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I moved in-house a few years ago and it has been a big change. It is more stable, I do have better work/life balance, the money is better, the opportunities for growth are better and there is a much more structured annual review process. There are no surprises. If you’re doing poorly, you’ll know. If you’re up for a promotion, you’ll know. The next steps and “must do’s” are clear. There are bonuses along the way and I feel way more financially compensated for a job well done.
HOWEVER, the grass isn’t always greener. It honestly depends on what you prioritize in terms of your career. You will no longer be in advertising, you’ll be in marketing. They are more cousins than they are siblings and I struggled with the difference between them. Odds are that creative opportunities will be few and far between. Your job will be to appease the brand teams, hit your targets and KPIs, and your work must have measurable results. The goal is not to produce award winning work. Work that wins is a fun by-product and not top of mind like it is agency side. There is more bureaucracy brand side. It’s much more corporate and it can be more of a strict office environment (RTO mandates, business casual attire, lots of office optics, mandatory training, mandatory and frequent in-person company wide business and product updates, etc). You need to drink the koolaid and you need to care about the brands/products you’re working on. You’re expected to know which brands are performing well and which aren’t and why. You’ll be expected to understand the logistics dept, trade, legal, procurement.. all of it (the gist of them, at least).
I’m happy with my move, but it’s been a lot. I’m still adjusting in a lot of ways.
Adding that I don’t think it’ll hurt my career. I’m still making work I’m proud of and do proactively put forward big ideas that are well-received and that I have ended up presenting to the Global teams. Some of it gets made. I work on a lot of big campaigns that are technically book-worthy. I think it will be seen as an asset that I understand the inner-workings of the client, if I decide to go back to an agency.
There’s nothing I can really think of that I wish I had been warned about aside from maybe to check your ego at the door. I thought I was hot sh!t when I first started.. like I was this big creative rockstar coming in with all these awards and accolades and experience, and NO ONE cared. I’ve deduced that brand teams see agency folks like flaky lit cannons who are rarely on brief and who “don’t understand” the brands. They’re seen as juvenile, almost? That they bring lots of fun ideas but they lack substance and can’t actually help their brand with consumers even if it’ll get a lot of attention on LinkedIn. It was a rough (and unfair imo) realization. Just keep an open mind and be aware that it’ll be a learning curve.
I went from in-house to agency - in-house mind numbingly boring, un creative and no collaboration (as a writer I only interacted with account managers and other writers). It was stable and not crazy hours. Generally in-house is less demanding than an agency but it’s not ALWAYS true - understaffing, poor planning and project management, c-suite folks throwing their weight around etc happens in-house, too. My old partner went client side a while ago and honestly I don’t think she deals with less nonsense than the agency world, it’s just a different kind of nonsense.
I’m looking for things like:
• stability
• a healthier work-life balance
• leadership opportunities
• more ownership over creative direction
• a clearer path to senior roles
For those who’ve made the move from agency to in-house:
• Did it help or hurt your career?
• Did you feel more or less fulfilled creatively?
• Was it harder to return to agency life later if you wanted to?
• Anything you wish you’d known before switching?
Thanks for any perspective you can share. ☺️
I moved in-house three years ago after being agency side. My biggest complaint is that I am stuck in my senior writer title with nowhere to go. All around me, old art partners and people I even interned with many years ago are now becoming ACDs or CDs. I am older than all of them, yet they have the fancier title. I hate that I’m stuck on that, but I am for a few reasons I won’t get into now. That said, I am off at 5pm nearly every day, get a yearly bonus (never got that agency side), and I work remotely, which is like another bonus and then some. Plus, my pay is at or above the ACD level pay in my city. I miss the chaos of the agency and being more creative, but I don’t miss those long, sweatshop-like tables, coloring over my greys to “look” younger, or pouring my heart, soul, and evenings/weekends into work that ends up trashed in the end. I think I’ll personally be unhappy anywhere I work because this isn’t my dream—to work for others. But, hey, the side gig ain’t giggin’.