How do I get an Advertising Education?

Advertising education is varied within the advertising industry because it depends on what type of job you want. Copywriters often have a bachelor’s degree in English, advertising, communications, or journalism, while graphic designers may have a fine arts degree. Account managers may hold a master's of business degree, while those in market research require education in mathematics and statistics. In many cases, any degree could help you land a job in advertising if you've taken courses in marketing and liberal arts and then made an effort to gain additional experience in advertising.

For example, if you've nearly or already completed your degree before realizing that you're interested in a career in advertising, take and do well in a marketing or advertising course or two. At the same time you're working on achieving some advertising education, find internship opportunities at a local advertising or marketing agency. You can use positive comments from your course instructors to help you become an intern and your school may be able to guide you in locating suitable advertising internships.

If you haven't completed much of your degree yet, it may be easy to add courses in liberal arts and communications, even if you are unable to take classes specifically in advertising or marketing. You could also try to take an advertising workshop or two from a reputable school, online or offline, during weekends and add these accomplishments to your resume under your advertising education section. If it's possible to join or start an advertising club at your school, this could be a good way to show your passion and interest for the subject to future employers. You may be able to get guest speakers from local ad agencies and this could lead to good networking options and perhaps even possible internship or job opportunities.

Even if your intern experience at an ad agency is mostly data entry, filing or other routine jobs, this is a valuable way to get to know people in your dream industry. You'll most likely be able to find out from supervisors and managers exactly what type of advertising education they expect for different jobs in the company and in the industry. If you take the internship seriously and work hard, you'll also have advertising industry experience to list on your resume. A combination of advertising experience and education can help you compete for entry-level advertising jobs.

If you haven't started a degree yet, an advertising school is a good choice because you can focus on your career selection. It's still a good idea to intern in an advertising agency as soon as possible, or find an advertising school that helps place students in ad agency internships as part of the degree program. You could conduct informational interviews with local ad agencies before deciding on exactly how you'll go about earning your advertising education.