By: Nicholas Morin
Working in an advertising or public relations agency has always seemed like an amazing career path. Sure, the hours are long, but working in that field can bring you to so many different places in your life. Since the start of my college adventure at West Virginia University, I have always wanted to work in a large agency in a big city with household named clients. To me, that’s what being in the strategic communication field is all about. However, working in agency life isn’t always what people expect. So here is a list of a few pros and cons that lay out what really goes on in the AD/PR agency world today.
Let’s start with the pros!
- Being up to date on what is buzzing in the consumer network today is such an important aspect of being a professional strategic communicator. Often, working for an in-house company that has an older demographic can lead employees to lose touch with what is going on with trends. For the most part, agencies stay up to date with current market and industry trends (Ruuth, 2018). Agencies deal with multiple clients day in and day out which means watching the trends both from the consumer and market is extremely important when working to be successful. What does this mean for you? Well, by working in an agency, part of your job will be to watch those trends move and keep an eye on the market. Working in an agency will keep you up to date and ready to tackle anything in the industry.
- On top of being ahead in your field, creative agencies are known to have a great social environment. During the long hours and time spent in the office, agency life allows you to build strong friendships with colleagues and sometimes even participate in company-wide activities. Some agencies are even known to throw parties to get their employees together (DornPassionate, 2019).
- Connections are huge in this industry. Building, maintaining, and keeping relationships with industry professionals is a key to long-term success. Agency PPC managers have those connections and experiences with all types of businesses, clients, and different niche industries that can help spark those networking opportunities (Ruuth, 2018).
Now, the negatives.
- Living a happy and healthy lifestyle is a universal goal for everyone. What is important to remember when venturing into the life of an agency employee are the long hours and stressful situations you are bound to end up in. Agencies are known to overwork their employees, especially their creatives (DornPassionate, 2019).
- Along with the heavy amounts of work and creative overload, getting credit from your boss to the higher-ups is few and far between. There will be nights where you don’t sleep and work 60+ hour weeks just to get a quick pat on the back and watch your account supervisors get the credit (“Pros & Cons of working at an Ad agency”, 2017).
- After all that work and long hours, agencies statistically offer the lowest wages to entry level positions. Yes, moving up can be quicker but the pay is much lower (“Pros & Cons of working at an Ad agency”, 2017).
These are just some of the pros and cons of working for agencies. If agency life is right for you, the positives will outweigh the negatives. What is important is for you to know what you’re getting yourself into before accepting a job. By using this list and doing more research on agency life, you can get a real grasp on what being an agency worker is all about.
Reference List:
DornPassionate, N. (2019, February 4). 16 Pros and Cons of Working at an Ad Agency: Filestage Blog. Retrieved from https://filestage.io/blog/pros-and-cons-of-working-at-an-advertising-agency/.
Ruuth, S. (2018, March 9). Pros & Cons Of Working At An Ad Agency. Retrieved from https://www.disruptiveadvertising.com/ppc/pros-cons-working-at-an-ad-agency/.
Pros & Cons of working at an Ad agency. (2017, November 21). Retrieved from http://www.marketerhub.online/blog/pros-cons-working-ad-agency/.
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