Career Options
Long and short of advertising media salesSomewhere in close proximity to this article is an advertisement -- guaranteed. It didn't get there by accident, but by design. A media planner realized that Jobboom would deliver the ad's target readership and a media buyer negotiated price and placement with a salesperson from this newspaper. |
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 [ 2007-09-12 ] |
Humber College
BASICS
Everyone who worked on that ad could have picked up the necessary skills to execute it over time, but chances are they went to a school such as Humber College to learn the occupational basics.
Humber offers two programs in advertising media. Advertising Media Sales runs for two years full time. Applicants need a high school diploma, a certain level of ability in math, and must take an English entrance test. Most of those who apply to the program do so straight from high school.
The second program, Advertising Media Sales - Accelerated, is a condensed version of the first program and lasts for one year. Applicants must have a degree or diploma or relevant work experience.
"If I had to say what that first year of the two-year program entails it would be attention to detail," says Barbara Elliott, co-ordinator of the programs. Advertisers won't look kindly on a buyer/planner who, for example, negotiates $1.2 million worth of space or airtime when the agreed budget was $1 million, Elliott says.
And for those students who want to sell media for a TV station or a newspaper, Humber does its best to build their confidence by having them "on their feet as often as possible" making practice sales presentations. Remember, Elliott says, now that Ontario's Grade 13 has been eliminated, some students graduate from her program at 19 -- still a tender age to face a room full of senior execs.
Post-graduate students learn the same skills as the two-year group, Elliott says, but they're generally more mature and "we can pile a little more on them in a shorter period."
All students in either program must complete a six-week work placement -- usually unpaid -- or, under certain conditions, their first full-time job will satisfy the work placement requirement. Tuition for both programs is about $2,600 a year.
Job prospects for graduates are exceptional, Elliott says, and 100% employment is common.
Jason Furlano is one of those graduates who's benefited from the demand for his skills. Furlano was hired before his 2006 graduation from the accelerated program and now works as a buyer for MBS, a Toronto media agency. "I was surprised to be placed in a job so quickly," he says.
Furlano took the Humber course following the advice of a relative who works in the media.
Like Furlano, Marcela Trichilo, was also hired before graduation. She too took the accelerated program and graduated this year.
CANADIAN CREDENTIALS
A native of Colombia, Trichilo came to Canada 10 years ago, and already had a background in advertising and media sales. Once here, she worked in a different field but knew she wanted to return to her previous occupation, and took the Humber course to establish her Canadian credentials. Trichilo is now a retail account executive for Omni TV.
The future looks bright for both Trichilo and Furlano. "It (media) is a business where people start at the bottom, but if you're good, the sky's the limit," Elliott says. She should know. She began her media career as a "floater" in a Toronto agency and ended up its senior v-p and director of media services.
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