Benefits of Working at a Large and Small Agency

April 29, 2011 | Posted in Thoughts, Tips

It’s been just over a month since my move to Toronto so I thought I would give a little insight into my experiences of working at a large agency so far. After going to school and working in London for five years, landing a great job and moving to the big city within the span of about three weeks was exhausting.

I want to briefly go over the benefits of working at a small and large agency, and how I went about making the move.

Right out of school I landed a job at a small advertising agency in London, Ontario. My professor recommended me to the company before I had even started looking for work, which made my job hunt incredibly short. It was a great gig, and to do so little prep work made it all the better.

Perks of working at a small agency – less than 10 people

• You get to know everyone very well
• One-on-one time with the boss – daily
• Creative and technical input on the projects you work on
• Forced to have a well rounded set of skills (in a good way)
• Get a view of the process from start to finish

I’m extremely fortunate for having worked in a small agency for a year. As clichéd as it sounds, you really do become part of a unified team. Not only did I get to know everyone on a professional level, but I got to know them personally.

I originally thought that being the only ‘web-guy’ in a traditionally print-based agency would be a downside, but it forced me to learn things that I would not have had the chance to anywhere else. Clients would come to us with an idea and I would have to figure it out – there was no room for failure. StackOverflow helped me out immensely when I was stuck on a technical problem. If you’re a developer of pretty much any language, I highly recommend joining the site.

Perks of working at a large agency – 150+ people

• You get to work on the big name brands
• Creativity among so many advertising people is incredible
• Higher salary (generally)
• People to look up to
• Bigger projects and group collaboration

One month in and I’ve already worked with some awesome brands. I cannot stress enough how fulfilling it is to see the visits to a website skyrocket and receive great feedback on a campaign after being part of it. While small agencies can definitely have the same impact, they just don’t have the bodies to pull off such large projects all of the time. Before I finish a project now I’m already hearing rumblings of the next big thing and it’s invigorating.

I mentioned above that not having anyone to look up to as a developer can be tough yet rewarding, but having a handful of people to turn to in a moment of frustration is a blessing. There are about five people within earshot that I can count on to get me on the right track if I ever need some guidance – it’s like having my own personal StackOverflow community in house.

Final Words

After looking at the benefits of working at both small and large agencies it is up to you to decide where you will be happiest. I do, however, strongly recommend working at a smaller agency early on in your career. It will build your character and skill set at an important time of your development. Since you will likely be doing a variety of work at a smaller agency you may also figure out exactly what path you want to follow down the road. I was doing a lot of print design in combination with web development at the small agency, but the latter was where I knew I wanted to be.

This started to run a little long so I’m going to write a separate article about how I went about making the big move soon. If you have any questions about the differences or want to add to my list of benefits for either sized agency, please leave a comment below.