Sana Sourivongs: What is your typical day like?

 

Julian Soto: First I come in and check my emails. Then we have this really nifty thing called a hot sheet, where I check what jobs that I’m working on and what status they’re on. I’ll prepare for any meetings that I have that day or I’ll start working on a project. Later on, I try to find my boss to see where he’s at – if things have died down with me, I’ll see if he needs any help or I’ll show him the work I have to get feedback. Honestly, I lot of my day is meetings or writing!

SS: What is the most fulfilling part of your job?

 

JS: I love sitting down and getting to write! I love writing unbranded pieces because I’m in pharmaceutical advertising where there are a lot of things you can’t say. Unbranded pieces are more fun a more conversational. I also get to do a lot more research with it.

 

For example, if we’re launching a whole new unbranded website, I get to research by looking at blogs and finding out tips that we can leverage on our site.

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SS: Why are you in advertising?

 

JS: I’d always been into writing. In school, English and writing classes were always my favorite. Outside of that, I’m really into pop culture and media. I’d like to say that I’m definitely someone who always tries to know about the trends. In junior year of high school, I was trying to figure out what I could do career-wise. I couldn’t’ see myself being in a regular office where I’d have to wear a suit since that’s not my personality.

 

I don’t like regimen and hard rules! I knew I wanted to do something creative, but I could never be an author because I don’t have the discipline to sit down and write a novel. I was doing research one day and I found a page about copywriting. As soon as I saw that description it all clicked!

 

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SS: What are some challenges you have with your job?

 

JS: The most difficult thing is being in pharmaceutical advertising. There’s more constraints in this part of the industry, which can be pretty stifling creative-wise. Another challenge is when higher-up professionals kill ideas. I’ll see or hear about ideas that are really creative by smart people, but they won’t get through.

 

I couldn’t tell you why that happens, but it can be worrying and frustrating. Not to say that’s just an issue in pharmaceutical advertising, I think it’s just the nature of the business.

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SS: What is the most gratifying part of your job?

 

JS: Seeing an entire project through to the end has been gratifying, which may be because I’ve dreamed of doing this for six years! Like right now, the first thing that I wrote when I got here is about to go live. Seeing my stuff out in the world and knowing that I wrote it is gratifying.

 

This is going to sound weird, but every time I’m on a pitch meeting – and I’ll be honest I haven’t had an idea that’s gotten picked yet – but every time it happens and I get the feedback, it’s rewarding to me because I know I’m growing. With every pitch meeting I’ll be getting better and better with my concepting skills.

 

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SS: What changes do you think need to be made to this industry?

 

JS: I would love to see more diversity. I identify as Afro-Latino so when the Alton Sterling and Philando Castile shootings happened, there were a few days that week that were hard for me to focus at work. I could not put my mind on anything because it affected me so much. Not many agencies said anything about it, which is frustrating.

 

There’s all this talk about how agencies care about their people and advertising is a people business, but a lot of different people are emotionally struggling and hurting. I think this industry should acknowledge these social issues because silence isn’t helping anyone. A more diverse industry would change that.

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