Name: David Gray
Company: CTV Bell Media
David graduated from our program in 2007. After graduating, he started worked at the ad agency Publicist as an Interactive Designer. At the time, they had a small digital team, and he was actually the 3rd person hired as part of their digital department. He pushed out a lot of work creating banner ads, and says that there is still a lot money in banner ads today.
He was laid off during the recession and he turned to freelancing. He still designed banner ads, but also did work as a producer and quality assurance. David says that with freelancing, if you're good, the money is great, though you need to save for the rainy days. He also said you need to stay organized and you'll end up working weird hours.
From there, he got into the media side of thing at as small company called Q Media. The company sold ad space online and he managed all the creative that came through. He ended up leaving 6 - 8 months after starting because the job just wasn't for him.
David now works for CTV Bell Media as a Digital Sales Producer. In this position, he is essentially a project manager, keeping projects organized and delegating tasks. He says that it is his favourite company he's worked for so far, as he has better hours and he has the opportunity to represent the brand he creates for.
Like some previous guest speakers, David described working for ad agencies as working long and hard hours. He further explained that despite the hours, you learn to love it. He also stressed that we not expect too much, too soon, and to work hard to work our way up.
Lastly, David gave us some tidbits of advice about the industry at the moment. He says to learn all we can about mobile, and to realize that nothing is "mobile-friendly", it's either mobile or not. He also says know your browsers as some people are still using IE6. Lastly, he said to stay on top of trends in design, check out the FWA and european websites.
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