Thinking about switching from an SME position to account. Anyone have experience doing so? Did you have to take a cut in pay, or did they bump you up a few levels on the account side?

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People get paid to be "subject matter experts?"

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Wait what?

Why would you ever want to switch into account?

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Being an account person in a PR agency is not the same as in advertising at all, so keep that in mind. But it's still a broad skill set rather than a deep one. Agree you need to think of your long term goals.

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Most of the digital people I know have good or excellent account management skills as well. If that describes you, a same-level account position would be reasonable to expect, especially if your main account (post-switch) is digital-heavy.

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Curious as to why you think you’d need to either take a cut in pay or get bumped up multiple levels to take on an account role?

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What’s sme?

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If you have zero subject matter expertise in account management, not sure why you think anyone would be "matching" anything you are now. Switching careers / disciplines means starting over of various degrees. I'm looking to switch to something else and considering even a 50% cut from current salary to start out

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I'm an SME making 180. How senior are you? Working how many years in digital?

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Subject matter expert

Because of the difference in pay between SME and account

What's your pay/number of working years?

I’m in digital and I’m senior level. I make 75. An SAE account I believe makes 55. Does that make sense?

Stay in digital. That is a hard skill. Account is administrative, it’s management, it’s people skills, lots of finance - some strategy if you are lucky. In a nut shell, you put out fires and heard cats. However some/most others think you only care about money and keeping the client happy and not about the work - maybe prove the stereotype wrong?

Think about the longer term career path you want. They can lead down very different paths. Account people or generalists may make more in the short term but the more senior you get the more options there tend to be on the agency or client side. Specialists make more quickly but there tend to be fewer roles the more senior you get. They exist for sure but the options are fewer.

Thanks all! Sounds like I need to figure out where I see myself in 10ish years and go from there. Appreciate it. Throwing a possible new city in the mix is throwing me off too. Will see

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Does 
Mphasis have hire and fire policy? How is work life balance? How is the culture?

I have an offer from

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“have fun with this brief” they say before telling you the client is pretty conservative and needs to have safer options.

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I feel like I’m either getting burnt out by work or trying to heal myself from it. There’s never much time for real life and I don’t want to be on my death bed reminiscing like, “Wow, I made some cool ads.” Nothing scares me more.

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likefunny

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