How to become a planner – Part VII

The Account Planning Group had a really great piece on what planning is and how to get into it. Here are some of the highlights:

Thinking like a planner

Here are some ideas from top planners in the industry about how you should approach planning.

“Get curious”

If you’re considering becoming a planner, curiosity should be something that comes naturally to you anyway. If not, then start getting out of your comfort zone and looking at life from a different angle, through taking courses you’d never thought of taking, to taking a different route to school, to spending a morning just watching people on the street. There is no linear progression into planning. It comes from an interest in many different facets of life. From an openness to see things from multiple perspectives. And from an ability to make connections between seemingly disparate things. So up your life curiosity. – Simin Radmanesh

“Whole Brain Thinking”

Make sure you have evidence and experience in right brain conceptual thinking and left brain analytical thinking. Logical: maths, logic puzzles, business case studies. Conceptual: painting, creative writing, going on ‘adventures’. – Simin Radmanesh

“Embrace your nerdy side”

We want people we work with – and planners in particular – to be interesting and interested in the world – we’re looking for people with sparky, inquisitive minds. Don’t be afraid of strategically exposing your slightly nerdy side – planners need to be able to get interested in the detailed minutiae of the most apparently ‘boring’ products and services. If you spin it right, that dark past as a dedicated teenage trainspotter may work in your favour… – Mathew Palmer

“Unhealthy interests”

Be interested in brands and how they work. I think I only ever got a job because I was able to develop an unhealthy interest in stock cubes and chocolate biscuit countlines and what people had to say about them. These things are not to be looked down on, they’re to be celebrated and explored – John Shaw

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