As a fresh college grad, your first full-time job can be intimidating. How am I going to catch up to all these smart people? When will I know as much as them? What is digital advertising… Fortunately, I get to work with incredible people who have helped me figure out all these questions and bridge the gap from post-grad life into my career. And just when I thought having a degree would be the most beneficial source of education, I realized that 80% of things I do on a daily basis at work were not taught in the classroom. So, here are 5 things that a professor did not teach me but PMG did.
1. Collaboration and communication are everything
Gone are the days when working in isolation are glorified. In the professional world, and especially advertising, creativity is important so working with others to figure out unique solutions and new ideas is highly encouraged. Cross-team collaboration is incredibly effective because you get different perspectives to brainstorm with.
2. Digital Advertising (verb) def: leveraging the world wide web to deliver ads to targeted consumers
If you asked me 3 months ago what my company did I would say “hmmm… advertising?”. Now, I can say (at a very high level) our work consists of creating amazing ads, placing them in all the right places, and getting consumers to make purchases. We’re awesome because we go above and beyond for our clients to make sure we’re always exceeding expectations.
Q: Wait, how does this relate to school again?
A: Working on and knowing things outside your daily scope is extremely beneficial. (So majoring in more than one field is awesome.)
3. It’s okay to make mistakes
It’s impossible to be perfect at everything you do. Luckily failure at work helps you learn what to do next time and how to improve. And admitting to failure is a huge character builder because you’re forced to recognize and own up to your mistakes while remaining positive about fixing them.
4. Hard work pays off
Personally, I didn’t get any gratification out of getting an A in a class. Who cares if I pass by 1 point or 20? But in the real world, your work shows. Small assignments turn into larger projects that you get to keep building. And these projects get seen and used by actual people who care.
5. Developers are cool, too
My team is (unbias-ly) super awesome. We have fun while getting things done. Need a last minute tag? We got you. Need a cool new feature added to a tool? We got that too. Turning caffeine into code one sip at a time. Never be afraid to ask your local dev squad for help!