October 2014, I entered Ogilvy & Mather sharp at 9:30 am waiting for my boss to enter, scared, excited, confused, there were so many emotions that played on my mind at that point of time. Fidgeting with my phone and legs crossed i waited impatiently on the black comfortable sofa.
Moments later i met my boss, he took me to the 7th floor which is where the Client Servicing Department, Finance Department and Public Relations Department sat together. Initially i felt i would hate what i was doing as i just sat and went through old power point presentations, read up on what they did, etc. Half the day passed and i kept wondering if i would get any work or not. Post lunch i was taken to meet the creative team which made me feel like ,” Ah finally some sign of me doing work”. I left the agency at 8 pm that day, which was supposedly “early”.
The next day on wards i actually started getting work, I was told i would be working on Greenply and Pizza Hut. Most of my work was to do with Pizza Hut as they were coming up with a new national menu, which by the way is out in stores now, which makes me feel super cool actually 😛
So, most of the ground work for Pizza Hut was already done and it had reached the finishing stages. Well, almost the finishing stages. I worked on final edits, that meant sitting with the creative guy for long hours and getting the work done. Honestly, that wasn’t the issue, the issue was getting the guy to actually come early cause i was there by say 10 everyday and till 12 i would sit doing nothing, just waiting for him to come. But, once he came, we would sit for long hours and finish up the work.
Most of my internship i spent sitting with the creative guy, making changes, etc. Once in a while i even worked on Greenply, we were working on brochures for Greenply at the time. By the end of my internship, both the assignments allotted to me were done. I didn’t spend much time on Greenply so, i didn’t really feel much when it got done. However, i spent a lot of time on Pizza Hut, when the artworks were finalized and send to the printers, it gave me immense joy. I understood the rush people used to talk about in Ad agencies, agreed you have to work super hard to get the end result but, the end result makes all the pain worth it. The late nights, the smoke breaks, the coffee breaks, the i just can’t do this anymore breaks, they all seem worth it in the end.
That’s enough about the work i did there. Getting to the people. I was lucky that i had two more people from my college itself interning with me, one worked in the Creative Department and the other in the Public Relations Department, this did give me an opportunity to bond with them and understand how it would be if i did land up working with them. However, i forgot to mention the first week i was alone and didn’t have any of them there, the only time you miss people is when you need to eat lunch cause accept it, none of us, how much ever of a ‘loner’ we are, we don’t like to eat lunch alone. Luckily, a friend who interned there last time introduced me to her friends there, so the first week i ate with them and then i had my friends back there which made it much easier for me.
Moving away from the “college friends” i did land up making friends with people i do believe i would like to keep in touch irrelevant of the fact if i work there or if they work there or no. I had people who were pretty young in my team. The oldest person i made friends with was what 33 and honestly, he is the best boss one could actually ask for, he knew what it was to be 20 something and had enough experience what it was to be on the client side and on the agency side, other than him i had 2 other bosses one was 22 and the other 25, chilled out people yet super focused. They would take a million breaks but, if needed they would stay in the office till 2 and 3 am also. They taught me what dedication was, especially the 22 year old, he was only 2 years older than me and he was a permanent employee in one of the biggest ad agencies in the world. Inspiration is what he gave me, dedicated and determined. Even if he left the office at 12 in the night, at 9-9:30 am you would find him in the office. During my internship he was diagnosed with ‘Dengue’ he was in the hospital and within a week of getting discharged, to be precise it was 4 days of office is what he missed, the day he got discharged, the very next day he got back to work. Other than my bosses i met two other guys who were interns like me but, they were looking for a conversion and wanted to be absorbed by the organisation, its Ogilvy, who doesn’t want to be absorbed there? 😛 I am still in touch with these people and hopefully i would get to go back soon and join them.
People kept telling me, don’t do an industry internship with a big agency, you won’t get work, i think that’s a myth, it honestly depends on your luck, you just got to be at the right place at the right time after that, everything falls in place.
Have a little faith, also have patience, all good things take time, but, they are worth the wait, i promise.
palackkhanna 