Being Advertiser

Firstly I should confess that, this is my first writing in English here. Please forgive me for all my mistakes.

I would like to talk about the story of how I was begun to be an advertiser.

I graduated from Ege University of Public Relations and Advertising in 2011. That means you can work kind of a lot of different majors. But I have decided to be an advertiser and moved to İstanbul for this reason in 2012.

There are a lot of advertising agencies located in İstanbul and if you want to be an advertiser you have to join one of them for having experience. For this reason, I have started to apply to these agencies and finally, I catch a job as an account executive intern.

The company said that they will not pay me until the end of my internship but I will take the job after six months. I had to be patient and I should hang on to take the job. And just began my advertising career like this. I was really excited and enthusiastic to be an advertiser. I had worked harder and harder during that time. I just went to work and did stuff that was given to me by my supervisor and after back home. I didn’t hang out with my friends during this period. Because I had to stay at my aunt’s home and did not have money for spent without thinking.

In the end, 6 months finished and I start to wait for joining the team. But they did not offer me anything, also they did not talk to me about their plan. I continued to wait for another month. They still did not invite me for negotiation. Finally, I knocked on my boss’s door and ask her to want to talk about my career or not. She was very surprised and she invited me to take a seat for the negotiation. And she said to me “We do not plan to work with you” I was shocked, and ı guess my eyes get wide because of what she said. She realized how I surprised was about the information which is given to me and she said quickly I will pay you for your effort. But it was not about payment. It was about proving yourself or not. And I have learned that I failed that. In addition, she said that I worked hard in the company but it is not just about effort. Also, she said that I should connect with the advertising culture and learn English very well and I failed these. She informed me about my mistake. One day I pronounced the word “title” as it was pronounced. She realized my mistake and decided that ı can not be an advertiser with these English skills. Finally, she fired me gently :)

It was my first experience working at an agency and I got fired on my first try. My advertiser career ended even before not began. I was feel terrible and ı did not know what I should do right now. I lost confidence in myself at 25 age beginning my career and I went back to my hometown. I stayed with my aunt and worked for 6 months free. But my all effort was in vain. Fortunately, my family supported me and I decided to figure out what I want to do in my life.

Firstly, I have come back to my hometown and I started researching advertiser job offers daily. If I have been invited to a job interview I have to return to İstanbul and when ı finish interview I have back to my home town daily. That period went on for 3 months. I had job interviews a lot but I didn’t get a job offer with good terms. this time was very overwhelming and sometimes I felt really hopeless about my career. Sometimes I was making a checklist to see if I had the qualifications to be an advertiser. And usually, I convinced myself, yeah you can. You have to push yourself to what you really want.

Finally, I had a job interview again and it was passed quite hopefully. After that, I have begun to wait impatiently. Eventually, they called me again and informed me about picked another candidate. I lost again :( And that day I gave up. Here is the end of my advertising career. And I thought I will never try to be an advertiser again. That seemed to me destiny and ı would accept it. The next day I said I would go to my brother’s furniture store and work with you. I said him to teach me this job. He laughed and he was surprised. Also, he did not believe me. But the next day I was there before opening the store. I was just carrying stuff and giving what my brother demanded of me. I even don’t know the names of the pieces of equipment and usually, they were kidding me. Apparently, this job did not fit me but I had to do something. I could not stop, and think about my career. I should find the solution on the way. In addition, I began to have lessons for studying master degree. I started to think about being an academician at a university.

But something unexpected happened. My phone ranged and the last person was across the other line who had a job interview with me. I was really surprised. She explained to me what happened last week and she said that The company did not satisfied with the effort from who was taking the job instead of me. For this reason, they decided to part ways with her and they offered me a job. I was really excited and of course, immediately accepted this job. Also, they already offered the wage that I demand from them. Meanwhile, they asked me when I can begin and I ask them when I should. They told me that is it possible to join the team tomorrow morning or not. I even couldn’t told them I’m not in İstanbul and the time was 8.00 pm already. I just told “Of course I can :) “ And I hang up the phone with excitement. But I realized that time I even don’t have money and the time was too late for going to İstanbul. I began to think about finding a way to sort out this problem. And that time a my friend came to my brother’s store. I told him about the story and I ask him if that is possible to give 50 Turkish Lira for the debt. He said of course and gave me that money. I ran to my home and picked up a few of my stuff and ran to the bus station again. I got on the last bus and come back to İstanbul.

I was ready the next day at the office and I was really excited. And my advertiser career just began again. Now I’m an Account Supervisor at Tazefikir Advertising Agency and I have working as an advertiser for 12 years.