Five things I wish I knew before starting at an agency

While I don’t have the answer to that I hope I can ease some of your fears by sharing a few things I wish I knew as a fresh-faced intern at my first agency placement.

Top tips to surviving in agency land

1. Learn how to juggle. Agency life is fast-paced and you’ll likely be working on a handful of completely different clients at any given time. Learning how to be flexible and quickly adapt is key.
2. Arrive five minutes early to everything. No one wants to be around a flustered and disorganised mess. Do yourself, and everyone around you, a favour and arrive early. Spend that five minutes as you please: prepare the meeting room or finally reply to that text you’ve been avoiding all week.
3. Get your ducks in a row. When you work in an environment where everything can change at the drop of a hat, you need to be across everything at all times. Having up to date workloads and to-do lists will save you further down the track.
4. Ask questions. It sounds cliché but there is no such thing as a silly question. Taking a few minutes out of someone’s day to clarify your task is infinitely better than completing the entire thing incorrectly.
5. Manage up. There’s not much a manager hates more than having to chase you. Always stay a few steps ahead and predict their next question: tell them where you’re up to on a task, update them on what you’re struggling with, let them know if you aren’t going to meet a deadline.

See, working life isn’t that daunting. Promise.