Xav, 45 - CEO

I am the CEO of an advertising agency called Havas London. We make ads for brands, charities and government organisations. If you like human psychology - we spend a lot of time trying to work out why people behave the way they do so that we can write ads that appeal to them. Some of us write ads, some of us manage the relationships with our clients. Some of us organise the teams of people who actually make the ads - tv ads, social media ads, digital media, etc. No two days are the same. We get to work with different companies and different people all the time, so it's never boring. It's busy and fast-paced but it's a brilliant way to get paid for being creative. Over my career, I've made ads for Virgin Media, O2, Sony, Volkswagen, Audi, Royal Mail, Department for Education, Carling, Captain Morgan, Vodafone, Three Mobile and many others.

A-levels

History, French and Economics

Degree

Business Studies
Manchester Metropolitan University

How I got to where I am now

McDonalds - working as a crew member

Librarian - worked as a librarian for a while

Boots the Chemist - worked as a product buyer

Then 20 years in ad agencies as an Account Management person

I've made ads for Virgin Media, O2, Sony, Volkswagen, Audi, Royal Mail, Department for Education, Carling, Captain Morgan, Vodafone, Three Mobile and many others

CEO of Havas London

My big tip...

Only go to Uni if you want to and you think you will enjoy it. In the end, you should study whatever you enjoy. Most professions don't require you to have a particular type of degree to do the job. If you want to work in an ad agency, you can study whatever you like at Uni. My boss studied engineering, I did Business, my Creative Director did English and some of us did design or fashion. It doesn't really matter. Also, if you study something vocational and then decide you want to chose a different career after you've done your course, you can. The most important thing is not to place too much pressure on yourself when you choose what you want to do after school. I do think studying Business helped me get a head start when I got my first advertising job. But most of the people I've worked with didn't do Business and it didn't really make any difference. Just follow your heart. If you are passionate about something, do that. If you're not sure, make your best guess about what will be enjoyable. But in the end, it really doesn't matter. The journey of learning is the most important thing. What you study doesn't really matter. Finally, I wanted to tell you that I hated school but loved going to Manchester Poly. Getting away from home and living in another city was a really important experience and I loved studying something more practical. Business Studies was about the real world and I could relate to it. So, if you don't like school, it doesnt mean you wont like going on to Uni.