Joe Hercik
Get to know some of our College of Media alumni. Joe Hercik (BS ‘04, advertising) is a product owner for the Quantum Computing team at State Farm’s Innovation Group. Hercik also participated in a Media Career night alumni panel on “Corporate Communication” in Fall 2023. Watch a recording of the session here.
Why did you choose advertising as your major?
When I came to the University of Illinois in 2000, I wanted to go into graphic design but didn’t get accepted into that program. I didn’t have much formal art training going into it, but I had an artistic side and was very interested. So, my first semester, I was in landscape architecture, and during that semester, I saw a journalism friend working on a project using Adobe Photoshop. I asked them what class that was for, and it was for ADV 150: Introduction to Advertising; I thought, “Here’s a way to do graphic design and get paid.” I looked into it and took classes to get experience with the College of Media. I applied to the advertising program during my junior year and began my studies there.
What was one of your most memorable experiences here at Illinois?
By senior year in the advertising program, you tailored your classes a bit more based on your interests such as the business side or the creative track. I distinctly remember one presentation where we had someone from one of the major ad agencies, and I’ll never forget it. They held up a fashion magazine and said, “Any guess how many ads are in this?” They did the math; there were around 300, and they said, “You are one ad among 300, and you need to be able to catch their attention, keep it, and sell yourself—your product.” Nowadays, it’s more like 3,000 with online ads. This helps me understand the importance of standing out.
Looking back, would you have done anything differently with your time at the University of Illinois?
Networking is a huge deal. You need skills, experience, and competency in what you do, but making connections and maintaining them over the years has held true throughout my career; it’s key to future success. That’s not just a life skill but also a business skill, so I probably would have been more intentional about that.
What has your career path looked like?
I didn’t have a clear path laid out to follow. It’s good to have a plan; the worst plan is still better than no plan. I made sure to use my time in the summer wisely and worked at WPGU. I did missionary work after college and fundraised my salary at the time. Over the next 15 years, I like to describe what I went through as the sales or the customer journey, where you go for more face-to-face, customer-focused work. Eventually, I went into more communications and marketing work across different business areas and departments and then into technology. I applied to State Farm on a whim and resurrected my communication-focused work, and that’s been my journey.
What does your job entail at State Farm?
I like to say that my day-to-day involves asking smart people dumb questions, and I say that because most of the people on my team are technically focused—there are three data analysts and one software engineer. Two of the analysts have PhDs, one in physics and the other in math, so there are some meetings where it’s only in math terms, and it may as well be a completely different language. My job is to say, “Okay, put this in layman’s terms as much as possible in a way I can explain it to other business areas so they can come to understand what it is we’re doing, why it’s important, and how we might be able to help them.” That’s the main focus of my work—trying to understand and align the team with leadership to show where things are and where it’s going to help manage and pace expectations to create the envisioned direction.
What advice would you give students in the College of Media?
The College of Media focuses on communication—being able to understand what it is you want to communicate and then doing that successfully, regardless of whether it’s public speaking, writing, or any other medium. It’s a very important skill to have—being able to articulate your thoughts and being persuasive—and you can apply it to whatever you do. Communication is not just a soft skill; it’s nice to have in addition to your technical or business expertise, so I would encourage students to put in the time for public speaking—practicing and studying speeches. Same with writing—simplify your message. And I know data is seen as the currency nowadays, but attention is also the current currency. Capture attention and keep it through communication.
—Interview by Chloe Barbarise, New Voices Intern
