I recall googling this company a few weeks, completely clueless and skeptical that my father was recommending this place. I was pleasantly surprised to discover what a huge and reputable company this is.
And so, here I am, on my first day @ TBWA.
After some searching I concluded the commute I would enjoy the most would be to walk from St.James station across Pyrmont Bridge. The 30min walk (at my pace) warmed me up considerably and I enjoyed the fresh air and sights of the Darling Harbour. I think I’ll never get bored of this view. I couldn’t help but imagine this walk in Summer and how I’d probably be soaked in sweat and cursing at the sun. To be determined. I do hope I at still at TBWA in Summer.
I sat at the 3rd floor waiting to be received by the HR, I spot a little dog (I now know his name is Keith) running around the office. Oh boy, I think I’m gonna love this place.
My day begins with a tour of the office by the lovely Kitty. I’m glad to finally meet Kitty, the HR who’s been communicating with me. She’s very cute.
In her emails she mentioned that my interview was received well and everyone I met loved me! I decided not to clarify that I only met Timtam, the week before.
The first person I was introduced to was Honey~
I’m assuming she is the office manager, she pushes a trolley around with stationery and snacks and she’s very eager to assist anyone. Everyone gives Honey a big smile when they see her. Hannah gave me a hug to welcome me to the office.
Kitty then took me to lvl 2 where I would be actually working.
I was given a desk beside Anni, the senior copywriter for the David Jones Team. By the way I’m on the David Jones Team, which I will now affectionately refer to as DJ.
Kitty said sit tight I’ll get you a computer.
I sat and looked around the busy office and sure enough, Kitty came back with IT Guy hoisting a 27″ iMac and keyboard. All I could think of as he set it up was how I would ever look at my laptop screen with comfort again.
I was logged in and ready to go!
Timtam came to whisk me away to Sophia. Sophia isn’t a person, it’s a meeting room. She sketched a birds eye view of the office to explain the 4 teams in DJ. Basically a client brief is first sent to the Project Managers (I’m here!), then forwarded to the Creatives who brainstorm the photoshoot ideas and draft a spread probably. (By the way our work is designing the DJ catalogue) The Production team receives it and executes the photoshoot and finally Studio team does all the retouching and printing and publishing.
Ezpz.
My first task was to draw up estimates for hard costs which Timtam explained was not covered in TBWA-DJ’s Retainer contract. When she first mentioned a retainer agreement, I immediately thought of the situation of Rhythm & Hues going bankrupt from working on Life of Pi.
Dangerous.
Basically DJ signs an agreement that TBWA will handle their publications and content for $xx for a year. However if DJ doesn’t approve of TBWA’s proposals and work they’ll be revised and revised and revised and those incur costs. In the case of Rhythm & Hues, the retainer price was not enough to cover the demands of the movie and the vfx company was unable to pay its employees and eventually worked for free. After the movie was done, Rhythm & Hues was no more.
Sad.
But most of the world works that way it seems.
I did my estimates swiftly and was back to having nothing to do. 🙁 Curiously, Cheebs said he hadn’t done an estimate since he first started.
I made friends with KB, the proofreader. He’s a sweet guy.
I helped again later with creating an asset delivery spreadsheet which I tried to take my time to do, but still, I had too much time.
The office is too busy for me to learn right now. Timtam’s unable to show me things.
The day ended with me organising stacks of proofs for Mandee
I like this place. I like the environment, I do hope I get more work to do soon.
Timtam, the hardworker that she is emailed me at 11pm about a job for tomorrow. I replied I’ll do it first thing in the morning to which she hastily quipped oh don’t need to look at work emails at this time !
Highlight of the day: Timtam sending IT support a ticket “Please fix Ayesha’s right-click”