Which job is more thankless — PM or Account?

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PM, at least the Account people get those nice emails when we launch good work

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Are you guys kidding? I’ve been an agency PM for 8 years, and was a PM client side for 5 years before that. I️ love it. You’re the one who can solve all the problems. You know how all the pieces fit. You work with a hugely diverse group of people every day. You know where the bodies are buried. You run the show (or at least the project). And when something goes truly haywire, bad decisions are made, etc.? “Oh Account, need your help to message this back to the clients.”

While I️ do work with clients directly, you couldn’t pay me enough to be the one responsible for the overall client relationship (and upselling) that Account has on their plate. I️ am in awe of my Account team and the crap they put up with every day. No fancy dinner is worth that - especially when, to enjoy that dinner, you have to share it with the people who just spent the workday dumping on you.

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PM... Account gets the nice dinners/client outings/lunches and ends up going on a lot of the shoots when budget is tight to manage the client, rather than the producer manager the shoot itself.

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PMs are the first to be blamed and the last to be thanked.

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^^itsa me, mario

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Fancy dinners?! I'd gladly go home and eat pizza, no, bread and butter, just to not have to be "on" and partaking in this till all hours of the evening. Even when clients are nice, that's super exhausting. Just go to your hotel room already!

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^Agree. I can’t understand the redeeming qualities of being a PM.

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At the right agency (meaning the PMs are leading the teams and not the account team), it’s really fun to create the sandbox the team plays in. I enjoy being part of the team and helping people create their best work. Problem solving is fun, and coaching teams past their “storming” phases is gratifying. There’s also a protective vibe that kicks in when out of scope requests are made or I feel like the team is receiving unreasonable requests. I like knowing my team trusts me to have their backs, and appreciate when they use me for more than being a babysitter.

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Sorry, PM peeps, but No, if the account goes south, it's my responsibility, not yours. I get the blame and I have to go to the client to explain myself on behalf of the agency, etc etc. Account by virtue of being called account management is the gate keeper of the account and nothing goes out without my review/approval

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I’ve wondered the same thing. Where’s the job satisfaction in being a PM?

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DigitasLBi 1 agree with you for the most part, it’s awesome, but still thankless. No one sees or cares how much we do, and rarely do we get the recognition that say, creatives or even account gets. Not to say I care about a pat on the head, but someone else said it perfectly: first to be blamed, last to be thanked. That’s usually how it goes anyway.

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^ that has nothing to do with your job being thankless or not. Yeah you get the praise or criticism, PM gets criticism... hence, thankless.

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Late to this party, but have to say PM. I’ve been both roles and agree with several posts on here—rarely does the PM get any thanks and in my experience if someone so much is having a “bad day” I get talked to like shit. I don’t feel like I own anything, but more less a wrangler/babysitter, etc etc. Who knows, maybe the job just isn’t my thing, but after 2+ years, 2 different agencies in this role I’m trying get back into Account (or ideally in-house somewhere 😬)

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Literally fucking none (other than satisfying my OCD). 😑

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PM

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PM 15000% . SDP1 is right.

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^i agree with you re our role and it can be thankless as hell but i do think PM is more thankless. if we sell in new business, we get thanked (or even get bonuses), the PMs who scoped it rarely do. and whether you consider travel and nice dinners “perks” or not, you get them in account. PM runs the internal ship and i’ve rarely if ever seen anyone be like wow PM thank you for being awesome.

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Account.

SPM2 totally agree, but none of that means it’s still not a thankless job. Those are all the reasons I love the job as well, but how often do you get recognition for any of that? And how often are you blamed, if not partially when things go wrong? Everyone, including Account gets to blame the PM if the project goes off the rails which is sometimes unavoidable even if you’re a kick ass PM. I love being the protector/champion for my team, but at the end of the day it’s rare that anyone comes looking for the PM to thank them for producing award winning work. Still though, I wouldn’t trade it for Account. That’s a hard-ass, relatively thankless job too.

^ oookaaayyy... It just goes to show how little anyone really knows about account management, please have the title of most thankless job, too 😉

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