How To Get the Most Out of We Are Next
Tips and tricks to help us, help you start your career in advertising and marketing
There’s more than one way to use We Are Next, and today, we’re sharing insider tips to make sure you’re getting all the benefits of our resources to help you start your career in advertising and marketing. Read on and you’ll be on your way to becoming a We Are Next power user.
1. Subscribe to the Weekly Email
I know I’m opening with something that sounds like a CTA, but the Weekly Email is our original and most used resource for a reason. I think of it as our most direct connection to you, so subscribers always receive things first, whether it’s the RSVP link to an event, access to a new resource, special content, or our call for Holiday Snail Mail. Plus, it’s bite-sized advice from people all over the industry, right in your inbox.
Pro tip: a lot of responses of our 2019 User Feedback Survey mentioned saving the Weekly Emails in a special inbox folder so you’re able to quickly refer back to them later.
2. Connect with our podcast guests
Guests of the We Are Next Podcast are selected because they want to help guide young talent (along with being awesome). It’s a group of people from different corners of the industry who’ve essentially raised their hands as supporters of you. We end every episode by asking the guest where people can keep in touch with them, be it LinkedIn, Twitter, and sometimes even email. And lucky for you, we include direct links where you can reach out to them on their episode pages, making the podcast a treasure trove for finding potential mentors. Saying that you listened to their podcast episode is a great opener!
(Shout out to those of you User Feedback Survey responders who mentioned that you’ve reached out to podcast guests! You’re doing it right.)
3. Use the filters on the job board
We received several requests to add filters to the job board, but they’ve been there all along! Here’s how to filter any one of our tables on we-are-next.com:
- Click the “Filter” button at the top left-hand corner of the table.
- Click “Add Filter”
- Use the first drop-down menu to select which criteria you want to filter. For the job board, the most useful criteria will be “Location” and “Team”.
- Type in the keyword you want to filter for. For example, for “Location”, you’d type in “Los Angeles”. The board will automatically filter.
- To remove any filter and return to the full view, click the “Filter” button in the left-hand corner again and then click the small “x” next to the filter you added to get rid of it.
4. Bookmark job openings from the job board
Our job board isn’t like other job boards, most noticeably because it refreshes every single week—even if a job is still live—to keep things as fresh as possible and the opportunities coming. In order to make sure you don’t miss your chance to apply, be sure to bookmark the application pages so you can return to them later.
5. Use the search bar to find specific topics in our stash of advice
Here’s a not-so-secret: all Weekly Emails eventually get added to our stash of advice on the website. You can use the search bar or Category drop-down menu to find past emails related to specific topics. This is a great way to get your questions answered, because chances are, we’ve written an email about it.
6. Don’t forget about the Index
I consider the We Are Next Index our most underrated resource. It’s one place to find the answer to the question, “What other resources are available to me?” From communities, websites, and other podcasts, to scholarships and internship programs—all with an emphasis on things that are free or low cost. It’s continually being updated, so if you have a resource you’ve found helpful, you can add it to the Index via the button at the bottom of the page.
7. Avoid asking me for individual advice
When We Are Next was young, I was happy to answer people’s individual questions or review resumes. But we’ve grown so much over the past two years that it’s impossible for me to respond without taking serious time away from all the resources we put out every week. It also flies in the face of what We Are Next is meant to do—make career guidance accessible to all—and not just the people I have time to respond to.
Your best bet is to reach out to someone on the podcast [#2 above], search the stash of advice [#5 above], or submit your question as a topic suggestion via our Contact page. I do pay attention to the things people want to know, as long as it results in content that benefits everyone. (It kills me to write this, but worse is the thought of someone reaching out and thinking I’m ghosting them.)
8. Build the We Are Next community
I couldn’t end this list on #7, so here’s my last tip: the We Are Next community is what you make it. I get a lot of feedback about how We Are Next is a community, but the truth is, it wasn’t intended to be one at the beginning. There’s still no central hub where everyone who uses and supports We Are Next can go and interact with each other.
Any sense of community is because of you. You sharing our content. You tagging a friend in a LinkedIn post or responding to a question I put out on Twitter. You coming to a We Are Next event. You being a guest writer or podcast guest.
There may be a time in the future where the community will have a dedicated home, but in the meantime, it’s up to all of us to reach out and lift each other up.
Because we’re all better when we do, and we got this.
Check out all of We Are Next’s resources at we-are-next.com, and subscribe to our Weekly Email for advice and insight from the industry, delivered Mondays.
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About WRNXT BTS
As a first time entrepreneur and chronic writer, I’ve been wanting to document the experience of building We Are Next. WRNXT BTS is an open account of the highs and lows of starting and growing a resource for the next generation of advertising talent.
