The Fresh Prince of Media Sales

farWritten by: Luca Camossi - International Sales Co-ordinator

Now this is a story all about how my life got flipped turned upside down. And I’d like to take a minute, just sit right there, I’ll tell you how I became… a media sales professional during a global pandemic.

The hunt for a first job after university has never been easy. I’m sure many of you can relate to the long hours spent sending out your CV, writing dozens of cover letters and running from one side of London to the other for interviews. I was just starting to lose hope, when I was lucky enough to be asked to join Advance Media, back in mid-March 2020. I started just as grads for many decades before me have done. I was eager to learn and ready to begin my career in Media. The team was lovely, and the first week passed by in a flash.

We are all very familiar with what happened next. Seemingly all of a sudden, the number of COVID cases in Europe started to overtake China and my home country, Italy, was one of the first to go into lockdown. At the beginning of my second week, the UK government confirmed that we would follow suit, and by week three, I found myself living and working from a small room in central London. Getting to grips with a vast portfolio of international media brands from behind a screen was not what I had envisaged for my start in this industry – neither was celebrating my 2-month work-anniversary on furlough, where I remained for 6 months.

The uncertainty was the worst part. For example, having to wait until the end of each month to discover if I was being taken off furlough, knowing that, along with the rest of the country, the company was basically making it up as they went along. I wasn’t able to enjoy London, such an amazing city, despite having day after day to fill. I worried about the future constantly – would I be a victim of the last in first out policy that is so often the case in times of financial hardship?

It may have been an unusual start, but I have certainly got plenty those ‘transferable skills’ that recruiters are always after…

I have learned:

• To be adaptable: I started a job and made friends with colleagues via Microsoft Teams, with very little warning
• To be resilient: when I returned from Furlough after 6 months, I had to re-learn everything, starting again from the very beginning.
• To be considerate: everyone in the Advance team had a different challenge to face throughout the pandemic and having a supportive team around you is essential in getting through something like this!
• The definition and pronunciation of furlough – a new word even for native English speakers. I’m hugely hopeful this information will be useless in the future!

The pandemic has undoubtedly changed how we work, learn and interact, with social distancing guidelines forcing us into a more virtual existence, both personally and professionally. I, for one, am so glad to be “back in the office” (and not just on the days that the beer fridge is re-stocked ??). This week, I will be using another thing I have learned – the joy of Media Thursdays – to raise a glass to my colleagues and new contacts at agencies, publishers, and clients alike. I can’t wait to say hello without having to hear the team’s ringtone!

I pulled up to the house about seven or eight am and I yelled to the busee 'Yo, homes smell ya later', I looked at my kingdom I was finally there to sit on my throne as the (Very Fresh) Prince of London Media Sales