Staff Profile
James Chandler
Digital Account Manager
The Exchange
Nike, Unilever [Lynx], Hutchison 3
What attracted you to a job at a media agency?
I started life at Channel 4 with no knowledge whatsoever of 'media' until spending a year at a boutique media recruitment agency where I worked with numerous creative, PR, music, entertainment and media companies. Suddenly, it was clear that there was more to advertising than Saatchi's and a new website called Facebook had started cropping up in all the 'cool kid' conversations. I wanted in.
How aware were you of what a media agency does before you joined?
Not very. Unless you study advertising or media at university, I'm not sure you really understand the nuts and bolts of what a media agency does. Even now when I explain to friends, there's an assumption that it's the brands themselves making ads and getting them on TV and in magazines.
How has the reality of the job lived up to expectation?
Proper ad types would have you believe that media agencies are the not so good-looking-best-friend of creative houses; that we spit stats, talk in made up acronyms and are rarely behind anything cutting edge. Nothing could be further from the truth. In my last 3.5 years at Mindshare, I've seen countless award wins for innovation and worked alongside some of the sharpest minds online advertising has to offer.
What has most surprised you about the job?
The people. On an average week, you spend more time with your workmates than you do your nearest and dearest so it pays to have talented folk around who are passionate and can inspire you. For me, media is all about relationships, be it with your colleagues, media owners, creative & PR agencies and our clients - people definitely buy people in our industry.
What training have you been given and have you worked in different teams at the agency?
Mindshare's week-long intensive training programme MFactor is part The Apprentice part Dragons Den and the closest thing you'll get to in your first 2 years to a real life pitch scenario. It's you matched with five others from across the agency and around 100 hours to respond to a brief in front of the management board. It's incredible and there's nothing you'll have done before that's quite like it. There's a whole roster of training courses ranging from Beginners PowerPoint to The Art of Seduction but 90% of what you learn is on the job and the first 6 months are an absolute whirlwind.
I was lucky enough to be selected as part of Mindshare's bespoke Future Leaders scheme this year, where as a team of 10 Account Managers from across the agency we'll benefit from an accelerated training programme, input into new biz pitches and drive numerous initiatives agency-wide.
To what degree does media offer a lively social environment?
The predictable work hard/play hard analogy springs to mind but there's no better way to sum Mindshare up. Your pay off for occasionally catching the last tube home and the first one in again the following day, is the number of social opportunities you'll stumble upon. Whether it's the coveted May Ballor you're lucky enough to dine in some of London's most extravagant eateries you're sure never to be caught napping.
This year we moved to brand new offices just off Tottenham Court Road complete with 8th floor bar and roof terrace making us the envy of Medialand. The inaugural celebrations included an exclusive set by Ellie Goulding as part of a new UK site launch and drinks on the roof terrace in the sunshine