigns you worked on twenty years ago, it’s probably time to take that work out of your book. Unless you came up with a tagline still being used today, or the campaign was one that revolutionized the way advertisers did business, it’s likely time for it to be removed from your portfolio. I know. Deep breath.

I need to be able to get a read on what you can do now. Where you are headed? Are you relevant to today’s market? Then show me. But not in 2 books, one portfolio, and 50 pages…it’s just too much and exhaustive in an interview. If you have questions about what to keep, ask someone. Other people are great filters.

Good rule of thumb. Keep it to the past five years. We live in an ever changing creative market. Work looks dated REALLY fast. Don’t become “that” creative. It’s not pretty.

Full Disclosure

There are some things I just don’t understand. If you are working with a Recruiter on a full time search, it is important for you to disclose whether or not you are interviewing elsewhere, have other offers you are considering, plan on taking a month long vacation in the Winter…let us know everything upfront. If you are about to accept another offer from a company, why would you still be talking about a 3rd level interview with X Agency and not let your Recruiter know ANYTHING about it?

We are here to be your advocate. If we don’t have this information, we’re already a step behind and ultimately, it can make both of us look bad. You didn’t provide full disclosure to us (and believe me, we always ask if there is something else in the mix) and the company you interviewed with thinks you are unprofessional for not letting everyone know your current stance. They expect your Recruiter to know these things.

We don’t like to feel burned. I don’t think anyone does. Work with us, not against us. If you aren’t interested, let us know that as well. As I said, we’re here to be your advocate, not push you into the wrong position but help you find the right one.

A Terrible Tragedy

Never in a million years would I have thought yesterday would have started with such terrible news. A great friend of mine and her fiance, who live in Seattle, were assaulted and stabbed in the middle of the night by an unknown man while asleep in bed. She survived. Her fiance did not.

Just a few days ago, my husband, myself and my colleagues, were planning our trip to Seattle for their wedding. And today, we are planning our trip as a memorial to Teresa Butz.

I sit here stunned, in shock, numb. I honestly don’t know what to say. These are two amazing, beautiful people – so kind and giving.

The killer is still out on the loose. Here is a link to the story and police sketch – http://bit.ly/HVfil – all I can ask is your help in trying to find him. Please pass along this information.

Make Sure Your LINKS WORK

It happened yesterday. I went to a Designer’s site for review and guess what – more than HALF of the design samples were dead links. And worse yet, the first few ones I clicked on were dead links. I had to go down three samples before I found something that opened. WHY OH WHY? Really? Do you think this is okay? Is this how you want to represent yourself?

My two cents. Check your site before sending it out anywhere to make sure all the links are working. If they aren’t working for some reason or another, either let the person you are sending it to know they are down beforehand (we are an understanding bunch) or take them down temporarily until you can figure out the problem. But to just have your site not work, this is a problem. And one you should address. Then follow up when you have everything up and running.

Be Consistent

We’ve talked about proofreading your resume – making sure everything is spelled correctly, etc – but what about consistency? Do you have the same amount of spaces between your job title and city for each job listed? Did you place a bullet in one place but a dash in another? When you look at your resume, look for everything to be uniform across the board. If you have New York, NY in one place, don’t put New York, New York in another. Keep your date formats the same.

It drives me absolutely insane to see inconsistency on a resume. It makes me think you are not thorough. Are you going to let an ad go out like that? What does this tell me about you as a person? Is this how you choose to represent yourself? Don’t allow me the opportunity to assume.

Again, have someone else look over your resume before you EVER send it out.

Is Social Media Changing Use of 3rd Party Staffing Vendors?

For the short term, I believe yes. It creates a forum for people to connect, and find new candidates in mass form. However, the great thing about Recruiters is that we take all the information in, whittle it down and create a nice tight package wrapped in the form of a great candidate. This is what we do.

Think about it – you post on Twitter that you’re looking for an Art Director. It gets retweeted time and time again until your inbox is overflowing and you don’t have the time to get to every resume or review every portfolio site. We understand. We’ll receive up to 500 resumes for one posting. Especially in this economy. Someone will see a posting for a Flash Developer yet they are really a Flash Designer with perhaps SOME AS3 – maybe they took a class. Yet they respond to your posting. We have teams of people to get us through the overload debacle and to filter all the submissions.

Social Media is also climbing at a high pace during a slow period in staffing. In-house Recruiters/Corporate Recruiters have more time on their hands to comb through all the resumes and portfolios. Companies are trying to cut costs. Rest assured, the market will change and they won’t have the time to review every submission. It’s a funny thing. When the economy changes this quickly and there’s more people searching for jobs, at first, it’s easy to find talent. And then it becomes more and more difficult as there’s more and more people to comb through…

The U.S. ad economy declined 18% during the first and second quarters of 2009 http://bit.ly/hDpka and Twitter usage has really jumped this year http://bit.ly/3L6O. As the past has dictated, things will pick up again. And when they do, we’ll be here for you. With talented candidates in hand, backgrounds checked, portfolios reviewed, personal connections made, and past performance to go on. We’re good like that.