A great post on Amelia's blog about Jeremy Bullmore, a great man of the advertising world and a mentor for some lucky WPP Fellows.

"The WPP Fellowship was a fantastic experience for me and totally shaped my career. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to any graduates out there looking for their first job in the industry! There would be no way that at such an early stage in a career that you would have access to people like Jeremy and Martin. It really is brilliant."

In case you missed it, Jon Steel speaking about the Fellowship in this new video

The Statesman covers some interesting dialogue between Martin Sorrell and peers at the American Association of Advertising Agencies’ annual conference.

 http://tinyurl.com/6gua8k2

Some sound advice on second round interviews from our very own Hamish Cameron can be found over at the AdGrads blog.

Well there we have it: as many as 2000 of you have submitted your applications to the 2011 Fellowship and are now waiting for some kind of response. As I remember (and my memory should not be trusted), around 100 of those applicants will be invited to a first round interview and then 20 or so of them will eventually be asked back for the final round of interviews.

Nostalgia Trip

In November of 2007, I was staring into the screen of my new third generation iPod Nano (wow, things have changed) as "Conquest" by The White Stripes thundered through my headphones. I clicked "Submit" on my Fellowship application with a bit more vigor than was probably necessary. Instantly the waves of doubt and regret began to wash over me: maybe I should have asked someone else to check for typos?; what if I'd been too casual with my self-description?; how could I justify quoting Chekov when I neither liked or understood his books? I remember thinking that I had no hope against the countless other applicants that knew what they were talking about.

I wanted to offer some advice to this year's applicants on 'how to survive the first round of interviews', but very quickly I realized I had no idea how I had done that myself, nor do I even understand why they liked my application in the first place. Useful I know, but bear with me. 

Fate Luck

I wouldn't be so crass as to suggest that it was 'fate' that got me through to the final round of interviews, but no doubt luck played a part. I was lucky that my application came across as funny and not daft, and lucky that the interviewers didn't mind me asking if they ever felt evil working in marketing, which in hindsight was a bit of a stupid question. [Incidentally, my interviewers did not feel evil, but what the hell would I have done if they had said "yes"?]

Whatever it was that brought me to final round of interviews, the real piece of luck I encountered was to realize before the final round that I had been approaching the application process in completely the wrong way; I shouldn't have been trying to outsmart the hundreds of other applicants going for the Fellowship, I really just needed to stop myself from sounding like an arrogant prat. 

To explain, there's plenty of people who are very good at selling themselves (especially in marketing), and often they use big words or meaningful references to make their opinions sound more relevant or important - whether they know they are right or not. I suspect that generally I do come across as one of these people (sorry) and ninety percent of the time I am not speaking from real experience: I'm only 26 after all. 

Death of a Salesman

In the final round of interviews I was far from being the loudest person in the room, and for once I tried to offer my opinions as ideas rather than definitive facts. I took a few extra seconds to think before opening my mouth and asked a new question for every time I was able to answer somebody else's - in the belief that there is no shame in uncertainty. I think this approach would have served me well during the earlier stages of my Fellowship application, and it's helped a great deal during the Fellowship itself. So that is the once piece of advice I feel is probably worth sharing. 

As a final thought to close this rambling post, I want to say that every now and then I am still surprised by how far an honest question can travel in this industry. For instance, if I was to go back to November 2007, I would probably ask myself "why do I want to be on the Fellowship?", because there is no wrong answer to that, and it is probably the best piece of information that any applicant can be armed with.

Good luck, 

Dan Brenikov

3rd Year Fellow,

Landor, San Francisco

Former Fellow Laura Tan gives a summary of her 3 years on the Fellowship program.

Martin Sorrell talks about the WPP's future, and talks briefly about the Fellowship.

I’m going to tack on a few more pointers, for those of you applying to this year’s Fellowship. Everything that Alex has said is spot on. Here are a few additional thoughts...

• I’ve helped read applications for the past two years now. Every year there are always 5 or 10 (from my batch of 150) that really blow me away. What they all have in common is a real sense of storytelling about them. Their writers know how to play with tension, narrative, pace, and resolution. Being able to weave together a story is absolutely crucial in our line of work. The essays are your chance to show you’ve got a knack for that.
• Remember that we look at the application as a whole. Don’t tell the same story, reference the same brand, or demonstrate the same skill in each of your essays. So, if you’d like to get across that you’re smart, funny, and a hard worker, use one essay to show your intellect, one to highlight your wit, and one to demonstrate your work ethic.
• One thing that Jon Steel always suggests is giving your application to a friend or family member to read. Ask them, “Does this sound like me?” If the answer is no, get back to the drawing board. Use words you really use, with a tone that’s actually yours. I mean really, when was the last time you actually used the phrase ‘paradigm shift’ in your real life, or described yourself as a ‘people person’?

And finally, just to echo Alex’s point: have fun with it. Pour yourself a glass of wine. Talk at your computer as you type. Show us the very best, most engaging version of yourself. 

And remember that at the other end of that application is a reader who’s probably curled up with a glass of wine, working through a pile of applications at the end of long day. She is looking for the next crop of brilliant people to welcome into our business. Ultimately, your task is to make her want to meet you.

Laura Pearlstein
WPP Fellow 2007-2010
Landor, London

So, as you might have noticed if you read this blog, applications for the 2011 intake to the WPP Marketing Fellowship are now open. Some of you might have started your applications already. If you haven't, but you're curious, go to http://www.wpp.com/wpp/careers/marketing/graduates/, where you can find out more about the Fellowship (and the people on it), and apply.

Fellowship application season means two things. First, that Google hits for 'marketing fellowship' go through the roof; and second, that current and former Fellows get lots of emails from people asking about the application form. So I thought I'd use this post to answer some of the questions that sometimes find their way into my inbox. I hope some other Fellows might chip in here too, either in the comments or in posts of their own.

I won't go into all the details about what's in the form - you can see that for yourself; and anyway, that's not what most of the emails we get are about. Most of them ask, fairly enough, about what's *not* obvious.

Does the competition for places cause you to break out in a sweat and lose your marbles? Were you under pressure to write something fabulously interesting about your life? Are all the current Fellows former rock stars and Nobel prizewinning scientists? Are the questions really as random as they seem, or is there some sort of Da Vinci-style code that will unlock the doors of international marketing? What are the personal likes and dislikes of the people who read the forms? Coke or Pepsi? Chicken or egg? Who is Keyser Soze?

In response, here's my top form-filling tip.

Relax.

There are no secret codes. No open sesame, no small print, no insider dealing. The application form is exactly as it appears, and the people that read it only have one head each, and very few of them breathe fire. As far as I can tell - and please correct me if I'm wrong - what they're looking for in the application form is an answer to each of the following two questions:

1. Does this person think clearly, and write well, about communication?
2. Can I stand to spend an hour in a room talking to this person?

Some of the sections of the application form are designed to answer the first question, others to answer the second. The questions may be tricky, but they're not designed to trick. They're designed to make you think, and give you the chance to show how you express that thinking, and to let your readers get a first glimpse of the smart, interesting, personable person you are. Really, that's all.

And yes, there will be lots of other applicants also trying to show that they're smart, interesting, personable people. Let them worry about themselves. Worrying about them is a distraction, and it'll only panic you.

Don't tie yourself in knots because you think you have to sound, or think, like a certain type of person. That kind of thing is hard to fake. If you pretend to be someone else, you'll inevitably come off worse, because you have so little experience of being that other person. By contrast, you have so much experience of being yourself. So give that a try. (The other person will probably be a boring marketing stereotype anyway.)

Chances are, if you get a kick out of answering the application form, you might enjoy a career in communications. If not - if you find yourself hating it, or forcing yourself to come up with answers that sound right - listen to your instincts. Don't apply for the Fellowship just because it's a big job with a big firm. Don't click the 'submit' button unless you've enjoyed the first stage. Life's too short to do jobs you know you're not cut out for.

And remember, it's just a job application. Honestly. It's not worth losing sleep over.

So relax. Take a deep breath,have a go at the form, then go out for a long walk, get some sleep, go out with your friends, or whatever. Don't think about it. Do something fun. Then come back to it with a fresh mind, and see if you'd give yourself an hour of your time.

Oh, and make sure you proof-read. Spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes look bad if you're after a job in communications. (If there are any in this post, well, that's me taking one for the team.)

Good luck. Enjoy.

Alex Steer
WPP Fellow, second year
The Futures Company, New York

We're a few days late reporting this, but WPP is now taking applicants to the Fellowship for 2011. Best of luck everybody.