How is it like to work for an agency?

Just like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, at first comes the physiological needs like the chair you’re sitting on as well as the desk, and whether your palm rests coolly on the laptop or if you’re like me and you’re using a 2008 MacBook Pro, then your palms are mostly sweaty from how warm the laptop can get when running multiple tasks in the background.

Once this stage is yesterday’s topic we move on to getting familiar with the accounts we’re handling, the clients, the content and the amount of time we put into each account before it becomes routine and with that comes the feeling of safety, as everything feels under control.

And then the account becomes a couple of months old and by then we’ve met the client and may have even visited their house. Moving on, at this stage an open two-way communication with the client provides us with a distinctive connection that gives us a feeling of belonging and also the motivation needed to see our client’s future in our grasp. This of course relates to Maslow’s 3rd stage, which is (love & belonging).

And the story goes on to ultimately reach self-actualization and that’s when your client is well rooted in your company and you’re the one who is responsible for many of the successful, and maybe unsuccessful changes that you put your client through in the past, and still in gear for more creativity and spontaneity.

That all sounds fairly straightforward, something you already knew. Then here’s something for all the fresher’s out there trying to get their piece at the pie. Working at an agency is never how I just mentioned it to be in the above. Maslow explained the stages, all while giving a timeline, “starting at physiological needs and ending with self-actualization.” But in an agency its different, to be exact, its shuffled. For example: Today you’re pitching to a new client, perfect – no complaints. Tomorrow however, a new client is coming at you with a crisis you couldn’t even imagine, asking you to step in and work magic on projects half-way done and expecting success. Besides that, it’s extremely challenging to work at an agency where there’s never an ordinary day! But that’s simply the beauty of it – the challenge is what keeps us coming back for more.

How would you describe agency life?