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Long Island Ad Club's Second Annual Intern Career Advancement Program

January 22, 2009

Source: EastofNYC.com

Following the success of its inaugural Intern Career Advancement Program (ICAP) last year, the Long Island Advertising Club (LIAC) has announced the second annual ICAP event. It will take place on Tuesday, February 10th from 6-8 PM at Farmingdale State College's Roosevelt Hall. The event, which is being sponsored by Moderne Communications, is an opportunity once again for local advertising agencies and in-house corporate marketing executives to start developing the next generation of creative talent by offering paid internships to Long Island college juniors and seniors majoring in Advertising, Graphic Design, Marketing, Market Research, Communications, Broadcast, Public Relations and Journalism. The best part about this win-win program is that the students almost always gain a permanent position from their internships, while the agencies and businesses gain access to some of the region's best and brightest young talent.

Austin & Williams Executive Vice President and Chief Creative Officer Rick Chiorando, a LIAC Board Member and among the creators of ICAP, noted that even in the current economy, Long Island still faces a serious brain drain.

"The cost of living on Long Island and limited affordable housing continues to cause our college graduates to leave the region in search of a more affordable lifestyle," said Chiorando. "The statistics show, however, that 80% of graduates who start working right away on Long Island, stay on Long Island. And, 75% of all interns are invited to stay on as paid employees. The ICAP program capitalizes on this data."

These findings were confirmed by Austin & Williams Graphic Designer Andrea Regruto, who gained permanent position following her summer internship at Austin & Williams. She had secured internship at the first ICAP event, and began working right after graduating from Farmingdale State College with a Bachelor of Technology in Visual Communications.

"All of the career fairs I saw advertised were for other professions such as accounting or nursing, and many of the internship ads were for positions in Manhattan," said Regruto. "The ICAP event was specifically targeted for students in the creative fields and the positions were with agencies right here on Long Island. Working locally is not only convenient, but I have been exposed to some great people and clients, and have the opportunity to work on some really good campaigns. The experience is definitely an incentive to remain on Long Island."

Chiorando noted raising awareness of Long Island agencies was another reason why LIAC initiated and is continuing ICAP.

"In our (advertising) industry, there still remains the lure of Madison Avenue where some of the world's largest agencies exist," said Chiorando. "While the primary goal of ICAP is to help mitigate the brain drain and create employment relationships for students and companies, a secondary goal is raise the awareness of Generation Xs and Ys as to the high caliber of advertising agencies this side of the Hudson. Long Island advertising agencies routinely win accounts from Madison Avenue agencies and are the recipients of some of the industry's most prestigious awards."

ICAP is open to all Long Island agencies and business marketing departments and all juniors and seniors majoring in one of the advertising or marketing disciplines. Students are encouraged to bring their resumes and portfolios for review by agency and marketing executives.

Regruto had some additional words for students hoping to land an internship. "The more prepared you are for the ICAP event, the greater the chance of getting offers for internships," she said. "At ICAP, I had many ad agency representatives and marketing executives from other businesses stop by and flip through my portfolio. Many even took the time to offer advice on how to organize my portfolio and enhance it in order to better showcase my skills. It was really good advice."

For more information and to register to attend or offer an internship, visit: www.liac-icap.org or call: 516-944-0100.

Original post on EastofNYC.com