The brash young go-getter, possibly called Julian, bouncing concepts off colleagues called Seb and Max: the slick, cynical executive selling sugar saturated cereals to seven-year-olds. These are unfair and outmoded images of the advertising industry, according to Steve Shanahan, CEO of the Institute of Advertising Practitioners in Ireland.

"We've always recognised we're seen as cowboys, and fly-by-nights, but we know it's not true," he says. "The business is not as sinister as some make out. We always get blamed for problems such as underage drinking because we're a soft target."

The industry is highly professional and regulated, he says, and offers good opportunities for people with a diverse range of talents.

There are four key disciplines within a traditional advertising agency. The first is the creative department. The creatives generally work in teams made up of "visualisers" and copywriters. They look at the client's brief of the image they want to create for a product and come up with slogans, visual images and ideas about what the ad should be like.

Then there is the service/account handling department. They liaise between the client and the company and act as sales people for the agency. Shanahan says these people require strong negotiating skills, an ability to sell and a good head for details.

The third area is strategic planning. The role of the planner, says Shanahan "is to see advertising through the eyes for the consumer". They work closely with the creative department to make sure the creatives have a broad concept of what the ad should be about and ensure that they keep to that concept.

Finally there is the media planning and buying department. They decide where the advertising should go, the volume and frequency of the advertising, at whom it's aimed and when it should go out.

Advertising is very competitive and salaries can be very low for people starting out, often less than £15,000. Shanahan stresses, however, the industry is a meritocracy. "The money is good when people want to hold on to you. If you're worth it, you'll be well paid."

This is particularly true of the creative staff. "Good creatives are paid very well, but you need to have a particular talent for words and ideas, innate skills you can't learn."

Shanahan says there are particular types of people who are suited to the job.

"The industry is always looking for people with creative flair who have the ability to think laterally, but you have to get used to a lot of knocks. A client may not like what you've come up with and you have to live with that as it's something that happens all the time."

The job offers very good prospects for working outside Ireland, he says. "There are 13 or 14 big multinationals in Ireland so if you're keen to work internationally there are good opportunities and the Irish in this industry are thought of very highly abroad."

No formal qualification is required to work in advertising and it is possible to get in on the ground floor and work you way up. But, says Shanahan, a third-level qualification is becoming increasingly desirable.

DIT Aungier Street runs a one-year MSc in advertising that is fully recognised by the IAVI. Course coordinator and lecturer in advertising, Veronica Gannon, says applicants are not required to have studied any particular discipline for their primary degree, but they need to consider whether they want to go into the creative or the executive side of the business.

"After the first semester students choose either the creative or the executive stream. Those interested in the creative side would need to show evidence of creative motivation such as amateur photography or creative writing."

In the creative stream students learn about art direction, copywriting, TV and radio and design. The executive stream includes media planning services and strategy and current issues of advertising.

Gannon says the industry is currently very buoyant and the course has a high success rate for graduate employment.