Please note that traditional, creative agencies (as opposed to modern, digital, interactive ones) have changed, significantly, to what they were, say ten or twenty years ago, and continue to change (due to the rise, mainly of digital / interactive media). In fact most of them now involve, to one degree or another, elements of the modern, digital, interactive agency. Therefore, this article is a general introduction, only, to the types of jobs available in 'traditional, creative' advertising agencies.

ACCOUNT PLANNER The account planner is responsible for:

1. Research. Carrying out research on the consumer, the brand and the market place. Quantitative research (facts / statistics) is important, but above all, qualitative research (making sense of the facts / statistics).

2. Disruptive thinking on the brand. The account planner must, in some way, advance the brand. He / she achieves this through creative thinking (disruptive thinking) exploring a plethora of ideas.

3. Being strategic minded about the brand. Once the account planner has done his / her research and figured out a 'big' marketing 'idea' for a campaign, he / she must then set out a strategy for communicating the 'big' marketing 'idea' to others and how they should proceed with the idea.

Account planning is very much a thinking role. You have to have a curious and inquisitive nature. Be interested in what makes people tick. And be interested and good at absorbing what is going on in the cultural / social world around you.

ACCOUNT HANDLER The account hander is responsible for being 'the face' of the advertising agency to the client. The account handler (or the account manager / account director) is normally the first person in the agency to receive the client's brief. The account handler then communicates this to others in the agency. The account handler is responsible for dealing with the everyday concerns of the client. Of ensuring that work for the campaign is carried out on time and to the expected standards of the agency. And the account handler, also, has the important responsibility of building up a long-term relationship between agency and client.

Account handling is very much a 'doing' role. There is, of course, a lot of thinking involved as well ... the account handler might come up a few marketing ideas of his / he own. But the (marketing) 'thinking' role belongs, in large part, to the account planner. In order to do well in account planning, account handlers have to be good with people, be goot at project management, negotiating, and more.

CREATIVE TEAM The creative team is made up of a copywriter and an art director (and the creative team will, normally, be backed up by people such as designers, art workers, junior copywriters and so on). The copywriter and the art director (or visualizer) are, normally, jointly, responsible for coming up with the creative concept (a creative concept which must be based around the account planner's 'big' marketing 'idea'). The copywriter is, usually, responsible for coming up with the strapline (slogan) for the campaign, as well as the more detailed copy to be found in print / brochure etc .. Just as the art director is, usually, responsible for coming up with the visual look of the campaign. But a copywriter will often wander into the territory of an art director, and vice-versa. There are no hard and fast rules.

OTHER ADVERTISING JOBS IN A TRADITIONAL, CREATIVE AGENCY

Production. The big advertising agencies will often have their own production department (for finishing off and producing work in TV, print, brochure and so on).

Media Planner. Many traditional, creative advertising agencies will have their own media planners. Media planners are responsible for working out the best media platforms with which to use for an advertising campaign (in traditional, creative advertising agencies this would be for TV, radio, print and brochure, and for modern, digital, interactive advertising agencies, this would be for the Internet, mobile, digital signage, and so on, but increasingly, you will find media planners working across both traditional and modern media).

PR Executive. Many traditional, creative advertising agencies now have PR specialists (because PR / publicity is being used, increasingly, in proactive brand communication, as opposed to PR being about just reacting to negative situations).

If you have ever went jobhunting, which of course most of us have, chances are your search began on the World Wide Web. Unless of course you predate the Internet. Truth be told, there are scores of career websites filled with hundreds of thousands of jobs. There are absolutely tons of jobs available in every industry imaginable. You just need to know where to look, and what to look for. But if I were to pick one industry that never seems to have a dearth of jobs, I would select advertising jobs for that position of honor.

Advertising jobs will never go away because producers will always have to find a market to sell their goods to. And how else will you be able to let the world know what you're selling and by getting the word out through advertisement. Mechanization will never be able to replace the people who work in the advertising industry.

Factories can use robots and machines to efficiently man their assembly lines. A retailer could go online and eliminate the need for sales people. It seems as if most banks don't you want to have branches anymore because it's much cheaper and more efficient to have people go online to take care of their own banking.

But when it comes to advertising jobs, real people will always be in demand. Advertising jobs are some of the most human of all the occupations, talent and experience that no machine can ever replicate. Skillful and well-trained individuals will always be in demand in this industry. Advertising jobs will never go away.

Just take a look at all the curve or web sites online that list job openings, they're all loaded with advertising jobs. Monster for instance has nearly three whole categories in all their global sites that showcases the very best of advertising jobs. Other job boards like College Board, Source Tool and even Marketing Jobs have entire sections devoted to helping talented professionals find and take up advertising jobs. There are headhunters and talent scouts literally combing the country on college campuses looking for professionals, or would-be professionals, of a high-quality to join them in the advertising field.

While most applicants who wish to enter the industry know that most advertising jobs are filled by word of mouth, the industry itself has grown so vast and hungry, that there is always a need for trained professionals who are looking for advertising jobs. And an entire industry has come up to cater to the needs of such professionals. While human resources itself is growing and developing at a rapid rate, one of the first areas where unprecedented growth has been seen has been in the advertising jobs sector. So much so that most conventional human resource professionals have begun offering a slew of services to cater to those who are seeking advertising jobs.

It's really not hard to figure out why. Advertising is a unique and highly specialized field that requires a very human, intelligence touch to be effective. And although there are many qualifications that will enable a person to become an advertising professional, this industry is different in that the individuals who participate in it are really different than what you find in other fields. One who is creatively charged, capable of handling stress and performing under the most adverse of conditions. There is a veritable plethora of advertising jobs in the market place, and these advertising jobs can turn into very lucrative and rewarding careers for the right individuals.