career advice for aspiring copywriters
today's blog entry is in response to an email i received from an account executive (ae) who works with me. this ae is young. ambitious. entitled. impatient. and obviously in need of a quick pay increase. (he has an obsession with sports cars. he also lives in his brother's basement in order to afford one.)
he suggested to me via email that he should become a copywriter because it looks like so much fun and, of course, it pays so much better. because several aes have talked to me about this very thing, i figure other people must be interested too. so here's my response to him and his inquiries about renumeration:
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see, (ae's name), copywriting pays poorly in the beginning like every other job.
when you finally get somewhat good at it, you work so many hours that if you amortized your salary across your hours, you wonder why you didn't practice saying "want fries with that" when you had the chance.
by then you're hooked on a life of creativity, debauchery, sarcasm and the colour black.
good thing for agencies #1: most writers can't do math to save themselves from a life in advertising.
good thing for agencies #2: writers would rather write than do anything else. (besides i make a lousy cashier, thanks to the math deficit.)
ps: don't you know that the most lucrative job in agency life is in production?
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anyway, as i think you've probably surmised, being an advertising writer isn't for the faint hearted. or the cash-obsessed. and you've learned that i can't do math, so obviously my dreams of working in accounting were dashed at an early age.
funny, but my title as the world's worst speller hasn't held me back as a writer. thanks to whoever invented spellcheck -- you have saved me from what could have been a very mundane life.
in a nutshell: if you do what you love, the money will come. and if you just work at a job, that's all it will be. you'll be miserable.
i don't know about you, but i spend far too much time working to do something that isn't any fun, even if it makes me crateloads of cash.
he suggested to me via email that he should become a copywriter because it looks like so much fun and, of course, it pays so much better. because several aes have talked to me about this very thing, i figure other people must be interested too. so here's my response to him and his inquiries about renumeration:
==========================
see, (ae's name), copywriting pays poorly in the beginning like every other job.
when you finally get somewhat good at it, you work so many hours that if you amortized your salary across your hours, you wonder why you didn't practice saying "want fries with that" when you had the chance.
by then you're hooked on a life of creativity, debauchery, sarcasm and the colour black.
good thing for agencies #1: most writers can't do math to save themselves from a life in advertising.
good thing for agencies #2: writers would rather write than do anything else. (besides i make a lousy cashier, thanks to the math deficit.)
ps: don't you know that the most lucrative job in agency life is in production?
==================
anyway, as i think you've probably surmised, being an advertising writer isn't for the faint hearted. or the cash-obsessed. and you've learned that i can't do math, so obviously my dreams of working in accounting were dashed at an early age.
funny, but my title as the world's worst speller hasn't held me back as a writer. thanks to whoever invented spellcheck -- you have saved me from what could have been a very mundane life.
in a nutshell: if you do what you love, the money will come. and if you just work at a job, that's all it will be. you'll be miserable.
i don't know about you, but i spend far too much time working to do something that isn't any fun, even if it makes me crateloads of cash.
posted by jooles_p at 3:17 PM
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