I learned my lesson in my 20s at my first agency job. We did 996+ (midnight sometimes) for months on a huge project for a big name client. It was fun, jamming with my work pals, eating catered meals. Then a week before handoff, client did a partnership that rendered the work moot. Never again.
this also taught me to appreciate the vapidness of most agency work and my 3rd party separation from it. it seemed like there could be more connection at the time, hence my pivot to startups, but the fun with colleagues in the agencies was the best all along
I went the start own agency and be selective route. Not easy. Worked out.
That's cool. I'm glad it worked out for you. I saw many try and fail and it wasn't for lack of effort.
honestly being a consultant is such an inoculation against bs most of my projects died on the vine for stupid internal reasons only. MOST of them it really teaches you that nearly all corporate culture is bs, and that it’s a miracle anything works
agency person once told me 80% of their projects were some résumé-stuffing exercise for some vp of whatever to hook their next job with; the other 20% was actually substantive
We’ve been some combination of lucky/diligent that it’s more like 75% substantive.
were the other 25% profitable or were they a slog
you can have profitable projects that never go anywhere
i know; profitable for *me*, lol, but arguably my most profitable work has just gathered dust in a drawer (indeed a huge part of my motivation for writing senseatlas.net is creating more powerful/actionable/available artifacts that might stand a chance of actually getting used)
Absolutely.
which tbh is also good training for realizing that making a lot of money on work that makes you sad or angry is no fun at all
we got to the point where all but a couple of our projects shipped in a given year and that was also the year i decided i’d stop consulting bc the clients who actually executed were not for me (ad and interactive agencies and bigcos)
20% seems pretty good! you’ve gotta either have specialized or gotten VERY good at selection for that rate
lol yes from what i understand this was a high-end agency
(although that could count against)
in my experience, price and prestige don’t change the ratio! only client selection and specialty
Yup.
Yes to this and simultaneously yes to how some consultancies are just there to drive hours and make more contract happen
that’s honestly a very small % of firms. most want stuff for their portfolios.
Same sort of deal for me too. It was an internet startup. I learned then and there we should to work to live, and not to live to work.