Making the most of differences

ALS tutor, Paula, recently contacted me with news of the progression of Max Bennett, a former marketing student. Here’s an account of his positive and inspiring work ethic.

 

Since leaving university I have joined the advertising agency RKCR/Y&R. It is one of the largest and most awarded agencies in the UK and its clients include Virgin Atlantic, Marks and Spencer, The BBC, Lloyds Bank, Vodafone (my client) to name a few. I work as an Account Executive and am responsible for dealing with all aspects of different campaigns to ensure that they get delivered on time to budget and that the client is happy with them and the agency.

 It may seem like a nightmare of a job, but it actually allows me to deal with people and work in a way that is helped by my dyslexia and dyspraxia and not hindered by it. During my time at university, I always excelled at verbal communication and creative ideas, but often struggled getting these ideas down on paper. Before, it was a problem, but in my workplace, there are specific departments which specialise in making ideas come to life, are written cohesively and generally make sense. 

 I am also a very visual person and if I can’t describe it with words, will resort to images and previous examples to try and get my point across. Luckily, many of the creative teams here are highly responsive to this type of response and often prefer it to written, generic lines which can often be difficult to interpret. This has eased me into my role, as prior to joining this was one of my major concerns. 

 The agency is also highly supportive and understanding of people with learning difficulties and provide assistance if I need it. For example, people understand that some of my work may contain typos and will highlight these before work gets sent to the client or into production. It may seem like a small thing, but having a team which is supportive really does make the difference in building my confidence, but also I’m finding as time goes on, I am actually improving my writing style and becoming more succinct and writing less waffle (you may disagree with this point after reading this!)

 Overall, I am glad that I have found a place where I am able to work without having to worry about constantly making a mistake. That being said, I did mix up two numbers of my new business mobile number in my first week, meaning my all 500 of my new business cards are void!

We wish Max continued success in his career.