Working in industry can be a great starting point for your career in marketing. While it isn’t easier by any stretch, working in industry usually means that you only are working within one product line, which can be simpler. It’s important to acknowledge that working in industry allows you to hone your understanding of the intricacies of product marketing, and in doing so, can set you up with all the skills you need to transfer into agency work.

If you’re looking at transitioning from industry to agency, you’ll need to look at translating your skills from one to the other. Here are 3 things to look out for when aiming to make the transition:

The best part about agency work is also the worst part. Having the freedom to work within the brief seems like it would give you all the freedom in the world, but understanding the client’s real needs (and not just the ones that they say) and the intricacies around their expectations is never simple.

A recent candidate of mine was speaking about this transition not long ago. They were faced with a simple brief for a digital campaign, and although the client was in a similar industry to what they had previously worked in, the amount of work that the client had to do for the same result was significantly more than their previous industry role.

When transitioning to agency, though you might think having more freedom makes the job simpler, it usually doesn’t work like that.

Traditionally speaking, agency work goes in waves. As agency work relies on client briefs coming in, depending on the circumstances, it can be going from nothing to everything in a heartbeat. Speaking to a candidate recently, the agency she was working for had finished up on an account, and for about a month there she had virtually no work in the pipeline. Then, out of nowhere they landed one massive client, and the last I’ve heard of her is that she’s been clocking 60 hour weeks every week for 4 months, but she loves it.

It’s important to recognise that while working in industry can be more consistent, agency can go from doing nothing to doing everything very quickly.

If you’re looking at moving, it’s important to remember the little things about industry that makes it enjoyable. With industry, working a regular, 9-5 repeating pattern of work might seem repetitive, but at least you’ll get to go to the gym after (or whatever else it is that you do).

Agency work is deeply rewarding, and to this day almost all the innovations in branding, messaging and campaign management happen at an agency level. If you think about every single enjoyable advertisement you’ve ever seen in your life, chances are they were made in an agency. Agency is about creativity, and while it might take more effort to make an impact, it is definitely more rewarding.

If you’re ready to make the switch from industry to agency, contact me at gosia.barnacott@s2m.com.au.