Cut Short: A Career In Advertising

An altruistic anonymous creative has sacrificed his hair to make a point about the (short) longevity of our careers.

On our youth-obsessed industry, recruiter Esther Clerehan says:

"In an industry that tends to favour youth over experience, the irony is that the older people have the tools, and the resilience. But there’s an aversion for whatever reason to hire grey. And really successful agencies if you look at them, without exception, have a mix of old and young.

Insecurity, anxiety, diversity, they’re all tied in together.

If you asked a junior person who they’d fill with their creative department, they’d just fill it with all their friends. But hopefully after a while they'd go, hang on I’m not learning enough, we need those older people.  Like that test—you know where you put children in front of a table and they go crazy for the lollies. But after a while they start looking for the carrots, because they know they need it. Smart young people need to look for who they’ll learn from not just who they’ll have fun with."