Are you an ad junkie? Hate sports, but love the Super Bowl? Do you actually visit YouTube to watch commercials? Advertising can be really good or really bad. When you see advertising that you enjoy, there’s a good chance that Ogilvy is behind it. Remember the American Express “Don’t Leave Home Without It” commercials? That was Ogilvy. What about the Dove Evolution online video spot? That was Ogilvy too.

Ogilvy is one of Madison Avenue’s most highly respected advertising agencies, and for good reason. Since 1948 they have been helping some of the world’s biggest brands bring their message to customers in innovative ways. Beyond Ogilvy & Mather, their advertising unit, Ogilvy has six other business units: OgilvyOne (Customer Relationship Management), OgilvyInteractive (Interactive Media), OgilvyPR (Public Relations), Ogilvy Healthworld (Healthcare Communications), OgilvyAction (Activation Services), and Neo@Ogilvy (Digital and Direct Media). Ogilvy is in a lot of businesses, that’s why they have 479 offices in 125 countries.

A little nosing around the Internet led us to a few interesting tidbits. There are a number of Ogilvy employees who are blogging about their work, so that might be a great way to get an inside look at what Ogilvy is doing. It could even open up some networking doors. We also found a list of blogs that OgilvyPR follows and Ogilvy’s guide to blogging. We know that neither of these are very relevant to your job search, but they might help you gain some further insight about Ogilvy. Our research also turned up an interesting interview from The Economist with Ogilvy CEO, Shelly Lazarus.

As for working at Ogilvy, we’ve asked around and it sounds like a great place to begin a career. Entry-level jobs are both challenging and rewarding, and the people you would be working with at Ogilvy are top notch. There are distinct differences from department to department and office to office (all 497 of them), so we can’t generalize too much about the work atmosphere. We do know that the creative side of Ogilvy tends to be pretty casual, while employees who manage accounts may have to dress it up a little more. Even though Ogilvy is a big name in a big industry, it’s not nearly as stuffy as some might expect.

Career information is pretty scarce on Ogilvy’s website. We were eventually able to find two separate career pages that both had the same basic information. One is hidden on their diversity and inclusion page, and the other is on their contact page. They don’t have any job openings listed on their site, but it does seem that they occasionally post positions on job boards.

If you plan on applying for a job at Ogilvy, don’t wait to find an opening listed online – send them your resume without a specific position in mind. You do have to choose one of their six areas of work to apply to: Creative, Account Management, Media/Digital/Interactive, Direct Marketing, Finance, or Administrative. Once you decide on one of the six, you should follow the instructions on their employment page. Download and complete their application summary, and then attach it along with your resume in an e-mail to Ogilvyjobs@ogilvy.com. Make sure that your e-mail’s subject field includes the department that you’d like to apply to and the fact that you are entry-level. So it should look something like “Account Management – Entry-level.” They’ll look over your application and let you know if they have any positions that are a good fit for you, if not they might hang on to your resume until they do. From what we hear, the best way to get a job at Ogilvy is to have a great resume and be persistent. Also, it sounds like Ogilvy tends to do a little more entry-level hiring on the accounts side, so that might be the best way to get your foot in the door.

Love advertising? Take a look at Ogilvy.

Note: On April 22nd we revisited entry-level jobs at Ogilvy.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• The Ogilvy Home Page
• The Ogilvy Company Page
• Employment Opportunities at Ogilvy
• Ogilvy’s History
• Ogilvy’s Office Locations
• Ogilvy’s Portfolio
• Bloggers at Ogilvy

It’s surprising we need to advertise the fact that we’re giving away a Nintendo Wii. Maybe Ogilvy can help us give away something for free next time.

We've identified Ogilvy as having career opportunities in the following categories:

• account management
• advertising
• all employers
• international
• nationwide
• New York

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