Account management – From a creative perspective

I’m an advertising, art direction student, with an art minor. I like art. I want to create art. I can spend days without blinking working in Illustrator and Photoshop.  All my friends know I’m a wanna-be creative director (let’s not get our hopes up just yet).

That’s why when I tell people that I am doing an account internship, I get a tilted head and squished faces saying, “You? Account? Since when are you a suit?”

My response usually is, “Since I was scared I wasn’t good enough and wanted to just check out the other side of things. Don’t worry, I’m not that fabulous at account either.” I just wanted to give it a shot- see how the account side works. I convinced myself that by seeing the business-side of things I could become a better creative. I convinced myself that it was worth the experience- and worth the price (yeah… its paid).

I started my internship in June. Its now December. Looks like I must be doing something right. Either that, or I’m on “The Office” and better double check that I’m still getting paid.

I surprisingly don’t mind the account work too much. Of course I’m struggling with the little details in Excel and still get lost in media conversations (they speak a foreign language, I swear). But I really like being able to see all aspects of a campaign.

All advertising students should try out the field of account management before they pick a final path. I know in our program students pick a track after 8 classes, but this experience in the account world has helped me better understand the various departments and how they melt together into one great campaign.

So that’s my little plug, creative kids. Give the suit side a fighting chance- try to learn about the client’s perspective before selling them things.

-Kelsey Jones