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My official job title is Senior Advertising Consultant.

Senior means that I'm more experienced, so I'm right below the management level.

I have more difficult and high profile projects as a result. I have experience with more management projects than the sort of projects entry-level workers do.

Because the company is so big, there are departments within departments. Within the big umbrella department of Corporate Marketing, I work in Corporate Relations. Within Corporate Relations, I work in Corporate Advertising.

I help execute our online advertising, which includes everything from execution of display ads on third-party websites like MSN, CNN, Wall Street Journal. It also encompasses search engine marketing, which means placing advertising on Yahoo, Google, and other sites like that. Then I have a more traditional advertising and marketing role where I report to a business unit internally. I help the unit with its creative needs, which may be something like designing marketing collateral, creating a print ad for a magazine or developing a television commercial that will appear on national television.

I spend a lot of time in meetings. I also work on a lot of special projects. For example, we are going to sponsor a NASCAR car next year, so I will help determine what the car and merchandise look like. A lot of my work is on a project-by-project basis. I have a year-round contest project that I work on throughout its different stages. I help develop marketing plans, and hold status calls with our advertising agencies. I develop print ads, internal illustrations, and execute things from an online perspective. I do a lot of consulting with internal clients to determine their particular business needs. Then I do fact-finding and problem solving, and develop creative briefs to send to the advertising agencies.

Our company is fairly new to the online world. Last year, the agency we work with had a different strategy for our search engine marketing campaign than what I thought we should use. They wanted to take a broad approach with very generic, branded terms related to financial services. I thought that approach would be a disservice to our brand, and that we would be providing a poor user experience by simply pointing everyone to the homepage. I wanted to make sure users were pointed to targeted pages on the web with action-oriented business goals in mind. There were several heated disagreements within the agency. I showed my proposal to my manager, and also to some of the agency's managers. After I got approval internally, we talked to the agency and said we wanted the campaign to work according to my design.

It is a very collaborative work environment. We have several collaborative workspaces on our floor, including some small conference rooms, booths where you can have impromptu meetings, and a few couches with a coffee table. We work individually on projects, but when we reach a point when we want feedback or run into an obstacle, we'll talk to co-workers to get their opinions or ideas. The atmosphere in advertising is pretty stressful because it is fast-paced and always changing. I am always juggling several projects at one time. Our atmosphere is also a little different because our department is about 75% female, which is not what I've experienced at previous jobs.

There is a dress code in our office. Essentially, we are business casual, which means slacks, dress shoes, button-up shirts, and sweaters. Occasionally we have jeans-weeks. But you'll see everything up to suits and ties also.

I studied marketing at Iowa State University. My junior or senior year, I took an advertising class. I got really interested in advertising, and decided that was what I wanted to do. After graduation, I moved to Minneapolis with my wife. An advertising agency head-hunter in Minneapolis helped me get my first job at a big ad agency with about 700 employees. I started as a media buyer, placing advertising with radio and television stations. After working there for two years, I got a job with a privately held company, where I worked in the leisure and travel division. I shifted roles from marketing communications to interactive design, working with clients to create website solutions specific to their needs. After about three years, my wife and I had twins and moved back to Des Moines, Iowa. I landed an interactive marketing role with a major applicance manufacturing company, and pioneered e-mail marketing and a search engine campaign for the company. I left that company after about two and a half years, and found my current agency, where I've been working three years. When I first began work with my current company, I was in a web marketing role. I helped design our e-mail marketing templates, assisted with consult-messaging and design, managed the support phone for our content management system, and took on an online advertising aspect of the business. In October of 2007, I moved into my current role as Senior Advertising Consultant.

I was supposed to have an internship my senior year with the Athletic Department. I was going to do marketing projects, but the internship fell through.

Not really. I think the best experience is working in a company. Marketing has changed so much since I was in school. When I graduated I felt ahead of the game, but it has evolved so much that my education is a moot point. There were only one or two classes at the time that talked about working online, and now everything in marketing is about being online.

I would like to stay in the role I'm in for awhile. Eventually, I'd like to take my media buying, brand managing, and interactive marketing skills to a smaller company and be a director of marketing. I'd also like to move back to Minnesota someday. I could see myself in a marketing management or brand manager role at one of the world's leading healthcare facilities.

My day begins between 8:30 and 9:00 a.m. I leave work between 5:30 and 6:00 p.m.

When I arrive in the morning, I usually begin by clearing out my e-mail box. I subscribe to several newsletters that talk about trends in marketing and advertising. I also read the daily news on CNN. Then I check my calendar to see what meetings I have for the day, and start working on my projects. At the end of the day, I look over my to-do list and rewrite or update it if necessary.

I have multiple projects going on at once. Right now, I am working on two print ads, three illustrations, a creative brief for online banner advertising, a logo design, and some other projects.

Every day is completely different, which makes it fun to go to work. Since I'm at the senior level, I get invited to some of the more high-profile meetings such as year-end planning meetings. I also get pulled into a lot of cool brainstorming meetings and projects.

I do have to work weekends and overtime sometimes. For example, on a recent project, I got the information only a few days before the project was due. We are also able to work from home sometimes, though. So I had to work Friday night until 3:00 a.m., and went back in on Saturday and Sunday to have the site ready to launch on Monday.

No, we don't get any overtime pay. However, you can receive one of two awards, encore awards or spot awards. An encore award is a corporate recognition, and a spot award is recognition within a department. The awards include a bonus. I received a spot award this year for the search strategy.

Entry level is about $35,000 a year. The middle level jobs pay about $50,000 a year. Senior level is about $75,000 and above. Executives can make well into the six-figure salaries.

I travel sporadically for agency visits in Los Angeles, or to go to development conferences. I only travel about four times a year at the most. The amount of traveling depends on your position within the department. Our CMO and vice president travel all the time. Our sponsorship team also travels a lot to meet with our clients such as the PGA or NASCAR.

I don't think it has affected it very much, honestly. My new role is busier, so I have less time for my family during the day. Sometimes I bring home my stress, but I'm usually able to decompress pretty quickly. My personal life bleeds into my work life. The company I work for really embraces diversity. There are employee resource groups including gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender groups, Muslim groups, a Muslim prayer room, a Christian prayer room, and Bible studies that employees can join, or they can start their own group.

I don't know if my job specifically is that stable because there are rumors that the client I work with could possibly get sold. I think it's nice that I support the online world because it goes across all business units. There will definitely always be a need for advertising consultants, though. There is more work than there are people for it. Our entire department is lean. The sponsorship team, corporate web team, and the ad team could all use more people. There is always room to grow. There is job security in advertising because there is always a job to do and a project to work on.

I get four weeks off, which is my personal time and vacation time combined. You can also purchase more personal time, but I choose not to do that.

We have really good health benefits. I have full health care coverage. We have an on-site pharmacy, a High Street retreat for stress relief, and a couple of wellness facilities where employees can work out for free. We are a 401(k) company, so we have great 401(k) benefits. We have also acquired Washington Mutual funds.

The most satisfying part of my job is working in a creative environment, working on really creative projects, and doing creative problem solving and fact-finding. I enjoy the challenge of my work, the ability to brainstorm and to constantly be in motion and contributing ideas.

Reactive requests. It's not enjoyable when the clients you are consulting with disagree with you. Advertising is subjective, and it's really an opinionated vocation. Everyone has his or her own opinion. A lot of the job is managing expectations and opinions, and that is really tricky.

In advertising, entry-level positions are operational-based and not very creative. They involve day-to-day responsibilities such as doing paper work, paying invoices, and other administrative work.

Technology has changed advertising a lot. It has introduced e-mail marketing, search marketing, and search engine optimization, which is how you design your web pages to be found through a search. Now there are Web 2.0 gadgets like MySpace, Facebook, etc. Blogs are a great way to be a thought leader in a certain area, but they also help your company through a search engine optimization standpoint, because you are creating content that links back to your site. RSS feeds, podcasts, and vlogs (video blogs) have also really enabled online marketing. We have optimized press releases now. We put links in them and optimize them based on key words to make sure search engines pick them up. I think the sky is the limit for technology from an advertising standpoint. We have all of the coolest and greatest gadgets at work, like Blackberries and such.

It causes a lot of angst because people who are in college are ahead of the curve. For example, our summer interns couldn't understand why we didn't have a Facebook group set up. We are very compliance-driven, and there are so many rules and regulations that go along with financial services and the health world. There is a give-and-take when you are trying to protect your corporate identity and operate legally while embracing technology and sticking your neck out. There are always struggles such as 'Why can't we put these videos on You Tube,' 'Why can't we send this e-mail out to everyone,' 'Why can't we have a Facebook or MySpace account?' That's been especially tricky with entry-level people because they come in with an expectation that we need to be really cutting-edge. We don't disagree with that, but we work in a slow, bureaucratic corporate place. We move slowly. We would rather be a fast follower, or even just a follower, and do it right, than a leader in an area who does things the wrong way and gets sued because of it.

There is definitely room to grow in advertising. There is a high burn-out rate, and always more work to be done than people to do it.

I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grow up. Having the ability to network with people, learn, and job shadow would have been helpful. Having an internship also would have been extremely helpful. Honing in on what your passion points are, what you are good at, and what you can see yourself doing are important. Figuring those things out and taking my career from them would have been really helpful.

People who are suited for my job would be right-brained people who have time management skills and project management skills. They have to be able to multitask. They definitely have to be flexible, creative, and energetic. They can't be afraid to speak up, and they cannot be afraid to be wrong. It is beneficial to be bold, vocal, and willing to take risks even when there is an opportunity to fail.

People who who really need structure in their lives or people who lack interpersonal communication skills would not do well in advertising. People who are not creative problem solvers or have a hard time explaining themselves would not be successful. People who have poor presentation skills or cannot think quickly on their feet would not be a good fit, either.

Having an interactive background and staying up to date on the latest trends is important. Time management skills, project management skills and the ability to prioritize are valuable traits. Internships are huge and are the best way to enter into a company.

A person's education and GPA are only important for your first job. After that, it is more about work experience gained through internships or previous jobs. Extracurricular activities are nice, because they show that a person is well-rounded and can demonstrate leadership skills, but activities alone are not going to get a person's foot in the door. It is going to come down to how well you did in school, and what your experience is coming out of school. If you are independent enough to do your own job and the company does not have to spend a lot of time training you, it makes you more marketable.

You submit your resume online, and it is screened electronically for certain key words. Then Human Resources generalists will look at it. If they think you are a fit for the position, you will get a phone call from HR, and they'll screen you again. If they still think you are a good candidate, they will send your resume on to a hiring manager. If the hiring manager thinks you could be good for the position, he or she will interview you. You will also likely meet with the hiring manager's boss, such as the vice president of the department.

Do a really good job with the work that is expected of you. It is also important to meet short-term and long-term goals that are set within your department. Being vocal, bold with ideas, and willing to take risks are also keys. Being willing to take on responsibilities above and beyond your day-to-day responsibilities and taking interest in projects that may help you advance would also be beneficial.

Advertising is not a position for people who want a '9-to-5' job. It is an intense, high-stress role, and a lot is expected of you. The job is rewarding if you want that creative outlet. Definitely try to get an internship.