Pinche Arnold | if you're not into the whole brevity thing.

After years as a multimedia developer in a corporate marketing department I recently accepted an Art Director position at a local Interactive Marketing Agency. I immediately began to recognize certain Pros and Cons between the two similar yet very different environments. Rather than elaborate in great detail I compiled the following list.

Pros of the Corporate Marketing Gig

1. BENEFITS – We’re talking HMO baby, the good stuff. The kind of insurance where all you pay for is the cigars when your new baby is born.

2. JOB SECURITY – Generally speaking a position in a large corporate environment is many times more secure than in your typical agency.

3. BUDGET – Tuition Reimbursement? Office supplies? Conferences? No questions asked.

4. MISSION – I know not all corporate gigs come with a noble mission that involves serving very worthy citizens, but mine did and it was a great motivator.

Cons of the Corporate Marketing Gig

1. BENEFITS – Okay it’s a double-edged sword, and the #1 reason I hesitated to leave. This struggle is known as “Benefits Prison”.

2. CLIENT FAMILIARITY – This sounds like it may be a PRO but when your only client is essentially the leadership of the company you work for, it’s easy to start assuming you know exactly what they will and wont pull the trigger on. Say goodbye to all the really great conceptual ideas that are supposed to fly around a brainstorming meeting and sink into the comfortable assurance of “safe”.

3. EQUIPMENT – When you are rendering video on the same machines that the call center is using, you have an equipment issue. This is usually a result of your IT Department’s two favorite words: “Minimum Requirements”.

4. THE IT DEPARTMENT – “May I please have temporary level A-27 bio-encrypted admin-level security permission to install the font I need?…..please?……yes I’ll hold.”

5. CHAIN OF COMMAND – Deadline! – now you just have to get this over to your project lead who can review with the manager who will in turn meet with the director. The director then will need to remember to get semi-final approval tomorrow in a weekly meeting with the VP who hopefully will be able to scrounge some face time with the CEO sometime later this month.

6. WELLNESS – Yes, if your company hasn’t slid over to the dark side of wellness, rest assured…it will. A past employer actually removed anything with a hint of taste from the vending machines and refilled them with health food…even the Pop Tarts.

7. CUBICLES

8. DOWNTIME – Downtime is tricky, it’s something you may look forward to until you have it. What downtime does is make the clock irresistible to stare at while simultaneously freezing time in its tracks.

Pros of the Agency Gig

1. PACE – The hours can be long but that’s okay, there isn’t enough of them in the first place.

2. CLIENT DIVERSITY – In my first month alone I had meetings with an aramid (body armor) manufacturer, a music producer, 2 retail companies, a global technology provider, a commercial videographer, planned a social media application, conceptualized a mobile application, filmed a ping-pong match between my CEO and Interactive Marketing Director and am writing the shot list for my first commercial.

3. ANTICIPATION – Anticipation is always high, if we aren’t conceptualizing the next greatest idea for our clients we’re concepting one for ourselves. It’s never business as usual at the agency, the future is always on our minds. Having been labeled “Futuristic” on my recent StrengthsFinder™ test, it’s no wonder why this appeals to me.

I’m sure there will be many more Pros to come, as well as a few Cons, but until then thanks for reading.

- Pinche Arnold