Network Your Way To A Creative Career
Networking is more than schmoozing. Making connections is an essential career skill, and one that Miami Ad School teaches you on your first day of school.
Miami Ad School graduate Ana Dorta-Duque • Junior Graphic Designer @ Laundry Service
Helping students develop a valuable network of industry contacts is a cornerstone of Miami Ad School’s placement program. Over the course of a two-year portfolio program, students will have networking opportunities with their teachers, all working art directors, copywriters, graphic designers and photographers and the weekly guest speakers. Students in their second year will be able to make meaningful connections with their mentors at Industry Labs (where students take classes at an agency) and with their colleagues and creative directors at one of the hundreds of internship opportunities Miami Ad School provides every year. It doesn’t end there, however. The school’s quarterly portfolio reviews give students a chance to interview with as many as a dozen ad agencies, design firms and even media and entertainment companies—as the opportunities open to our graduates are more diverse than ever.
All of these contacts are the reason that Miami Ad School’s placement rate is 95% within six months of graduation.
Ana Dorta-Duque (above) is a good example. After connecting with interested companies at the June portfolio review in Miami, Ana interviewed with several recruiters and signed on with the Brooklyn office of the social media agency Laundry Service. Through the process, she also made valuable connections that could serve her well as her career progresses.
“The portfolio review was great. I made so many connections thanks to the review. I interviewed with [digital agency] Circus in Los Angeles, but did not take their offer as I don’t want to move to LA at this time. But, when I was visiting LA last month, I visited Circus and got to know an associate creative director there, so thanks to Miami Ad School, he’s now a friend of mine. I’ve made many great connections through the school that will help me in the future!”
—Ana Dorta-Duque
Here’s a list of some of the other Miami Ad School grads hired over the past few weeks:
Vrasidas Golemis • Junior Art Director @ Arnold Worldwide, New York
Julio Jose Sanchez Garcia • Copywriter @ Saatchi Saatchi Colombia, Bogotá
Carter Tindall • Designer @ Principle, Houston
Lauren Sanders • Junior Art Director @ Havas Worldwide, Atlanta
Bobby Kuhn • Junior Copywriter @ Leo Burnett, Chicago
Cheyna Holmes • Junior Art Director @ Ignition, Los Angeles
Jacob Altman • Copywriter @ 180LA, Los Angeles
Ben Petrisor • Copywriter @ WP Narrative_, New York (Hired at the end of his internship.)
Hailey Borema • Art Director @ Grey Group (Hired at the end of her internship.)
Imen Soltani • Copywriter @ TBWA\Media Arts Lab, Los Angeles
Saulo Mohana • Art Director @ TBWA\Media Arts Lab, Los Angeles
(Imen and Saulo met the recruiter at the September portfolio review in New York.)
Gina Cassaro • Associate Art Director @ VML, Atlanta
Cydney Schwartz • Graphic Designer @ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta
Some of our grads recently moved into larger offices as well:
Donnell Johnson (Class of 1998) • Creative Director/CW @ Droga5, New York
Scott Cirlin (Class of 2002) •Associate Creative Director @ Allen Gerritsen, Philadelphia
Kevin Koller (Class of 2004) • Creative Director @ R/GA, San Francisco
Ricardo Distefano (Class of 2004) • Managing Director, Creative @ Heimat Werbeagentur GmbH, Berlin
Matt Pruett (Class of 2006) • Creative Director @ Barkley, Kansas City
Regner Lotz (Class of 2007) • Chief Creative Manager @ Konstellation Republica, Copenhagen
David Brown (Class of 2007) • Executive Creative Director @ ada eveDDB, New York
Tara Lawall (Class of 2008) • Creative Director @ 72andSunny, New York
Kevin Murray (Class of 2011) • Strategy Director @ McKinney, Raleigh-Durham
Many of the new hires met their future employers at one of Miami Ad School’s Portfolio Reviews. Some were hired as a result of impressive internship performances and some by teachers who knew they had spotted someone they wanted to work with. Still others found their opportunities via the Job Leads for Life program that provides graduates with hundreds of job leads every year—at all industry levels—throughout their careers.
