Courtney Jones, New Business Manager at 22squared, brings her empowering advice to the podcast. Hear about what it means to work in new business, speaking up as the “only” one in the room, how she incorporates D&I into her new business role and learnings from 22squared’s inspiring D&I journey, why you should consider moving to Atlanta post-graduation, and the kind of support young talent should be looking for in their first jobs.

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Max Slonim, Senior Strategist at Initiative, is here to help us understand the state of strategy today. Hear about why having a mentor in a different discipline is beneficial, the experience of working in strategy at a media agency (and why you shouldn't write it off!), strategy portfolios, why LinkedIn is the professional equivalent of Instagram, and what being an advocate for diversity has to do with empathy.

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In this special episode recorded at the VCU Brandcenter Recruiter Session, we sat down with three Brandcenter alumni—Lizzy Hopkinson (2017), Copywriter, Nitin Dua (2016), Senior Strategist at Fallon, and Brandon Viney (2012), Creative Lead at Google Brand Studio—to talk about the start of their careers, early lessons, and their best advice for graduating seniors.

Huge thank you to our friends at 22squared, who helped make this trip and episode possible!

Alexa DePasquale, SVP of Innovation at Grey Group, shows us how shifting your mindset to one of abundance and gratitude, and health and fitness can have huge impacts on your career. Hear about embracing the fact that your career won’t be a linear process, why networking is an ongoing practice, specific resources she uses to stay on top of innovation, how health and fitness affect your confidence, and why EQ is so important for leaders to have.

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Hwanghah Jeong, Experience Designer at Airbnb, brings early lessons from her career, a desire to give back, and wisdom beyond her years. Hear about how she ended up at her dream company, deciding between taking an internship vs. a full-time job, advice on getting feedback on your portfolio, learning to be vulnerable and asking for help, and how she’s working on building confidence as a young designer.

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Carren O’Keefe and Jim Wood, Partners & Executive Creative Directors at AnalogFolk, share advice from careers full of building self-awareness, navigating fear, and partnership. Hear about learning from fear, deciding what kind of creative you want to be, how they function as Co-ECDs out of AF’s Portland and New York offices, how the industry is evolving and why we need to preserve space for thinking and creative ideas, and your mindset when you’re the only one like you in the room.

Listen to the very end of the interview for a We Are Next first! :)

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Alex Nguyen, Strategy Director at McCann NY*, brings learnings from half a career spent working in Vietnam, a shift from creative to strategy, and figuring out how to advocate for himself as talent of color. Hear about why we should continue to build relationships with agencies that pass on us, returning to NYC without any professional contacts, what he includes in his portfolio, and using diversity and inclusion as a lens when assessing potential agencies.

* Since we recorded his episode, Alex moved on from McCann, and is now a Strategy Director at Johannes Leonardo.

Jessica Kassel, Head of Recruiting at Heat, gives you an inside look at what the other side of the application process is thinking. Hear about her approach to finding great talent and why we shouldn’t be looking for an “X” factor, interview missteps she sees, how we should think about and bounce back from negative experiences in our career, and why you should take the relationship you have with recruiters into your own hands.

Last week to vote! If you'd like to see three sides of the industry—education, recruitment, and junior talent—discuss why *where* we choose to work can change the industry for the better, please vote for "Voting With Your Talent" under the Leadership track for The One Club's Creative Week!

https://www.creativeweek.org/voting

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Mackenzie Walen, Management Supervisor at Opinionated, is here to help you make those big, important decisions in your career. Hear about how her background in design benefits her current role in account management, making the most of an informational interview, why you should consider working abroad and how to go about it, how to decide between small vs. big agencies, and dealing with the tension between needing to lead with authority and being very junior.

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Jose-Guillermo Diaz, Co-Founder and Director of Miami Ad School Punta Cana, joins us to talk about building an ad program that creates global creative talent in the Central American and Caribbean region. Hear about transitioning from editorial design in publishing to being a creative in advertising, why he began teaching over 19 years ago and how ad students have changed over the years, the goal of Miami Ad School Punta Cana and how the program differs from other campuses, and how to position yourself as international talent. 

For more guidance from the industry, subscribe to our Weekly Email—it's a small dose of advice, delivered Mondays.