Ananda answers "What did I think I was going to do for a living?"

A guest post from Ananda Puranik

What did I think I was going to do for a living?

I wasn't sure of what I wanted to do.

One thing I was sure of, was what I didn't want to do.

I wanted to stay away from Government service.

I toyed with banking.

But instead, I joined advertising as an Account Executive.

My first client was Canara Bank.

It had been at the top of my wish list, when I considered going into banking.

An interesting coincidence.

By the way, "wish list" is a phrase I had never heard of, till on-line shopping ads made it so popular.

Back to my advertising story...

I soon started handling more accounts.

Including retail accounts such as GE (Gokaldas Exports). Gokaldas Exports would grow to become the largest manufacturer and exporter of apparel in India. Today, GE's clients are spread across the world, and include Nike, The North Face, Hollister, Forever 21, DKNY, Esprit, Abercrombie and Fitch, H&M, Reebok.

It feels good to know that I was a part of its early story.

My advertising job, which was new to me at first, became something I grew into, and got used to.

Soon, the sheer number of client verticals I was exposed to, straddling quite a few different categories, got me hooked.

So I just stayed on.

Back then, agencies were a one-stop shop, providing the complete umbrella of services.

Specialization wasn't the order of the day.

As an Account Executive, I was expected to know my clients inside out, and be able to get the best out of internal resources to meet my client's needs.

We were required to know the complete advertising process - from pre-press to production to print to media to billings to collections.

End to end.

Today advertising is far far different.

Now new entrants to the business hardly know the first 3.

And media is usually handled by a completely different entity, often an outside entity, with no connection to the agency.

The goals are different, the strategies are different, even the language is different.

As to whether I would have liked that, or coped with that, would be in the realm of conjecture, if not speculation.

Minoo's comments: Thanks, Ananda.  Readers, if you read Indu Balachandran's The Oops and Downs of Advertising, you will get a picture of what Ananda had to handle being an Account Executive. Lots of psychology and patience and heroic face-saves involved.