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Was a CD for in-house creative/marketing. couldn't stand it. Took a 40k cut for a Jr position in a totally different line of work. First year or so sucks but I'm comfortably back at the level & pay I should be for my experience. best decision I ever made.
Enthusiast
Yeah I took 5k pay cut from in house to an agency lateral role in the same city for better work and more free time.
Also a rob riley famously did this. Went from ECD to ACD to work at CPB when they were maybe the best place in the world
Yeah, i took a pay cut to go to wk and turned down an offer for 20k more somewhere else. more money isn’t always the better thing for your career. Sometimes, more growth, bigger opportunities, cool clients and a better team can lead to better outcomes, especially for creatives, where our portfolio is more important than the amount of time we’ve spent in the industry
also some places have different pay structures. you might get a bonus on top of base salary, for example
I took a 10k pay cut and kept same title.
Yes I was making 160 as a sr cw in nyc. I took a job for 130 as an acd in minneapolis.
yes and i regret it every day
Yes, the work and client were an amazing op. I would do again, if you’re in the position to take the cut take it. Only if you’d be extremely excited to work on the account.