Recruitment challenging as demands far exceeds supplies

Recruitment challenging as demands far exceeds supplies

JAKARTA (JP): In the advertising industry as a whole, recruitment is quite challenging because the supply of skilled workers is limited, while new agencies are formed overnight. This is not surprising for a booming industry like advertising.

Sources of new recruits are varied. The universities and college level institutions are just some of the places where headhunters go. However, as Aryanto Zainal said, "We feel more confident in recruiting a person if he has a reference from people that we know."

What about job interviews?

"We've found out that some people can impress us tremendously during the interview but become short of performing the moment they get employed," says Zainal.

Recruits can come from a wide variety of backgrounds. For graphic design, of course, graduates from related university departments are sought.

Luckily Indonesia has a number of universities and institutes such as the Bandung Institute of Technology and the private Tri Sakti University in Jakarta that offer excellent programs in this area. The Jakarta Arts Institute located at the Taman Ismail Marzuki Art Center is another source of recruits.

Those who have studied communication abroad are also in high demand. "With their background in communication, these people can enter the advertising world and quickly grasp the nuts and bolts of the industry."

Then there are also graduates from the school of advertising within the University of Indonesia.

But, surprisingly, the most successful practitioners in the industry may not have formal educational backgrounds in this field. The industry proves that motivation, the drive to advance, self-discipline and willingness to learn and work hard are more important keys to success than what has been studied at a university.

As in the case of many other hierarchical organizations, dynamic beginners in ad agencies do not hesitate to move from one agency to another. Causing a relatively high rate of turnover, they seek advancement not only in responsibility and remuneration, but opportunities to learn new and different things and reap more experience. It is not surprising that, after wandering around for several years, these ambitious people often find themselves working for exactly the same agency that they first worked for, albeit probably at a higher level.

We have to keep in mind that in general only the large agencies with international ties provide training for their staff, the smaller ones simply do not have the resources to give the necessary training. Therefore, practitioners who are still climbing the stairs of their career may stay with a large agency just to get the training opportunity. It might sound a bit strange, but this kind of experience and knowledge seeking is deemed perfectly acceptable in the industry.

Once they reach the executive levels, however, practitioners in the ad industry do not move around anymore. If they leave an agency at all, it may be the case that they are starting a new one of their own.

We could ask ourselves the question whether -- because demands far exceed supplies -- there is hijacking of personnel among agencies. Aryanto Zainal explained that it is not prevalent in the industry in general, although smaller and newer agencies may have to resort to that in order to survive.

But, he said, generally people do not leave an agency just because another promises a higher income. "Creative people are artists, and therefore they have their own way of thinking," he added.

Besides, it is always easy to find out where somebody who left your company a month ago is working now, because the industry is very closely knit and basically everybody knows what everybody else is doing. (zia)