Career Coach: Is the grass really greener on client or agency side?
This week’s Career Coach dilemma deals with what you should be thinking about if you are looking to change roles.
Hi Kate, After 10 years agency side, I have now been client side for about four years. But I’m not enjoying it at all. All my friends have told me not to go back into agencies, but I’m so bored client-side, what should I do?”
Hi,
First things first, don’t ever make a decision based solely on what other people tell you.
Listen, sure, but decide the next five years based upon their work experience? No.
Much like there are big agency and small agency ‘types’, there are also agency and client types. It’s got a lot to do with personality, attitude and time of life but it’s different for everyone.
It’s something I talked about in my blog last week. Namely, what’s important to you at work?
Forget about the labels ‘client side’ and ‘agency side’, what do you want from your next role?
There are agencies where you can work on a retained client in a quiet office and leave by 6pm every night (honest, there are!), and there are client side roles that are incredibly stressful and they work 7-days a week.
Take away the labels, the brands, the assumptions and think about what you want from your dream job.
Autonomy
Team
Inspiring Boss
Noisy or quiet space
Salary
Recognition
Fast Paced
9 to 5
Planned, or different every day
Do you want to just concentrate on your role, or do you want the opportunity to get more involved across all stages of a project?
These are the keywords you need to be using when you’re looking for a role, not whether it’s agency or client side.
Project Management, Close Knit team, Fun environment, Work hard play hard, Irregular hours sometimes, Opportunities for reward, Inspiring Leadership team – this is just as likely to be [insert agency here] to Google isn’t it?
I’m afraid I’ve just opened up your search in terms of opportunities, but hopefully you’ll now be more focused on what you’re looking for and what your checklist is for that ideal next job?
Try it. Type in your top 3, without mentioning where or who, just what and why, and see what comes up…
It might not be either!
If you have a question you’d like answered, just email kate.savage@elbowroomcoaching.com – named or anonymous, on any career topic.
