Pros and Cons of Working at an Ad Agency

Beware what you pray for…

Being a Graphic Designer, I spent more than 4 years daydreaming about working at an ad agency (my prior jobs had been related to design, but not in the creative industry).

Finally I got the call. A very polite gentleman explained that his agency had landed a big client.

Fast forward a year, and there I was in his creative shop, but the road has been anything but easy.

This is why I wanted to share this list of Pros and Cons of working in an Ad Agency.

PROS:

Working in the creative industry is exciting and gratifying, your work sometimes involves crafting funny ideas, which is not easy, but the outcome is worth the effort.

You get to see your work out in the streets, sometimes in supermaket ailses, sometimes in big billboards.

You basically get to dress pretty much however you want. (Although in my case, since I am in meetings very often, I dress within a certain range).

Your job forces you to find inspiration activities. Thus, photography, going to the movies, going to conferences, is part of your periodic brain diet.

Your work is visual, and social media love visual content. If you know how to market you work in these platforms, you can land extra clients which means more money, or even landing a better job.

CONS:

An ad agency can be a very exhausting, and consuming place to work. Most positions are announced to end at 5pm, but that is never true.

You literally get the consequences of being sitted for +5 hours non stop. In my case, I’m suffering from a slight yet constant knee pain.

Dealing with clients is not always easy. Too often their expectations time-wise are unrealistic.

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All in all, I enjoyed that chapter of my life. I wrote this in January 2015 and worked in the agency until December that year. I worked in that agency for a total of two years. But I definitely learned a lot from my ex boss, not only in the pure technical aspects of the creative industry, but also in the managing part of running your own business.