Something rather exclusive to this industry is the nature of salary development for people. Though not universal, it is almost a rule of thumb that if you’re a creative and you want a raise, you need to switch jobs. This might have a few reasons of being like for instance an over saturated market where there are way more creatives than companies insist they need and clients are willing to pay for. This basically allows companies to say “So you want to leave? Fine, I’ll find someone who’ll do the same job, will work more hours and will cost me 12K less.” And that’s not just bullshit, it’s what happens. If there’s any industry that’s extremely ungrateful to its workforce its advertising because longevity is a rarity within the impresario empire of our industry.
So you go into interviews, call people up, send your résumé and do your best to boost your salary by a few K. If you have a solid portfolio or references up the whazoo, then you’re golden. If you happen to have landed a shit job for two years where your portfolio has more brochures than a hotel lobby and the most creative piece in your book consists of your résumé or that job you did in college, you’re screwed (but that’s another topic for another post). Hence commitment and professional loyalty meaning dick in advertising. If you want to get ahead, you have to bust your ass or negotiate good accounts to work on good advertising that will allow you to reach the Mecca’s of Creative glory.
But don’t let the previous lines fool you, AE’s, media people, and any department is faced with similar situations albeit not as messed up as creative due mainly to a less harrowing turnover rate for any other department. But I know of countless execs who have been 4 years without a raise. They however are forced to suck on the tailpipe of the monster because after all, who wants to hire an exec who bounces from agency to agency. That’s their catch 22 and it’s not cool to have to see AE friends have to tolerate a shitty place so they can consider them for work in another company (yes I do have AE friends and they do read and apparently enjoy this blog). Media people and production staff also seem to have this professional roadblock but what is alarmingly clear is that for definitive professional progress, odds are quite high that you might have to find a new place of employment.
So you arrive with your juicy offer… then negotiations start and you see your company play every trick in the book to keep you employed. Mind you one of the main reasons is because it always looks better for a company to let someone go rather than have that person quit and tell everyone about the hell hole it is to work there… and even worse if that person happens to have company and a couple of people give the company the finger. They talk about this being a family and saying things are tough and that’s why they can’t equal the offer you’re being made but promise things will get better.
There’s also decision time in regards to how much money it should take for you to jump ship. How much are you worth? How much are your talents and your efforts worth? That’s because you are not priceless. Professionally speaking, everyone needs to have a price unless you live in a communist state. On a social and personal level, that’s not always true and unless you find a company you can genuinely call heaven, odds are there’s an amount of money that if mentioned will prompt you not only to consider but to leave. Which price you happen to label yourself with is of your concern solely, but know that jumping from one job to another for a few grand here and there never looks good, or at least to me it doesn’t because seriously, you can’t say much about that except the money because often times there are people that don’t give a company time to prove themselves (yet another topic for a post).
Regardless though, give it some thought… what would it take for you to leave your current job? 5K, 10K, 15K, 20K???? Who knows, you might just get a random call offering you the right number and we will all be able to drink to the health of your bank account. Just make sure that not only the price is right, because getting a million dollars for working on bullshit still means you have to work bullshit.
Cheers
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