Of the 75,000 people who work in the agency business, 22,000 (one out of three) change jobs within the field each year. One of the major reasons people take new jobs is that they've outgrown their old ones. Typically, someone will start out as a junior account executive on a particular brand at a large agency that specializes in packaged goods. They'll work there for a couple of years, learn all there is to know at that level, and want to move up the ladder a rung. The trouble is, oftentimes there are no openings at that higher level in their present agency, so they're forced to make a decision. Either they stay where they are and wait for something to open up later, or they go someplace else where there's something open now. They'll usually opt for the second of the two choices, if for no other reason than they have the drive to make something happen when they want it to, not when someone else wants it to.
There are other reasons for wanting to change jobs besides outgrowing your old one. Often, those reasons are purely financial: you want more money than your present employer is willing to pay. Sometimes there's a bit more to it than money. Maybe you want to work for a particular creative director or marketing, media, or research expert, or maybe you want to get experience in a particular advertiser or product category, such as airlines, automobiles, or beer.
No matter what reason a person has for changing jobs, one thing is usually certain: he wants to grow.
Personal growth is a very curious subject, and one which deserves some discussion, primarily to give you an idea of what kind of growth pattern to expect over the course of your career.
Most of us have been taught to expect a constant upward and forward mobility. We've somehow gotten the idea that the minute we stop moving ahead, we start sliding back. Therefore, we think everything about our careers has to follow an orderly pattern of progress, beginning with our first day behind a desk. It's a concept upon which almost everything about our careers is based.
For example: a media buyer who's just starting out can expect to earn only between so much and so much, no more, and no less. Two years later that same person can expect to make between so much and so much more. The same goes for copywriters, art directors, and just about everyone else in this business. It's a principle upon which many advertisers and agencies operate, but it's a theory which is ludicrous, and sometimes even counter-productive.
Granted, you can usually get the traditional two-thousand-dollar-per-year increase anytime you change jobs; but the idea that a meaningful raise is automatic every time you change employers is as ridiculous as thinking that a promotion is automatic each time you change jobs.
Some people take this line of thought even further and get even crazier. There's the whole question of bonuses, for instance. As your work improves and you become more valuable to a company, shouldn't you have a right to expect a constant flow of extra financial rewards, especially when you do an outstanding job on any particular project? And what about stock ownership? Naturally, after the traditional steady and continuous rise in responsibility and position, don't you think you should get something other than a mere salary in the way of financial remuneration? It seems that's what we've all been taught to expect, which is too bad, because it's nonsense.
Of course, there's no one saying that you have to work for a large advertiser. Almost every town, no matter how small, has businesses that advertise, even if they're only local department stores running specials on double-knit hair pieces. You might not find the same excitement or earning potential working for the advertising department of a local clothier as you would working for General Mills, but you wouldn't find the same pressure either.
You know yourself better than anyone else. You might enjoy spending your career in a small operation. You'd probably never be written up in the Fortune 500, but you could find life to be a lot simpler. You'd never have to relocate and there would be limited business travel, if any.
On the other hand, if you are the kind of person who yearns for more out of life than cheering at a high school football game and strolling around a county fair, travel for business will probably become part of your life, as will changing jobs.
