I’m about to make the change to an agency that’s not great and doesn’t do great work. I feel like my career is just gonna go downhill from here. But the alternative is to be jobless. Advice?

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I’ve been in a similar situation and made the most of it. My advice: Enjoy the people. Build relationships. Have fun with it. Be proud of the work. Beware of forming bad habits and B players who aren’t in interested in making good work. Become the voice of reason and an inspiration. Things will work out!

likehelpful

^This

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Take the paycheck and keep looking? Or freelance if you can?

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Your career is whatever you make it.

likefunnyuplifting

Eat.

likesmart

If you’re determined, you can get good work out of anywhere. I had a meeting with a top CCO here in London a few months back, he had just hired a team from a dire agency; because they managed to get one very good ad out of there and the CCO felt they deserved a shot at a better agency.

I would see this as an opportunity. If you can get good work out of this place, people will take note.

likehelpful

Be the change? For some great agency’s that do great work now there may have been a time when they didn’t so someone sparked that change. Also why can’t it be that you hang at this agency until something better comes around?

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Working is more honorable than not working.

likefunny

I agree with CD1. Was at a d list agency but got along with the leadership, one whom moved to a b list one. They hooked me up!

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It depends how much money you have in the bank, how badly you need health insurance, and how long youve tried to get freelance work without success.

I sympathize with needing to eat. You can absolutely take the shitty job and continue looking. Youve got a year or a little more to not add to your book, keep calling friends and contacts, and just generally pretend in interviews that it isnt happening/didnt happen.

Good luck—sorry this industry sucks so much.

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One more thing I’ll add: a LOT of people at Droga, Anomaly, McCann, 72, insert any reputable agency name, don’t make good work. Being at a so-called top shop is no guarantee your book gets better. It’s never about the agency as a whole, it’s about your individual situation and what you put into it to make the most of the opportunity at hand.

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Very true (even WK must do bad stuff, they MUST), but those places have a ratio of good work to bad (half and half being about the best we can probably hope for), and many more opportunities to make something good, and maybe most importantly, the experience with how to make (and sell and produce and enter) good stuff.

I guess Im just defending the OP’s ability to identify a place that sucks, but is hiring. Its a much more likely scenario than a place thats just waiting for one awesome Cannes Grand Prix win to turn it all around.

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Don’t put it on your linkedin. Did you get laid off?

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Open yourself up to different type of growth, and keep looking in the meantime. There’s always something you can learn.

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You might be surprised. Having low expectations coming in could ultimately increase your chances of getting them exceeded.

And often happiness comes as a result of things we suck at predicting. You might find more work-life balance, fewer assholes, or other nice surprises in there.

Enjoy it. You can always spin this job experience into a great narrative for your career later on. As long you learn something it will be positive.

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Ask to start freelance for 3 months to perm! Give yourself that window while you continually apply and interview. Also scour working not working every day for jobs, it was beyond helpful for me to find freelance. This was my last experience - going to a smaller agency that I knew wasn’t making great work, if I could do it all over again I think I would have asked for the scenario I described above. I don’t think one copywriter can really be the “change” an agency needs nor should you have to put that weight on your shoulders. Just my two cents.

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Agree w both ur concern and replies pointing out that u can do good work at bad agencies. You can, but it’s obviously not the norm there, so u r right to b concerned. Stay laser focused on good opportunities. One hint: good opportunities rarely present as such initially. You have to have a pretty good nose for it.

It’s not your last job. Make friends, push the needle, move on and use it as a resume builder by showing what was broken before you got there.

Keep looking when you are there. Don’t get lulled into mediocrity.

Take charge and turn that place around! Work hard and make miracles happen, you can do anything 💪 plus, you'll meet new people and probably make great friends!

I know this kind of shotgun positivity is well intentioned, but it’s not useful to just ignore the situation the OP laid out.

Shitty places exist, we can say it. In terms of actually helping, to just shout inspirational instagram captions is about as useful as saying “give up, dont do it.”

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Tough one. Stay jobless and then fall way into debt and really mess things up for yourself. No, don’t do that. Take the fucking job so you can, you know, live and stuff.

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