Life in an agency is not easy. The level of churn is infamously high, especially at the junior level.
Some folks stick; they really love the agency way of life. Others are motivated by outside interests: they overdose on “perspective” and make some major life changes. And some people forge a middle path: they dig marcomm but prefer the regularity of a corporate career.
Do you need to have a screw loose to envision an enduring career in an agency? Is burn-out a forgone conclusion?
I think a key thing to communicate to agency employees, especially the Millenial Set, is that “getting frustrated” is not the same as “getting stale” or “burning out.”
Just as importantly, the employee needs to understand the need to take personal responsibility for avoiding that burnt-out feeling. A manager can’t make you feel invigorated, not on a consistent basis, cuz at some point that manager needs to drop the rah-rah and get that darned report over to the client.
It’s certainly true that in the early stages of a PR career, many of the basic elements of the job can start to feel mundane. For every exciting newbiz pitch there are weeks of reporting, media outreach, dbase entry, etc. This can make the young PR pro feel like the proverbial hamster on a wheel.
Meanwhile, the junior staffer might look upstream at their superiors on the org chart and wonder, “Is that the job I really want?” It’s fair to assume that those higher-ups are often stressed and crazed, so the answer might well be, “Umm, NO.”
The reality is that everyone, at all levels, needs to take responsibility for challenging themselves. That’s the secret to ending Hamster Syndrome.
The account exec might need to set a goal like, “Get a hit in the NYTimes” and plunge into it. The account manager might need to make it their personal mission to turn a doubtful client into a raving agency fan. The account director might need to commit to a series of public speaking engagements that terrify them but keep things fresh. The agency principal needs to busy himself with — (aww, heck, trust me, he feels plenty challenged!)
Achieving these small, personal goals are more challenging and ultimately more satisfying than banging through the metrics presented during an annual review. Why? Cuz only y-o-u know what you’re really bad at, terrified of, need to work on; only y-o-u know what’s going to make you feel like a goddamn worldbeater.
The trick is to recognize the need to set the personal goals in the first place — to see beyond the whirring wheel in the hamster cage to the green fields of victory beyond.
@TDefren love the most recent post! http://bit.ly/rlibY
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