your cover letter and resume. Be irreverent. Do not try to be all things to all people! If you worry about offending someone, you'll just get a safe, average job. Do you think companies known for great design like MTV or Nike hire the safest employees? No! They take risks and they like people who take them too. Your goal should be that half the people who see your resume will think you're totally unprofessional and throw your resume in the garbage. That 1/4th will laugh, think you're not quite right for their agency but appreciate the attempt (and maybe pass you along to someone else) and 1/4 will just HAVE to interview you. I've had success with this and got a dream job So you're really creative and looking to break through the clutter and get into advertising. Except everyone else is really creative too. So how do you get a job again?

While competition is fierce, so is the demand for great talent. And therin lies the paradox. How can there be supply and demand at the same time?

Think of it like restaurants. Everyone wants to eat really great food. Therefore, there are many many restaurants. But only a few get 4 stars, let alone five. The vast majority of restaurants are rated a one or a two. And for the most part, we all eat mediocre food.

Which is the same thing in the creative industry. Look at all the movies that have come out recently and hardly any of them are worth watching. Look at how bad commercials are right now. A bad economy forced creative people to leave creative jobs for more stable ones. And some just aren't coming back.

Now that the economy is heating up quickly enough to have fears of inflation, there's a severe lack of talent. I know, because I have to hire talent all the time. I went from perpetually not having a job, and questioning whether or not I wanted to stay on as a creative professional, to having more work than I know what to do with, and having a severely difficult time finding people to help me get my work done.

So you're sitting there, licking your chops, wondering "How much money can I charge?" "Can I buy a new car?" Hold your horses! We said you're creative. We didn't say you were great. Or even good. There's a big difference. And if you are great you still need to prove it.

In advertising we always say "good is the enemy of great." It's something we were taught as juniors. In fact, we were taught a lot of things as juniors – but because the industry hasn't been hiring junior people for a long time, a lot of people are coming into the ad industry who just don't know the basics.

And that's the biggest problem. I recently hired a recent grad who couldn't figure out what his rate was. Another was very talented and I hired him as a freelancer but he made many mistakes and was almost completely unreliable.

Another problem is that there are so many mediocre people out there, it's hard to find the good ones. So no matter what creative field you're going to, you must do something to stand out.

How do you do that?

• Make sure everything you do is creative. Design your resume – don't just do it in Word. Design it professionally and make a PDF. Go to a paper store and buy something exotic. Print it in full color. Emboss it. Laminate it. Do something awesome. I know a great designer who I couldn't find a new job because he didn't design his resume. What was he thinking?

• Be funny. Humor goes a long way. Put jokes in your cover letter and resume. Be irreverent. Do not try to be all things to all people! If you worry about offending someone, you'll just get a safe, average job. Do you think companies known for great design like MTV or Nike hire the safest employees? No! They take risks and they like people who take them too. Your goal should be that half the people who see your resume will think you're totally unprofessional and throw your resume in the garbage. That 1/4th will laugh, think you're not quite right for their agency but appreciate the attempt (and maybe pass you along to someone else) and 1/4 will just HAVE to interview you. I've had success with this and got a dream job b

tly and hardly any of them are worth watching. Look at how bad commercials are right now. A bad economy forced creative people to leave creative jobs for more stable ones. And some just aren't coming back.

Now that the economy is heating up quickly enough to have fears of inflation, there's a severe lack of talent. I know, because I have to hire talent all the time. I went from perpetually not having a job, and questioning whether or not I wanted to stay on as a creative professional, to having more work than I know what to do with, and having a severely difficult time finding people to help me get my work done.

So you're sitting there, licking your chops, wondering "How much money can I charge?" "Can I buy a new car?" Hold your horses! We said you're creative. We didn't say you were great. Or even good. There's a big difference. And if you are great you still need to prove it.

In advertising we always say "good is the enemy of great." It's something we were taught as juniors. In fact, we were taught a lot of things as juniors – but because the industry hasn't been hiring junior people for a long time, a lot of people are coming into the ad industry who just don't know the basics.

And that's the biggest problem. I recently hired a recent grad who couldn't figure out what his rate was. Another was very talented and I hired him as a freelancer but he made many mistakes and was almost completely unreliable.

Another problem is that there are so many mediocre people out there, it's hard to find the good ones. So no matter what creative field you're going to, you must do something to stand out.

How do you do that?

• Make sure everything you do is creative. Design your resume – don't just do it in Word. Design it professionally and make a PDF. Go to a paper store and buy something exotic. Print it in full color. Emboss it. Laminate it. Do something awesome. I know a great designer who I couldn't find a new job because he didn't design his resume. What was he thinking?

• Be funny. Humor goes a long way. Put jokes in your cover letter and resume. Be irreverent. Do not try to be all things to all people! If you worry about offending someone, you'll just get a safe, average job. Do you think companies known for great design like MTV or Nike hire the safest employees? No! They take risks and they like people who take them too. Your goal should be that half the people who see your resume will think you're totally unprofessional and throw your resume in the garbage. That 1/4th will laugh, think you're not quite right for their agency but appreciate the attempt (and maybe pass you along to someone else) and 1/4 will just HAVE to interview you. I've had success with this and got a dream job

money can I charge?" "Can I buy a new car?" Hold your horses! We said you're creative. We didn't say you were great. Or even good. There's a big difference. And if you are great you still need to prove it.

In advertising we always say "good is the enemy of great." It's something we were taught as juniors. In fact, we were taught a lot of things as juniors – but because the industry hasn't been hiring junior people for a long time, a lot of people are coming into the ad industry who just don't know the basics.

And that's the biggest problem. I recently hired a recent grad who couldn't figure out what his rate was. Another was very talented and I hired him as a freelancer but he made many mistakes and was almost completely unreliable.

Another problem is that there are so many mediocre people out there, it's hard to find the good ones. So no matter what creative field you're going to, you must do something to stand out.

How do you do that?

• Make sure everything you do is creative. Design your resume – don't just do it in Word. Design it professionally and make a PDF. Go to a paper store and buy something exotic. Print it in full color. Emboss it. Laminate it. Do something awesome. I know a great designer who I couldn't find a new job because he didn't design his resume. What was he thinking?

• Be funny. Humor goes a long way. Put jokes in your cover letter and resume. Be irreverent. Do not try to be all things to all people! If you worry about offending someone, you'll just get a safe, average job. Do you think companies known for great design like MTV or Nike hire the safest employees? No! They take risks and they like people who take them too. Your goal should be that half the people who see your resume will think you're totally unprofessional and throw your resume in the garbage. That 1/4th will laugh, think you're not quite right for their agency but appreciate the attempt (and maybe pass you along to someone else) and 1/4 will just HAVE to interview you. I've had success with this and got a dream job

made many mistakes and was almost completely unreliable.

Another problem is that there are so many mediocre people out there, it's hard to find the good ones. So no matter what creative field you're going to, you must do something to stand out.

How do you do that?

• Make sure everything you do is creative. Design your resume – don't just do it in Word. Design it professionally and make a PDF. Go to a paper store and buy something exotic. Print it in full color. Emboss it. Laminate it. Do something awesome. I know a great designer who I couldn't find a new job because he didn't design his resume. What was he thinking?

• Be funny. Humor goes a long way. Put jokes in your cover letter and resume. Be irreverent. Do not try to be all things to all people! If you worry about offending someone, you'll just get a safe, average job. Do you think companies known for great design like MTV or Nike hire the safest employees? No! They take risks and they like people who take them too. Your goal should be that half the people who see your resume will think you're totally unprofessional and throw your resume in the garbage. That 1/4th will laugh, think you're not quite right for their agency but appreciate the attempt (and maybe pass you along to someone else) and 1/4 will just HAVE to interview you. I've had success with this and got a dream job

your cover letter and resume. Be irreverent. Do not try to be all things to all people! If you worry about offending someone, you'll just get a safe, average job. Do you think companies known for great design like MTV or Nike hire the safest employees? No! They take risks and they like people who take them too. Your goal should be that half the people who see your resume will think you're totally unprofessional and throw your resume in the garbage. That 1/4th will laugh, think you're not quite right for their agency but appreciate the attempt (and maybe pass you along to someone else) and 1/4 will just HAVE to interview you. I've had success with this and got a dream job by being irreverent. My resumes have been passed all over the industry because they were funny. And at one interview at a hot ad agency, the owner told me my portfolio was ok but he was really excited about my resume.

• Be mysterious. Create a website but don't let anyone in. Only show 5% of your work. Say that you only show your work to people interested in hiring you. The more pieces you have on your site the more reasons people have to reject you. So don't give it to them. Then...

• Customize! I used to type a resume off the top of my head for every job I applied to. Sound like a lot of work? Well so it sending hundreds of the same resume to jobs you won't get. Don't try to win the lottery by buying a lot of tickets. Win it by having the right numbers in the first place. And that's by ...

• Tell them what they want to hear. If someone is looking for a designer who specializes in package design, play up all those packages you designed. Don't be vague. Make every resume you right sound like you're the dream candidate. Don't exaggerate, but certainly play up the parts of your experience that are the most applicable.

Now you have a few ways to break through the clutter. But blindly sending your resume to job listings won't get you anywhere anyhow. No, this is the 2000's my friend. No one gets a great job this way unless they're really lucky. No, you need to go out and make some friends with connections.

But fortunately, you don't even have to leave your home to do that anymore. There are lots of business social networks where you can introduce yourself to people looking for talent like yours. And who knows, making friends with them first can make all the difference.

But wait, there's more! We briefly discussed you getting a website. And yes, you should have one. And while having your own website is great for when people ask to see your work, it's not a great way to find your work. Think of your website as a store and you're skills are the merch. Except your store is unfortunately not at the Mall of America, but in the middle of the desert. No one knows where it is or how to get to it.

So in addition to your own website, you need to pay to be on portfolio sites such as Portfolios.com, CreativeHotList.com, Coroflot.com and others. There, you'll be in front of the very people who buy creativity.

Overall, it takes a lot of work to be a great creative, and it takes a lot of work to get a job as a great creative. Fortunately, once you're there, you'll get all the financial rewards you deserve. And then you can try and be creative with your accounting.