How did you get your first break?
"I was studying in Edinburgh and I came down to London at Easter. I’d done my research on the agencies I wanted to work for, so I identified about a dozen people, came down and saw about seven or eight of them. That way when I came back in the summer with the mad rush of students, I was hoping I’d be a familiar face. Luckily someone did remember me and I got a job that summer, so it worked out ." What advice would you give to someone trying to get a foot in the door? "Be as enthusiastic as possible. Keep your work as simple as you can. If someone sees you and you’re enthusiastic, you look like you’ve got lots of ideas, you’re an inspiration and you’re easy to have around – that’s probably as good as anything. It’s as simple as that." Tell us about a time when a candidate has impressed you "I saw a student two or three years ago who’d had an idea for the Red campaign where he had two brackets that he’d made up to show how any individual person could make a difference. And he took them out to Trafalgar Square and bracketed a load of people that he filmed and made into a viral video. I thought it was great because he’d had an idea, you could see the thought pattern perfectly and he used a bit of a different medium. And all his work was like that. So he didn’t do anything different in terms of approach. It was pretty simple but he let his work speak for itself. But he also had a complete willingness to learn. You could see that he didn’t feel like he was there and he’d made it." What traits do you not want in a candidate? "I think the “brilliant but difficult” approach isn’t nearly as good as the “personable and nice to have around” approach. Spelling mistakes are a massive turn off as well. That’s definitely something to check when you approach people." For more advice on finding a design job, drop us a line here. Search for the latest jobs in creative and design, or an advertising, marketing or PR job now.