Are you taking the piss, Mr Pringle?

If you read Scamp (and you do) you'll have seen yesterdays post referring (kind of) to an aptitude test that has been designed to identify 'Diagonal Thinkers', which is being run by the IPA. 'Breaking into advertising' was the cover story of the Guardian Work section on Saturday, and if you missed it here's the gist of what a Diagonal Thinker is:

"(Diagonal Thinking) is the ability to switch effortlessly between linear, logical thought processes to lateral creative ones... and it seems to be one of the defining characteristics of people who do well in our industry".

According to the IPA, only 10% of the population can think diagonally. And if you score more than 90% in the test, you can print off an IPA certificate, which, says IPA director general Hamish Pringle, you can then attach to your CV as proof of your talent, which will become your "passport to adland".

So if you really want a job in advertising, chuck out your portfolio, get on www.diagonalthinking.co.uk and show off your shiny certificate around Soho instead.

PS. If you're wondering how i did, my PC crashed half way through the test, and you only get one chance, so i'm buggered.

Are you really hungry for advertising?

If you're one of the many dole-mongers looking to get on the ad-ladder you may or may not be aware of a new scheme known as the LHA. Sound pretty cool? Well it's not...

The LHA is the Local Housing Allowance, a new scheme which is used to determine how much housing benefit you are entitled to whilst looking for one of those cleverly concealed jobs in adland.

And guess what? They've capped it at something like £84 a week, instead of covering your share of the rent like they used to. So let's say your rent is £110 a week - you're now £26 a week poorer. Take that from your job-seekers, and you're left with a princely sum of around £34 a week to live on.

Minus all your other outgoings (utility bills etc, we're not even talking food here) and yep you're left with pretty much... fuck all.

So now, more than ever, it really is down to who is hungriest for a job in advertising.

I'm off to eat some mud.

You're not wrong there, Wal.

Chances are, if you read this blog you read Creative in London. The latest post from Wal caused more than the usual vitriol from the anonymous commentors out there.

I think Wal has a good point though.

I know a team who have been rocking an agency for months now on placement, getting out more work than most of the creative department combined. But the ECD wont hire them because he doesn't think their book is strong enough.

Go figure.

I always thought your book was to get you on placement, then your performance on placement would determine your chances of getting hired.

I hate knowing nothing.

It's not me, it's you...

If anyone noticed, i've not posted recently, and this is because I've recently become a single creative again. And since divorcing my old AD i've found the whole process of finding a suitable replacement quite time consuming, and a real eye opener as to just who is out there on the singles scene.

And it got me thinking about why in London juniors are expected to arrive at agencies in ready-team format. I know there is an arguement that agencies can afford to be picky who they take on and they don't need the hassle of matching ADs to suitable CWs.

But taking on teams with a combined portfolio surely disguises the fact that one member of the team probably carries the other member to some extent, and therefore you are employing less than what you are paying for.

If an agency employs CWs and ADs seperately, as they do in the states, would you not increase the chances of hooking up a brilliant writer with a brilliant artiste, with the combined effect of producing brilliant advertising?

I guess it's left for the team to be brilliant before they arrive together at an agency and can produce work from day one, having presumably already worked together on briefs for some time.

Still, it seems a false economy to me. If creative budgets are so small, and with all this credit crunch bullshit, why don't agencies seek out the best single juniors and try and match them up within the agency, rather than telling them to 'come back when you've got a partner'.

Just a thought.