In this week’s WHIP, Stan Lee (http://branddna NULL.blogspot NULL.com/) has some very important advice for those about to enter the advertising industry. If that’s you, we’re not sure you’re going to be impressed.

Last week I judged the folios of students from the ADMA Creative School. At the graduation drinks I gave a two minute kick start speech to the kids where I told them that finishing the course was not the end but merely the beginning.

Yes it’s great that they’ve done some sort of creative study.

Yes it’s great that they’ve spent time with some senior creative people.

And of course it’s great that they have managed to put a folio together.

But…

Every one of those students now has the same folio. Obviously the concepts are all different. And some ideas are better than others. But ultimately they all have a folio with the same products in it.

Which is why I say finishing a course is not the end but the beginning.

So if you’re looking to get a foot in the door the first thing you should do is throw away the work in your student folio.

Now that may not be the kind of advice you want to hear first thing on a Monday morning, but consider this:

If twenty odd kids did AWARD School in Melbourne this year that’s twenty people fighting for a job.

And guess what – All twenty of them have the exact same products in their folio. So as far as a Creative Director is concerned, you’re just another wannabe with yet another version of the same old AWARD School folio.

So be brave and start your folio over.

It may take you a while to get a whole new book together. But when you show it to a CD you’re going to stand out from the crowd. If the work’s real good you may even be remembered. And even if you’re not, at least your book is different to the other twenty odd AWARD School grads.