A UK government review published recently revealed one million 16-24 year olds are out of work, with ministers warning of a “lost generation” of talent.
In the creative industry it has been widely reported that entry level roles are disappearing. The annual IPA Agency Consensus showed a drop from 56% to just 43.4% in the number of agencies that had employed graduate trainees in the previous year. A Creative Bloq contributor analysis of 100 listings found just 13% were entry-level.
It is a tricky topic to dig into with a number of agencies and senior execs choosing not to comment.
The value of junior creatives
Issie Mandry, associate creative director at MSQ Sport + Entertainment, raised concern about the decline. “Eventually we are going to need some fresh heads and some fresh thoughts,” she says. “You need those fresh creative heads that are just absolute fire starters.”
Juniors are “unblemished” by negative experiences selling ideas that failed, Issie says, making them valuable sources of new thinking.
Issie didn’t start her career in a creative role, she joined an agency as a producer and then asked for a junior creative role once her foot was in the door. “That transition and pathway does still exist,” she says. It just takes a certain type of talent to “campaign” internally for that role.
Internships as an entry route
At Dept the agency has “slowed down” on hiring for junior roles, its executive creative director Jeff Bowerman says. He puts this down to the current pace of work. “The industry is at a speed now that you have to hit the ground running quicker and quicker,” Jeff says.
Internships are one method Dept is using to build a junior pipeline. The agency has 25 paid interns on its books. Dept typically only creates internships when it can later hire candidates into junior roles. The scheme attracts around 350 applicants.
He says training juniors is difficult because every client brief is different. “We’ve been reticent to get juniors because of the time and energy to train them,” he says. Hybrid working further contributes to this challenge, Jeff adds.
Like Issie, Jeff says that juniors bring the energy that clients want to buy. “Juniors do bring that young culturally fluent energy, they are happy to be on camera, they are chronically online. That is super useful to harness. They know the platforms better than anyone else,” he says.
AI isn't entirely to blame
There are a number of factors contributing to the decline of entry level jobs, the loudest narrative is that AI is doing the ‘grunt work’ that used to be given to junior team members.
Tyler Berry who is creative partner and co-founder of the design agency YeahNice rejects the claim that AI is to blame. “It is more about the industry and the economy right now than it is about AI swallowing entry-level tasks,” he says.
Technology is always shifting the creative industry, AI is the latest iteration. Tyler recalls learning Flash websites at university only for the technology to disappear before he graduated. “You're always learning the next thing, and the tools you start with are rarely the tools you finish with,” he says.
Tyler is ardently optimistic, he flips the narrative to say that juniors are in a better position than their senior counterparts. “They're not unlearning old habits, they're walking into a changing industry with a clean slate, and a lot of them are already AI-native, faster and more adaptive than half the people already in it,” he says.
Redefining what entry-level talent looks like
Some creative leaders argue that while there might be fewer roles, the roles that are available have evolved.
Buck’s chief executive officer Emily Rickard, says that what the agency previously defined as success will look different in the future. “What we’re looking for in talent today is evolving. The future stars of Buck will need skills that may not have been necessary a year ago,” she says.
When hiring she is looking for a generalist mindset. “Instead of honing in on one specific craft-based skillset as a creative, you get to be more of a creative omnivore,” Emily says. Juniors also need to come with the confidence to “step into a chapter that is undefined”, she says, as the creative industry is in a period of transition.
Like Emily, Mariana O’Kelly, chief creative officer of DonerColle Partners, believes the shape of the role is changing more than the number. That the definition of what it means to be a creative has expanded.
“Today's entry-level talent is entering an industry where ideas can come from anywhere and where creativity increasingly intersects with social platforms, creators, technology, AI and emerging forms of storytelling,” she says. This opens up new pathways to the industry, Mariana argues, that were not possible when she started her career.
Her advice for creatives joining the industry is to “think strategically, tell compelling stories, communicate ideas clearly and understand people deeply.” Mariana says juniors should experiment with new tools and learn how AI can enhance their work. You can also see our piece on 7 ways for junior designers to get good.
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