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Coach
I've always heard that agencies are a great place to start because you're exposed to so much. But I can't help but think there are some junior roles out there at really reputable companies that are worth taking on just to get the company on your resume.
It doesn't really matter. I started out client side and move to agency side after 5 years. I think both prepare you in different ways.
Coach
Since you've been on both sides of this, how do you think they're different in preparing you in your career?
Like you said in your follow up comment, I think agency side is the best place to start because it exposes you to everything. You'll work with a wide variety of clients and learn the inner workings of an agency and all the different roles. Once you have that experience, it's really easy to pivot to client side if you so desire.
Coach
My two cents - I’m happy I started at an agency. What I thought I wanted to do leaving college vs what I actually enjoy doing are totally different. And I’m grateful I got to test out different industries, types of PR, etc in an agency setting
It depends on the skill set you’re looking to build. If you want to do deep, creative work and build out the vision and voice for a brand, you start brand side. This is where you become a specialist.
Agency is great in terms of improving multiple skills at once — especially as it relates to execution.
You’ll learn project management and workflows, marketing lingo, data / reporting. And you can build a lot of connections at different companies bc you’re serving a ton of clients. Unfortunately, it’s not deep work AT ALL, and everything will be centered around fast and not necessarily “good” work. There’s a lot of over promising / underdelivering.
IMO, from a skill perspective the most talented marketers come from startup because it’s all performance marketing, getting scrappy, and tons of testing which you do less of at Fortune 100 companies. But also, this so happens to be a field that you can get by with no skill as long as your soft skills are good and the boss likes you.