This Job Is Not For You: The Application

We are looking for a new account/project manager to join us here at Sell! Towers. We are a small, nimble company so everyone has to be very good at what they do. We don't have time for average Joes. So we don't enter into this lightly. We're looking for someone with zero to two years experience as an account manager, project manager or similar. Other than that we just want the very best person. Everything you need to know about the kind of qualities we're looking for is here. Read that first. If you still think this job could be for you, the application form is below. Good luck.

on 30.3.11 . Filed under:

13 comments:

  1. Anonymous31 March 2011 at 12:57

    I hope you'll excuse the cynicism, but i think you might be on the wrong path.

    And just so we don't continue on the wrong foot, I should add right now that I have nothing but admiration for you all as a creative agency and am aware of the work you have done, much of which i would kill to have in my own book.

    So this is not a critique of the application form itself, which is a great piece of writing, but...

    I think it's aimed at the wrong people.

    Let me explain why. Several years ago i was at university, looking for my first job in advertising. I filled out a similarly engaging, fun-filled form for a London agency and ultimately got the account man job.

    I hated it.

    The form had promised so much. Work was going to be fun, i'd get to be creative, I'd get to make stuff, exercise my mind. But the reality was the opposite. I was an account person. I was expected to sell work to the client. And do billings.

    That wasn't what i wanted to do. And predictably I wasn't any good at it. Persuading people on a layout pad, yes. Getting abused by a belligerent client face to face in a room in Slough, no.

    So i left, went to Watford, got a job as a creative and have never looked back. It's a fairly common story and probably with good reason. Agencies continue to seek 'fun, creative' account people.

    But if i ran an agency today, that wouldn't be my criteria. I wouldn't find people who want to be creatives. I'd find people who like selling stuff. Not humanities course uni grads, but barrow boys and car salesmen.

    Of course, perhaps that's why i don't run an agency of my own. An it's also possible your account men have much more fun than I ever did in the job.

    Anyway, hope you don't take offense, just thought i'd offer a different point of view.

    Good luck to all the applicants. Just make sure account people is what you want to be before you apply.

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  2. Sell! Sell!31 March 2011 at 13:08

    Thanks for you comment. You are quite right of course. We do only want people who's ambition is to be great at this job. But the qualities that we're looking for are the qualities, in our experience, makes for a great account/project manager: love of great work, understanding of business, knowing how persuasion works, having a can-do attitude, and a focus on getting stuff done. But also, and as importantly in our agency, we want someone who is fun to be around, someone who can make others laugh, has personality and attitude. That's essential to being an account person here, because the job isn't just being a bag-carrying salesman. Its being part of the energy and collective nous that gets us to the right ideas, and gets them made.

    This application is to help those people rise to the top. The rest of it, rest assured, will be hammered out later.

    But to any who are thinking of applying, heed the above commenter's words - only the driven and keen need apply.

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  3. abdullah5 April 2011 at 17:18

    Some things never change:

    http://www.lbhat.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/DDB.jpg

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  4. Sell! Sell!5 April 2011 at 17:24

    Quite right.
    I'm a fan of that ad.

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  5. Anonymous8 April 2011 at 17:40

    Submitted mine :-)))

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  6. Mike11 April 2011 at 06:42

    Will I have to make coffee? Cos most people don't like my coffee.

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  7. Anonymous4 May 2011 at 15:50

    How long do we have to finish our application? Cheers

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  8. Sell! Sell!5 May 2011 at 18:23

    Hello Anonymous

    We're open to receiving applications until we find the right person for the job.

    We haven't found that person yet. And as you might gather from the form, we're picky buggers.

    However, if you're thinking of applying I wouldn't leave it too late as we'll definitely make an offer to the first person we think has everything we're looking for.

    We'll also put a post up on our blog when we're no longer accepting applications. Until then it's open season.

    Good luck.

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  9. Anonymous30 May 2011 at 10:11

    I see I'm quite late on this one. but... will you only consider Brits for the role?

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  10. Sell! Sell!31 May 2011 at 11:39

    Nope it's open to anyone.

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  11. terge24 June 2011 at 22:39

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  12. terge24 June 2011 at 22:39

    this still on ?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous8 August 2011 at 12:47

    Are you still looking??

    ReplyDelete

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