I Want Your Job: Strategic Planner for Dublin Advertising Agency

Remitz ’12 in Dublin, Ireland.

While the class of 2012 pondered questions like, “Who am I?” and “What do I want to do with my life?” Lucy Remitz ’12, a communication major and studio art minor, was busy filling out her Irish work visa. A few months after graduation, Remitz took off for Dublin, where she works for a marketing and advertising firm called Epsilon.

Find out how she learned about her job (on Facebook, in true millennial style), what it’s like to live abroad, and the amazing clients she represents in Remitz’s I Want Your Job Q&A!

See more posts in the I Want Your Job series, which features Q&A sessions with recent College of Charleston graduates in exceptional positions all over the world.

Q: What is your position title and what are your job responsibilities?

A: I’m a strategic planner for Epsilon, a marketing and advertising agency here in Dublin, Ireland. I’m the behind-the-scenes person for brand and campaigns, which requires doing the research to understand the target audience and how to speak to them and finding insight that makes a product relatable to the customer. My responsibilities include writing briefs to the creative team, then working closely with creative and accounts teams to ensure our campaigns are visually appealing while addressing the client and customer needs.

Q: What are some of the accounts you’ve gotten to work on?

Dublin Castle, photo by Remitz.

A: I’ve gotten to work on some really beautiful accounts like luxury watch companies, high-end jewelry designers and automobile companies like Jaguar, but I’ve also worked on accounts like garbage collection and insurance companies to craft whiskey brands. I’m always surprised by which accounts are the most interesting to work on.

Q: What is a typical day like in your job?

A: I know everyone says this, but every day is different. Writing a creative brief can take weeks of research into the brand, their competitors, and the market in general. This can involve hours of sleuthing online through census reports, watching ads to figure out what messages your competitors are focusing on, or conducting focus groups to understand a little bit more about the customer.

Q: What’s the office environment like?

A: It’s a great environment, but working in this industry is pretty fast-paced, so a calm day can turn into a crazy one in an hour. It’s not unusual to work long hours before a big pitch or client presentation, but the dress is casual and I love being able to work with different types of people and teams. Everybody works really hard but also plays hard.

Q: do you like most about your job?

The sea by Dublin, photo by Remitz.

A: While I’m not the one creating the ads, I love seeing them come to life. It’s always the simple ads that take the most work and research to get there and it boggles my mind to see how much work goes into them. The coolest part is probably that one Friday each month, everyone in the agency gathers around while various teams do a “show and tell” of what they’ve worked on that month and we all have a few beers. I look around and think… how cool is this!

Q: How did you find out about this position?

A: When I moved to Ireland I had a friend who worked for the company. I kept my eye out on LinkedIn, followed the company on Facebook and made sure to check their careers section of the website often. After a year or so of living in Ireland, I saw a post for an open position on Facebook and emailed my resume to the person who would end up being my manager.

Q: What do you think made you stand out as an applicant?

A: Having some personal touches in your cover letter helps so much, as everyone wants to get along with the people in their office. I wrote about projects Epsilon worked on and what I liked about them, and how you felt my skills could benefit them.

In the interview, Epsilon let me know more than 200 people applied and they were only interviewing four people, which was both exciting and terrifying. In the end, though, they had a position they needed to fill and I did my best to tell them how I could really own that position.

Q: Did you have any relevant internship/past job experiences? If so, what were they?

A: Throughout college I interned at anything and everything, including a tabloid magazine in New York City, an events company in Charleston, the marketing department of a non-profit, a sailing club in Ireland, a public relations agency specializing in the tech industry, and the list goes on.

It was the best thing I could do as I learned what I liked doing (and perhaps more importantly what I didn’t like doing). I didn’t know what I wanted to do going into college or what I wanted to do when I graduated, and I think that’s okay.

Q: How did the College help you prepare for this position?

A: The communication department at the College is amazing. The variety of courses I took helped a lot, everything from Public Speaking to Writing for the Mass Media to Public Relations Practices with Dr. Ruth-McSwain. They all helped to build a base to start my career. I also minored in studio art, which helped me understand the basics of illustration and develop an eye for good design. The College has so much to offer, I would love to go back and take another year of classes!

Q: What advice would you give to a current student interested in account management at marketing agency?

A: If you’re interesting in getting into a marketing agency, I think one of the best things you can do is understand what’s happening around you. Take an economics, sociology or psychology class to get out of your comfort zone. Don’t just take the classes that are in your major. Also complete an internship at an agency if you can. It’s the best way to see if you like the industry. Also, Epsilon often hires interns if they do a great job, so an internship could give you valuable connections when it comes closer to graduation.

Generally, I would recommend that instead of applying to 100 jobs with the same standard cover letter, you should pick 10 companies you would be so excited to work for and write letters for each of them. I think my cover letter was crucial to my being hired at Epsilon because I put a lot of effort into answering the questions, “Why am I a fit for this company?” and “How will I succeed in this position?”

Q: How do you like living abroad?

Exploring Dublin, photo by Remitz.

A: I’ve lived in Dublin for more than two years now and it’s been great. I studied abroad in Galway, Ireland for a semester during my junior year and totally fell in love with the country. Dublin is a great city right by the ocean and the people are really friendly.

Living abroad is something I’ve always wanted to do (meeting an Irish guy also helped propel me to actually take the leap). I’m not going to lie, it gets tough at times being so far from home and sometimes there are cultural differences that get in the way, but I would absolutely recommend a move abroad for a few years to anyone considering it – even though I miss Charleston’s weather and its beauty!