19/03/2009How can the IPA help with your career?

IPA help on getting a job in advertising including references to our Jobs Online service, Summer School and Diagonal Thinking self-assessment test. There are also a range of news sites, blogs and books on this site that you can access from this page

Through this website, the IPA is aiming to help all those interested in a career in our industry and the following services should be of interest: Help sign courtesy of flickr user Liminal Mike

IPA Jobs Online
If you are keen to find out about entry level roles in agencies that are not formal graduate recruitment schemes then the IPA Jobs Online service is a good place to start. You can search for a role by location, job type and salary and look for either full or part-time roles. You can also sign up for Job Alerts so that you'll get e-mail messages whenever a new job is posted on our site, including direct links to the jobs concerned. You can also follow IPA Jobs on Twitter, which will update every time a member-agency job is posted.

Summer School
Each year, the IPA holds a competition for places at its Summer School. Winners secure a 10-week work experience placement in an agency, as well as the opportunity to attend a series of special evening seminars and social events where they get to meet other students, see other agencies, and meet industry experts. This is an excellent opportunity to gain some inside knowledge on the industry and how it works, as well as making some invaluable contacts.

Diagonal Thinking Certificate
Diagonal Thinking is a term used to describe the ability to oscillate between linear and lateral thinking when approaching a problem — a key characteristic found in the most successful advertising practitioners. The IPA has a self assessment tool that you can take to test whether you are a ‘Diagonal Thinker’. Not only do the results indicate how well suited you could be to a career in advertising, but the certificate gained on completion of the self assessment is a valuable tool when applying for a job in the industry. Students can take the certificate to potential employers to enhance their application. Further information

Copy Test
The IPA has relaunched the copy test to help agencies find new writing talent. The test is free and is available at www.ipacopytest.co.uk.

As well as an explanation about the test and how to take it, the IPA copy test site also explains what it takes to be a copywriter, what agencies are looking for in a copywriter, a day in the life of a copywriter, the placement opportunities that are available, and examples of award-winning copy to inspire future wannabes.

FAQs
Have a look at our Frequently Asked Questions section, covering everything from education and courses through to IPA speakers. If you have any comments or suggestions, we'd be pleased to hear from you. Just send an e-mail to Lettie Hannon at the IPA.

Latest News
You can also check up on the latest advertising and media stories by looking at our News pages (which, like a lot of other IPA content you can pull out of our site via RSS ) or bookmark our News mashup page where the latest industry news is fed to us from various advertising and media sites such as Brand Republic (including Campaign, Marketing and Media Week), Guardian Media, BBC, Marketing Week and WARC as it breaks.

Blogs
We research and list a wide range of different blogs on this website, including a mashup of popular blogs in our sector - why not read and comment on some of the ones you find interesting?

Books and Reading Lists
We've compiled a reading list for Careers. Again, we are reviewing and adding to these all the time, providing you with links to Amazon pages where you can purchase any of the titles listed. Please note that the IPA gets a small royalty on each purchase which we then plough back into site developments such as this! Check out our otherlistings as well.

Links
We have an extensive collection of links to useful websites which we maintain here

Presentation

We have compiled a careers presentation that you can view or download from this site.