Personal Agency – Key to the next career move you dream of!

The advertising jobs market is a real mixed bag at the moment. And by that I mean, there are as many people losing jobs as gaining them, although the way I see it, there are certainly more losses at the moment.

Many more of you either out of your choice or through those quarterly ‘number balancing decisions,’ are now out of full-time employment and freelancing.

There are so many more of you freelancing now that freelancing has become much more competitive. Everyone it seems, and for different reasons, client, agency and individual, want more flexibility, which post pandemic, most of us have more of.

The point of this post is not to talk about the overall market but more for individuals either in jobs and feeling ‘stuck’ ‘under-valued’ and/or ‘vulnerable and those actively looking for their next role. If you fit in to either scenario, read on.

I was recently talking with a long-standing connection, whose pretty well known in the business both by reputation and in terms of their expertise. And, for the results he’d help achieve.

Like many, he’s been looking for a job/the right job, for a while, but well connected, wasn’t sweating it, and had a meeting lined up with a high-level holding company exec.’ He’d been waiting a month for this meeting but was very hopeful.

Last week I caught up with him having had the meeting and I asked him, how the meeting went.

He told me he’d had forty minute in-person meeting. “It was great. We caught up on the industry, world chaos and the kids.”

I was encouraged, it sounded positive.

“What else” I asked, waiting for the punchline role/roles he was going to be considered for or introductions that were being made perhaps as we spoke.

“What else? He replied?

“What did you ask him for?” I asked perhaps a bit to stern.

“I didn’t ask him for anything.” His voice dying away as he responded. Immediately realizing, that the person he ‘is’ in front of clients had not shown up for himself, when it mattered.

I shrugged my shoulders, and politely let him know what I think many of us take for granted.

“My friend, you ‘HAVE’ to let others know what you want; What you want to be considered for! At the very least, let the person in front of you know, how you want them to help you, even if it’s not a job that you want.”

“You know this!” OK, I know I showed a bit of exasperation here..

The point, everyone you know is busy. When you are upset that they didn’t ‘help you,’ think about it. Did you assume they’d know exactly what you wanted or how they could help you? If you did, you didn’t ‘make it easy’ for them to help you.

So many times, when it comes to ‘us,’ we don’t ask for something, either because we are complacent and assume by our reputation or resume, others know what we’re right for. While others don’t have enough self-belief to understand that there are times when it’s critical to ‘ask!’

Moral of story,  however well-known you are or aren’t, don’t default to others telling your story for you, unless you specifically ‘have’ someone that gets rewarded to tell your story for you or in addition to your own effort.

If you don’t ask, you can’t expect.

If you don’t steer your own ship, you’ll either capsize, run aground or drift aimlessly. Any of these scenarios feel familiar for you?

Take personal agency, ‘the act or intervention producing a particular effect.’ Ask specifically for what you want, don’t assume others will act otherwise.

Ideally tie the ask in with something that will address a need/help the person in front of you and make it about something you really want, then you’ll come across authentically, or as Andy Wilson recently wrote:

‘Our livelihoods and (our sanity) more than ever before, are about doing what we love, with the people we love, for the outcomes we love. This is the good stuff, make sure others know about it!’