No worries. Here I sit again, drinking whiskey. Preparing my own function talk tomorrow. I'm shooting high this time, half a year after joining this agency. Lets see if they'll let me have it.
I later throught I said nothing on the topic of breaking in, which will be the first hurdle for you to take.
I got in by an unexpected turn of events. I was not lucky - I've never been much of a social mingler so I've always had to fight my way in. My first job I was hired by an opportunist asshole CD who, due to his own incompetence, was scared shitless of anyone with talent. Applying for AD with a miserable portfolio and a scientific degree, he asked me to create a second portfolio within a week. When I delivered another 10 pages of work by the next monday at six in the morning he took me on. By the time he preemptively kicked me out two and a half years later I already had a Cannes lion, so I didn't really care. I took a break and.. still not being a social mingler.. seven months later I still did not have one offer to take - I shit you not. I'm expecting my old agencies HR blacklisted me to all other agencies in town because I screwed them out of 1000e extra holiday money (Lesson: DRHORRIBLEHIMSELF is right - don't burn bridges - you just don't know.)
It all turned out ok eventually, I found my way back into the game, 1500km away in a different market.
As I'm now scouting and hiring members for my own team, the biggest question in my mind is always.. Will they deliver? I don't really care what they deliver - advertising is a game remember - as long as they do. As long as they think along. I've heard account directors speak respectfully of art directors because they can work independently. Because they don't need someone to bust their ass to keep them going, to point out all the mistakes and hand the work back to them. That's hard enough to find.
So if there's any way you can prove that - that you're hard working, quick to understand, assertive, hands on, and of good spirits, in my world, i can teach you the rest. So that's that.