This is my expanded answer: The biggest mistake even the best juniors make is trying to appear you are on it when you are not. Saying you understand what you are doing when you don’t. I get the motivation. You need to look like you are on it and don’t want to ask daft questions.

But we know coming into agency life from an academic background is a huge shock, not least the speed with which things move:

• Agencies are always fast, busy, and a bit stressed. And everyone apart from the new junior knows exactly what they are doing.
• The level of multi-tasking expected is unprecedented. It’s not unusual for a junior to sit across five or six accounts. Sometimes more.
• Being cc’d on every email on every account sounds great, right? You finally get to see what’s really going on. But believe me, it’s a high price to pay for wading through 200 emails daily. Where are you supposed to put them when you’ve read them? Are they all important??

It’s no wonder juniors are overwhelmed from day one. But without a complete understanding of what you are doing and why, even ‘simple’ tasks like updating media lists or sourcing Twitter feed content go awry as the junior lacks the confidence to speak up and clarify any questions, resulting in frustration and lack of faith all around.

Much better to fess up at the beginning and claim ignorance, especially in my sectors where the subject matter is deep. How is a junior supposed to be involved in AI, blockchain, machine learning, cryptocurrencies, etc.? We really don’t expect you to get it straight away anyway, so you just speak up and ask those ‘stupid questions’.