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Has anyone received band progression mail ?
TBWA NY recruiter?
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Who does your taxes? Need a recommend. Thanks.
Someone should get fired for this
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There’s no shame in doing what you have to do to pay the bills while you continue to look for the ideal creative opportunity. A lot of us are in the same boat. Good luck.
Yep. Picked up and moved to a ski town to bartend and wait tables until the market improves. The funny thing is that I’m meeting or exceeding my (long-term project) freelance day rate most shifts and am now seriously contemplating just taking a year-long sabbatical from advertising to reassess whether or not I want to continue in this industry at all.
Also, getting another gig while waiting out this awful job market will allow you to wait for the right opportunity when it comes along, instead of just jumping at the first job offer out of necessity.
CD3 Absolutely! For anyone reading you can check out LoopNet to find businesses for sale. Or in our case we floated the idea to the owners before they were ready to sell. Our advertising background helped translate to running our own media and marketing.
In the same situation. Be ready for “your experience seems very geared towards creative roles, why do you think you make a good candidate for X?”
Yup in the same position. Have had to take on a retail sales position to make it for now. Gonna try to give freelancing a shot since I’ve moved to a new state.
I’m in a similar situation. Hoping the job market gets better soon.
It’s not going to. In fact, it’s highly likely to get even worse. Once AI is sufficiently refined, there won’t be any jobs left at all.
I clean toilets now. Not a lot of difference tbh.
Coach
I would totally clean toilets for $200k /year.
It was definitely a set back. Peers at my level were promoted. I got a role at the same level and even lower pay now. So career trajectory, salary, future earnings and savings took a hit.
I’m in the same boat. Been looking for almost a year. I’ve applied to customer service positions, entry level no experience positions not a single bite.
It’s better than not having a job at all. You don’t have to put it on your resume, and I think most people understand that you have to do what you have to do in this market.
Mind telling us what agency you got laid off from so we can avoid it? Or dm me.
Just tried DMing you but it says you’re not available to chat.
Similar boat. I’m working at a job that promised to be creative but they restructured and now I’m working on… stuff I’m not proud of.
Despite this, I can manage my workload with main job and freelance to fill in the huge pay cut I got for this new soul sucking job. My heart is happier for it, and the extra cash doesn’t hurt. My goal is to go hard with freelance next year when the market picks up. Taking this time to network and grab coffee with people too.
Glad you’re feeling better. I hear you on the networking part. I’m trying my best with that part right now.
Unemployed over a year here. I just had to take a part time job at my local library for minimum wage. Honestly, I’d forget about copywriting as a career. Pivot to something else like the trades - plenty of work available for good money, plus AI can’t replace you.
You can still channel your creative passion through other channels like social media or creative writing sites. But for a living? Forget it.
Yep, we're on the same boat, I work in a factory because I was just jumping on interviews like a frog, a company gave me the job like 4 month after the interview 🤨 i didn't accepted it bc the commute was like 2h from where I live now, absolutely horrible 😑
I am going through the same situation!
The creative marketing industry is going to get destroyed by AI. Plus, the creative job market is way too overcrowded. Everybody and their brother wants a creative job these days. Unless you have family members in very high places or are an industry rockstar with a mile-long list of awards and a minimum of 1 million LinkedIn followers, you’re not getting hired. If I were you, I’d forget about finding another full-time creative job. Pivot to a different field.
Another commenter here mentioned the trades, which is a great idea. There is a huge need for plumbers, electricians, and roofers right now. And a lot of local unions offer paid apprenticeships if you apply soon enough. And once you become a journeyman, you could make far more money than you’d ever make as a creative marketer. And the best part? AI can’t take your job.
Plus I’d rather sit in the AC than beat myself up physically to earn a living.
This happened to me last year. Took an advertising pharma job. I’m now making 40k more than I was but the work truly is unfulfilling and barely creative at best. But you have to do what you have to do.
Coach
How did you get a pharma job? They always ask for previous pharma experience.
I’m 56 years old and after working so hard, all those late hours, 70 hour weeks for the last 20 years amount to me not even getting a junior design job that is a salary comparable to what I started at in this industry. I’m done. No one appreciates experience or good creative thinking. Oh and I also want to thank those damn robots reading the resumes and filtering out qualified people before an actual human reviews them.
I have always maintained my lifeguard certification since high school. I was always able to get part time work when I got laid off. It’s also a good way to get free gym use. (Workouts are a great stress reliever.) I’ve taken pay cuts to get back to work. Yes, it set me back a little, but a steady, low-paying CW job was better than unemployment.