What it's like to work in an agency

Dear everyone,

This is what it's like to work in a busy marketing firm. 

1. It's not your typical 9-5 job. If you work 10-12 hour days, that's considered good. I remember when I used to do 15-hour days rather frequently back at PBA. And you're sorta on call at any given moment to respond to "crises" set forth by your boss, clients, whomever! It's quite like being a doctor, only without the pager circa 1990s.

2. It's not your typical office environment. It's an agency. This means you don't normally get to sit behind a computer all day, surf the web (okay, fine, sometimes there's time for this), or gossip by the water cooler. There's always emergencies and fires to put out, especially when you're me. Not to be self-aggrandizing, but when you're the Production Manager/Designer/Project Manager/Anything Else, there's always someone or something that needs your attention.

3. You're usually working on 14 things at once. Case in point: Today while I was waiting for documents to print from the Laserjet, I simultaneously made changes to a design file for one project and answered a call from a print vendor about another job. Waiting for the design file to finish saving as a PDF, I updated the production schedule in Excel, ran back and forth to the Laserjet to shake the toner cartridge around to hopefully fool the printer into thinking it wasn't, in fact, low on toner, switched over to Virtual Ticket (our intranet application) to read posts about three other jobs, signed for a UPS delivery, and worked up a budget, all the while keeping one eye on the bottom right corner of my computer screen for notices of incoming emails. Then I conducted a production meeting with the team, where I run through the day's deliverables and workflow. When the conversation veers off into a project-related tangent between PM and Creative or Billing, I half-listen in while switching over to design project. Afterwards, a client phones with a quasi-freakout over some collateral which has gone to production, and I have to remedy the situation by A. revising the design files; B. pre-flight everything once again; C. upload it to print vendor and recount the changes. Then I move on to finally begin review of two 100-page workbook proofs from the printer that need my approval. I'd been trying to find a block of uninterrupted quiet time to look over this complex print job, but I'm hit with a rush proposal needed by The Boss, in addition to the two other brand strategic plans that need my attention for some client meetings tomorrow. And it's only 10:00 a.m.

4. Clients and bosses tend to think everything is life or death and always need your help, stat. Really? REALLY? We work in advertising!

5. You are immersed in a cool space, creative energy and pretty things. You get to go to paper shows and magazine events, and thumb through Pantone swatch books and paper books in your "spare" time. Free samples, parties, unusual perks and the like.

Yours,
J