I don’t want to be in a leadership position anymore and would love to go back to concepting ideas I want to sell. (That’s what I love most. Always has been.) Does this mean an automatic demotion and salary cut? Or would agencies value the experience and expertise? Would love to hear from leadership POV.

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Posting as :
works at
You are currently posting as works at

I’m not going to pay you more to do less. That said, we hire a ton of CD level freelancers to come in and bang work out. But we generally don’t put them on creative opportunities.

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I was a CD at a big global shop that felt stale and wasn’t challenging. I was bored and needed some creative stimulation. I missed making fun things. I missed coming up with ideas. I felt like I still had some gas left in the tank, and wasn’t ready to be complacent.
So I left.
And I got a perma-remote gig as an ACD at a smaller independent creative shop in a different market. I guess I demoted myself by taking the job, but the role was the same. My ECD trusts me to lead my accounts, I me toe/manage more creatives here, and I still get to concept and make fun things. I love it. I’m so much happier. And the best part is… I got a higher salary as an ACD at this shop than my CD salary at the big shop. It was only about 15k. But still, happier making things and concepting than sitting in boring scoping meetings and status calls.
👍🏼

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I prefer coming up with ideas and work too, but realistically I also have to deal with the other stuff at my level. I’ve found balance by both managing and being very active in the ideas and work. I am sometimes very hands on. It helps to have very strong rapport and a close working relationship with your teams.

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Depends on the type of account you’re on and the difficulty of the account. There are some accounts that are very top heavy so even the concepting falls on ACD level and up. For example, I’m on the Samsung account and normally we don’t hire anyone below ACD level.

I thought I was the only one but feel this even as an ACD. The individual contributor track for creatives in tech is the only career path I’ve seen that allows for growth as a “master” of your craft while earning a salary comparable to creative leadership. I desperately want to transition into tech because of it, but obviously times are tougher now.

I did the same and kept my CD salary. Made some of my best work in those years.

I am at a smaller agency and the people mgmt from CDs is minimal, they’re still doing a lot of work. I haven’t found smaller groups paying too much less, sometimes it’s even more.

Meta have a sole contributor vs people manager track. Same level/pay but you can opt to focus on just the work - because let’s face it, some people shouldn’t be managers and many managers aren’t good leaders. Besides, how big your team is shouldn’t be a measure of success - a portfolio of solid work vs a ‘portfolio’ (excuse the analogy) of people is just as fulfilling and career defining — let’s not forget, it’s more billable, too.

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2025 only 25% in office wali scheme ka kya hua 🙌
25 din me paisa double wali scheme nikali ye to 😹

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