Which department has the hardest job: account, production, art/design, copy, strat, or medical?

Hardest to do well: account. My favorite account people are awesome at repping creative and managing clients, and they know the brands inside out. But it’s hard to find people who are good at all of the above, and those who are are also the most stressed out.

Edit, because they always get the finger pointed at them if something isn’t correct. They also get the shit end of the stick with last minute reads, launch coverage, jobs being added to the night list, etc.

Copy, because they have to know the drugs they’re working on inside and out and be able to provide annotations for fact check.

Medical, these folks need to help explain data to the rest of us in a way that’s smart, digestible, and easy to understand.

Account, because they have to deal with some psychotic and insane clients and their never ending demands.

PM, they basically have to be the den mother to everyone, keep budgets on track, and herd everything along timing wise.

Art, ugh we are all terrified of this AI hellscape that threatens our livelihood. The rampant imposter syndrome and feeling like a failure if you can’t think of a new campaign concept in 36-48 hours. Some of the rudest assholes I’ve met in this industry happen to be my Art peers and that is truly a bummer. Can’t we all just be a little nicer to one another? It’s not a pissing contest to see who is the most talented, etc.

Studio/Production, they don’t ever get the respect that they deserve.

Edit. I don’t know how they do what they do. And if something is wrong, they are always blamed.

I think it’s account and I am not account. To be good, they have to understand everybody’s job AND handle the client on a daily basis. I wouldn’t do that job unless forced (or paid exorbitantly, which they really aren’t)

As a former medical person I can confidently say that it's not medical.

I personally think it's account. It's a very disparate skill set to be good at it, which is there are so few great account people.

I might be biased but being account sucks lol. This is of course, if you’re not a coaster that says things like “that’s not my job”.

I have to know enough about design to be able to push back on clients when I get one off calls and have to push back on feedback, need to know enough about copy to speak to it on a whim and know the refs and data, have to know enough about strat to be last line of defense on both the client and internal side on creative direction and decisions, I have finance crawling up my ass all day long every day and ultimately the health of the financial health brand falls on my shoulders, need to know enough about technical sides of things to quickly manage when something stupid is happening and the clients are clueless and blaming us, have to keep the clients happy so we don’t lose the business, have to keep the team happy so they don’t revolt (and are more productive when they want to be on your team). Need to fill in any gap and any time to make sure the company doesn’t look like it’s behaving poorly. Always have to put that “we can do it face on” even when your dying.

It’s like simultaneously being an intern in every department and also being the final decision maker.

Feel like Red Panda at NBA halftime shows spinning 20 plates riding a unicycle, while people are blowing air horns and launching Tshirt guns next to me the whole time

Even though I’m an art director, I don’t find our job necessarily “hard”. Is it challenging? Sure. I personally love what I do. I consider myself friendly and social, but I don’t envy the account team who have to talk to clients daily and maintain a constant smile. They have a tough role as the intermediaries.

I think design does the most actual work because we have to actually create the pieces so it takes more time for us. Every time we go over hours allocated to a project, design always has the most because we NEED them. BUT we don’t need to know as much as any of the other departments. We can kind of just wait until it’s our turn, do the work and pass it off. So i dont think that answers the question haha

Project management...leading without little authority over the people who you need to get stuff done.

I think it wildly varies depending on if you’ve had only exposure to bad examples or good examples of each department.

Like for example I think PM is a job you could phone it in and somehow still keep your job. With that said I’ve seen so many PMs do that and I refuse to be that way. I believe all tides raise all boats and that anticipating and solving problems before they are even problems at all can completely alter work/life balance and project execution.

I’ve learned I operate so vastly different from other PMs that people have asked me multiple times this year if they can work on my projects because I proactively do things to make their life easier and give them the space they need to accomplish their job. Just in the past 9 months I’ve had over a dozen people tell me they’ve never met a PM like me that operates at such a high level. If I’m doing what I think PMs should be doing then it makes everyone else’s job WAY easier but makes mine so much harder too. However, I agree with others that the average PM seems to phone it in and shrug their shoulders when things go sideways.

I’ve seen complete incompetence in every department where I’m thinking damn you couldn’t fight your way out of a paper bag but then watched others that it’s like watching art in motion. You can tell the difference between the ones that are going through the motions versus those that clearly have a gift in their specific department.

Design

These days it has to be creative due to the short timelines and smaller than ever departments due to AI and the business models of the holding companies.

Account. We have the pressure of keeping the business so everyone else has a job. You’re welcome. No but seriously account life is very stressful and a balance of accommodating clients and respecting your team’s time and talent.

All have their moments of being hard, it really depends on the brand and team.

Design. Writers and art directors do an equal amount of work when it comes to concepting. But only the writers have a chance to get to happy hour.

I think art has the toughest job. I’d say account, but since 90% are just order takers and list makers who copy and paste every client comment for others to answer for them, they don’t get my vote.