I currently work at a small web design agency with a team of 5. I'm the sole marketer where I do all digital marketing for clients.
This includes SEO/PPC, some social media, and everything else growth marketing related. I love the autonomy, the people I work with, and 'owning' the entire digital marketing role and department.
My only complaint: clients are really small (e.g., electricians, attorneys) and I'm itching for something more challenging and complex.
However, I am learning a lot. Work-life balance is amazing at the agency, allowing me to take on MOOCs and side projects where I'm learning to code.
Recently, a large public company offered me a PPC Analyst role where I'll manage a 10MM ppc campaign. Glassdoor reviews mention poor work-life balance. My brief pros & cons analysis of take the job offer:
PROS
+ higher salary
+ more prestige and responsibility
+ learning, yes, but very focused on SEM in one particular vertical
CONS
+ 50-60+ work weeks
+ less time for MOOCs, self-study and side projects
+ possibility of low job satisfaction (culture, politics)
=== My question ===
What would you do? Do I continue working at the agency where I'm comfortable and can have the autonomy to master what excites me.
Or take the job offer with more responsibility and pay but at the expense of narrowing my career focus and skill-sets too much.
I'd consider finding some middle ground. Be careful of SEM farm agencies where it's a bit more of a factory atmosphere. That said, your current gig doesn't seem to be challenging you. So I'd consider a change but I'd be more picky about where you go so you can find an environment where you can learn but also be happy.
It all depends on what is most important to you...is it work/life balance or a career that is more challenging and financially rewarding? Which company aligns best with your values and long term goals?
Graduates are newly bestowed with the onus of crafting a successful career. Any successful leader is perpetually evaluating and re-evaluating career options and decisions. The path to career happiness starts with making choices. The choices you face are simple in theory, but difficult in practice. The most inescapable lure is money. Money, or your salary, is a quantifiable benchmark to measure your success against your peers. Our professional paths so quickly fall into the groove of what our peers are doing, and what will appear successful to them. Some are aware that their job is not right, but are afraid of making a mistake, so they wait for the ‘perfect opportunity’ to come along next. Turn your attention to the most successful leaders, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, anyone of your choosing, and you will find this to be true. You may sign up for the thankless task, take the job that seems less prestigious, turn down more money, and so on. Money, the shinier of the two, is always the more alluring. Money is one-dimensional, it has no depth. Choosing impact over money is difficult, especially at the outset, because impact does not yield immediate returns. It will beat money at its own game, but it takes time. But the people who choose to optimize their professional lives against the sole metric of money, are doomed to become one-dimensional and unhappy themselves. It would be like throwing away a quarter of your life. The reality is the tug-of-war between money and purpose is an ongoing struggle that leaders continuously face throughout their careers.
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath
