There is so much bad news; here is some good news for a change. The advertising industry is showing signs of life. According to an article in Advertising Age, entitled, Hiring Freeze Starts to Thaw as Agency Business Hunts for Talent, the advertising industry lost nearly 200,000 jobs in the past couple years. As companies tightened up their advertising and marketing budgets, the ad agencies were forced to pare down.
But now ad budgets are on the increase and the agencies are looking for talent. There are virtually hundreds of job openings, ranging from account executives, account directors, to business development personnel. The health industry is responsible for a fair amount of the advertising, as is some of the emerging media.
No one is jumping for joy just yet, as there have been fitful starts and stops in the advertising job market. But at least there are signs of life. Of course, as much advertising and marketing makes the transition from the more traditional media platforms to the digital space, there will be an increased need for employees with special skill sets.
As a background checking company, we encourage ad agencies to conduct comprehensive preemployment screening on all their employment candidates. As it sometimes happens in a hiring period, certain claims on the candidate’s resume are sometimes neither accurate nor true. It is especially important to conduct education verification in addition to criminal background checks. Reference verifications are helpful in determining skill sets.
I would think when dealing with ad people you are dealing with hyperbole. So it’s a matter of filtering out the hype from the reality when considering a job candidate for a position. Part of it is the interview process associated with the pre-employment screening, and part of it is a decent background check and third party input. Some employers are using social media monitoring to see if the employment candidate had negative or outlandish comments about his past employers, or the people with whom he worked. All good stuff to know.
Check them out before you hire.
