Do I need a website of my advertising portfolio?

Do I need a portfolio to get a creative job in advertising?

• I don't have a creative portfolio, are there other creative jobs I can do in advertising that don't require a portfolio?

• Answer:

  When I'm hiring a creative, I'm basically hiring two things: Their skills and their thinking. If you can come up with some way of demonstrating those things without a portfolio, you'll be fine. That demonstration could serve as your portfolio. But it'd be about as easy as becoming a pilot without having flown a plane. You may think you're a great pilot in your head, but if you've never been behind the stick, why would anyone let you? Worse yet, why would anyone pay you? That said, we had an intern over the summer who worked for us for free. He was related to one of our investors, and one of our founders had worked with him a few years ago. He had no portfolio. But my partner liked him, and he was demonstrably very intelligent, so we took him on and trained him and he turned out to be a really capable guy and someone who could have a future in the business. So: If you don't have a portfolio already, just be incredibly smart, charming, and a great thinker, and be romantically involved with the child of someone important to someone high up in the agency. To address the second part of question: you could get a non-creative job at an agency, maybe as a receptionist or, if you have business skills or are very charming, as an account executive. I've known quite a few people in my career who started out at the agency in a non-creative role and were able to soak up enough that they could switch. Also, since you're starting out at the absolute back of the queue, don't shoot for the best shop in town. Look for someone who does a lot of business-to-business work, preferably in heavy industry. Something where the creative isn't their main product. If you want, contact me directly and I'll help you figure out how to take your particular skills and market them to an agency.