Picture this: It's early November, leaves crunch under your feet as you walk up the front steps to the annual CMA Award Show & Gala at the Westin Harbour Castle in downtown Toronto. When you look around, it's clear that everyone, like you, is dressed to impress. There are over a thousand people here tonight, including Canadian marketers, advertisers, sponsors, CMA members and staff. You check your coat, climb the stairs, and marvel at the dimly lit ballroom as it transforms before your eyes. Every detail meticulously planned to embody this year's Northern Star theme. Can you see it?
You take your seat at one of 96 elegantly set tables, surrounded by Canada's top marketing minds, all eyes on the stage. When the host begins speaking, you look around to appreciate the moment fully. Here you are, sitting amongst Canada's marketing elite. As the excitement builds, each winning team rises to its feet, congratulating one another as they walk to the stage to accept their awards. These are campaigns that not only achieved their client's objectives but also won their business. What a moment.
As you finish your first meal of the evening and take a sip from your glass, your attention turns to the main screen to see the commercial for the next campaign to win a CMA award. As you become more drawn into the experience, you realize you're witnessing a night that will change someone's outlook on their career. With their work being recognized and applauded on this stage, they will most certainly feel a strong sense of accomplishment. Whether they win or lose, there will be an affirmation that they have what it takes to produce award-winning work. Being here tonight, amongst all these professionals, has given you something to aspire to.
That's what success can do. It can give you the courage to be bold enough to take risks, push yourself and your creative work to new levels. Nights like these are opportunities to get a glimpse of what your future could look like. You won't always win, but with losses come lessons that you can learn from. Lessons that will make you stronger, more prepared, and more aware of the mistakes that will make it harder to reach your goals. Losses will also teach you how to interact with teammates, how to ask for help, when to depend on others and when to step up for yourself.
After your third course, and socializing with the people at your table, you made a few connections, shared your LinkedIn account, and felt confident about how you were able to interact with the new people you've met. You had a great conversation about the importance of recognizing the excellent work that marketers and advertisers do in Canada. The more you discussed the marketing profession, watched the awards given out, and saw the genuine happiness on the winners' faces, the more you realized how much you wanted to work on a campaign that made a difference. The sincere appreciation of the recognition these marketers/advertisers received for their award-winning campaigns had a positive effect on you and your perception of the marketing profession in Canada.
After a delicious dessert, which happened to be Wild Berry Pannacotta, you found yourself reflecting on the experience and everything you learned from the acceptance speeches the winners gave. They all made sure to thank their teammates for their contributions, for pushing them to take their ideas further, and for the late-night brainstorming sessions. You can do these things in your group projects to remain positive and encourage your team and yourself to put your best work forward. The most significant lesson that you learned was to put the team first. Listening to the winners on stage taught you that everyone has something to offer, and collaboration is the real key to success.
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"I love that marketing doesn't force me to pick a lane. I get to be the analytical one who figures out the strategy, but I also get to be the creative one who brings it to life. It's that constant back-and-forth between the two that makes the work actually feel like me." – Sakina, CMA Intern
One piece of advice that stuck with me was to stop waiting until I felt 'fully ready' before taking opportunities. A lot of growth comes from putting yourself in environments that challenge you, even if you're still learning. I've learned that experience builds confidence.
While scouring social media sites, job postings and your favourite companies searching for opportunities to get your foot in the door, you kept seeing one constant – required experience. That's something you just don't have. You're trying but you can't seem to get your foot in the door. Either you get no response or the response is that they've decided not to move forward with your application. That sucks.
