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PayU is hiring Automation Tester with 2 - 6 Years of experience in Pune, Bangalore and Gurgaon locations.
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What was your “That’s it, I quit” moment
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Yeah you’ll hit a pay plateau pretty quick. But my strong advice is to try and set up your life to be comfortable at that pay level, rather than succumbing to the temptation of promotions and raises. An ACD salary is enough for a good life. It’s just everything in society (and all the ads we make) is designed to convince you it’s not.
Mentor
100%
Mentor
I would love you on my team. What I would do is promote you to creative director if your work was great with the understanding that you never had to manage people. I’ve seen many award-winning Creatives in this position and that’s the deal they get. they are promoted even higher under the understanding that they never have to be in management and just do the work themselves. When Fallon was at its height there were many people like this. There are people like this at the video New York, Wieden, and I’m sure just about every really creative agency
Mentor
The ability to manage and the ability to deal with the business side and clients, and then the ability to produce groundbreaking work are three completely different skill sets. It’s ridiculous to demand all three before promoting somebody. And therefore you get hacky political heads of creative departments. The head of creative should be purely a creative and the best one possible. She or he should not have to do any of those other things unless they are naturally good at them.
I’ve received this advice from my CD mentors because I’ve asked the same question:
You’ll definitely hit a pay cap at some point where you won’t be eligible for any more raises without a promotion. On a numbers scale, you’ll look more disposable around layoffs time because another ACD will be able to do the same job at a lesser salary. There has to be a way to justify your high salary, especially if you aren’t wanting to move up. I’ve been told you can’t stay at one level and expect your pay to keep increasing after a certain point.
Same is true for “the Deans”, Hansen and Buckhorn.
It all depends on what you’re contributing. The guys mentioned above were killing it conceptually day in and day out. They helped set the tone and the bar for the creative dept. Awards (which mattered more at the time) out the wazoo. Their work garnered the agency tons of press attention. That has real value.
Usually, promotion to CD (and the salary increase) brings added responsibility, meetings, client engagements, etc. As an ACD, you aren’t expected, or paid to do that.
Mentor
Accept that your pay will plateau.
When an ACD gets paid more than a CD, it’s only a matter of time before you get laid off.
Go to the “Over 40 in Advertising” bowl for more info.
Same. Says I don't have access, which is why it wasn't showing up in searches I guess.
Mentor
I’m a CD and concept a ton, execute the ideas and campaigns, and produce everything from TV, print, social, activations, etc. You can be a CD and do all of those things with minimal BS politics, client meetings and managing. You just need to find the right agency with the right ECD or CCO that support what your passion is if you’re good at it.
You might be in the rare position where going to an agency with a ton of layers is a good move. Look for larger accounts run directly through ECDs or the CCO (or both) where CDs have to concept instead of just mentor. Get the title, get the money, keep doing what you like
You can find a CD job where you do a lot of the work. Focus on that. Because pay ceiling.
In tech world it’s called a Principal Track vs Management.
Also individual contributor! Agency model is antiquated and I’ve had shit managers simply because ad agencies only have one career track
In some markets/countries you are able to remain a ad,copy,acd and have a higher salary. Usually in South America/Asia.
I was an ACD making more than some CDs, and when budgets got cut, so did I, despite getting glowing performance reviews and a raise 6 months prior.
Yeah-who says that being a CD means you stop doing the work? So, okay, you do have to become more client-facing, but any agency worth a damn these days has creatives present their own—the title just lets entitles you, for better or worse, to ride further up on the roller coaster. * And, as to the degree of sit in meetings/manage surly people side of the problem—that will depend on the account (I knew two guys back in the day who were a CD pair/sole creative team on a big telecom account—the agency hired them at that level by way of locking on the golden handcuffs because this client was no joy).
That said, if your work is good enough, and that means you are oxygen to a highly valued piece of business, you can negotiate a hands-on CD gig, and many do.
* Before someone mentions that Chiat, at its peak, had account folks present all the work, with the instruction, “if you didn’t sell it today, go back and sell it tomorrow. And the day after. Or don’t come back to the agency”—well, that was a unique time.
Is there an opportunity at your company for a design director position? That is usually a great fit for what you are describing. Not every company has a lane like that but it’s worth a conversation at least.
Coach
Design Director doesn’t do what I do and I don’t have the desire to do what a Design Director does. I don’t follow you.