My First 6 Months in Advertising

By: Sara Dotterer, Burns Group New Business and Start-up Strategy

Ever since I saw Mad Men years ago, I was drawn to the world of advertising– the creativity, the wining and dining of clients, the products, the pitch, the persuasion. By my senior year, I had talked to dozens of advertising professionals in a couple of different cities, and I became even more entranced by the intricacies and opportunities within the industry. I was an anthropology and art major, and took a couple of advertising classes which seemed like the perfect concoction of skills to bring with me into New York City to interview with advertising and branding agencies.

I got my job with the Burns Group in August 2018, and have learned about advertising from an agency that does it all. At Burns Group, we do everything from brand strategy to innovation to advertising. I have learned the value of doing all of these things at one agency so that the strategy is closely knit into the creative execution– something that often seems to get lost in ads you see on the TV. My job is a hybrid role which has let me experience many different aspects of agency life. I’m a new business coordinator– helping with pitches, social media, our website, and an account coordinator and junior strategist for our start-up accelerator that takes young companies and turns their products into brands. I’ve gotten to interact with every team at Burns Group, and for that, I am very thankful. There are so many interesting, unique people at our agency who do such different jobs that all contribute to the work flow of our small agency. Each person plays such a valuable role in progressing our clients' brands forward and growing our agency which is the exciting part about being a part of an agency community. At the end of 6 months, I’d say I know a bit more about the advertising world than when I started, but only a bit. There will always be too much to learn– and never enough time to learn it all.