Would you rather be a big fish in a small pond, or a small fish in a big pond?

I feel like a big fish one year into my job. It felt great at first but now, I’m bored with the work and slow pace. (A slow pace sounded great at first because I felt burnt out by my old agency.) I'm freelancing more to stay creative and sane. But is it better to find a fast-paced day job vs. freelance more to feel content with a slow-paced day job?

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It’s a personality thing but I’ve always preferred being the small fish in a big pond. Way more opportunity to learn. Freelance is great if you only
want to focus on the work, but having the experience of managing a team goes a long way.

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That's a good point. I've been really happy with just writing and not managing, but I think the natural future step would be to get more experience leading a team. My manager is really hands-off so I found a great mentor in a non-creative department, but I'd love to be somewhere where I can get learn how to be a better writer.

Well look at you Mr. Big Fish. Everything being all easy and boring.

So, real answer: I get it. I stayed at a small place for too long. Rocked out, picked up some local hardware etc etc. it gets boring. That said, I didn’t realize how hard I was working there till I found my next job. PM is like “sorry, this is on a tight deadline” and I’m thinking, “lol, you gave me a three days and it’s going to take an hour or two.”

To answer your question: I like being a big fish from a small pond in an in -house pond.

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Ha to be honest, the bar is pretty low at my company. I think I was just recognized for being willing to work past 5pm, and not being difficult to designers and strategists. From what I’ve heard, the copy team had a reputation for being tough to work with so they were purposely left out of meetings. I think people were so happy that I wasn’t mean to them and that helped me get staffed on more high-visibility projects.

I’ve had the same experience with deadlines. Whenever I was somewhere smaller, everything was always a scramble. Then I’d go somewhere more corporate, and be gobsmacked that we had actual project managers and enough time to work on stuff.

I’ve flipped flopped a ton in my career (i.e. burnt out, took an easier job, got bored, went somewhere high-stress and burnt out again, etc) so helpful to hear another person’s POV. Thanks for sharing!

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I am an in-house writer for a huge tech company and I am bored A LOT. Working with product managers who don’t think creatively is tough but I am pushing back a lot lately and people are enjoying that I am doing that. (Covid is suddenly making some of us more ‘human’!) I think boredom can happen at any job that’s not a big flashy agency. I do sometimes miss working in an agency on multiple accounts and switching up my brain and the fast pace of those tight deadlines but I also got laid off twice in my career (the second time in 2008 and I had just bought my first house and that really sucked). I’d much prefer some boredom to the uncertain stress of agency life. Maybe suggest promoting yourself into a strategist role?

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Every time I have this grass-is-always-greener feeling, I think about all the long hours and job insecurity from agency life too. It’s tough because I think I actually have a pretty good job, but it would’ve been a better fit if I were just a couple years older so I could better appreciate having work-life balance. (It’s a very family-friendly company and many people are open that they took a small step back in their career for the flexibility to take care of kids, parents, etc.)

It’s funny you mentioned moving to a strategist role because I actually pitched something similar to my manager the other day. He’s sharing with his supervisor so we’ll see how that goes. My hope was having to learn a new skill set will keep me motivated for at least another year, and then I can reassess where I want to be when the job market isn’t so bad.

Here’s another option: make more of your life outside of work. So many people in this industry don’t have any balance. Myself included. Take online screenwriting classes, go biking, become a chef in your off hours.

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