Has the ad agency hiring pendulum started to swing in the right direction?? 

After the segment lost some 200,000 jobs between December 2008 and January 2010, the newest is that some firms like Edelman, OMD, and BBH are adding to their ranks, crediting a stronger business outlook and now need to add people with new skills.

From an Ad Age article:

“Agencies had to respond to what was going on in 2009 by making some massive cuts,” said Pat Mastandrea, founding partner-CEO of the Cheyenne Group. . “Now those agencies are in the process of having to address that by recruitment. And it’s even stronger in the first quarter of 2010 than it was in the last quarter of 2009.”

Mastandrea noticed the market had started to turn in the fourth quarter of 2009 and budgets were started to come back.  I and other independent recruiters can verify that yes, the cutting had stopped.  By this time the issue typically becomes whether the agencies had gotten too lean, or is it a desire by the agencies to instead have new blood,  candidates with both new world and old media experience, or even a more diverse workforce for multicultural clients.

Whatever the reason, potential candidates considering this segment need to be able to demonstrate that they are more than just smart and technologically savvy — they need to also demonstrate a real passion for working with clients.  How do you define that passion?  The same article noted they need to “be strategic, clear, consultative, and inspiring.”  Clearly the bar has been raised even higher.

At Names & Numbers, we’ve also raised the bar on the people we are looking for in our sales organization.  Potential Account Executives need to bring 2+ year of outside B2B sales experience with background in cold calling and closing new business.  With those skills you can do well in this business.

Here are links to some additional information about the positions: