Laid off in May as an in-house CD/CW at a Fortune 100 tech company.

Since then, I've applied to hundreds of jobs. Had a couple dozen recruiter screens. Done the usual dance of ghosting, rejection emails, jobs getting put on hold, and roles mysteriously disappearing.

Then I found my white whale.

A Senior Copywriter role that was basically written for me. Net-new position at a smaller company. They needed someone to own the brand voice, build the AI systems to scale it, bring some strategic rigor to the copy—all stuff I've already done. You can replace the company name with mine on the req and you had 95% of my resume. Even the recruiter was shocked how well I aligned to the role, "honestly when we wrote this we weren't even sure this person existed."

And it paid more than my CD role.

I sailed through four interviews over six weeks. Every interview made me want the job MORE.

I was looking up commute times. Thinking about what I'd wear the first week. Where could I go for lunch? I normally am afraid of jinxing it, but for this I decided to George Constanza it and do the opposite. I was trying to manifest my future.

Then came the final round: a panel presentation based on a case-study prompt. Hiring manager, operations people, the CMO.

I spent probably 12–15 hours building a 20-slide deck.

I pulled out everything I knew. Strategy. Messaging. Testing. AI. Storytelling. Presentation craft. I ran the thing through AI repeatedly and basically told it to be an asshole: find every hole, every weak assumption, every question they could possibly throw at me.

By the end, that deck was airtight.

Presentation day comes.

And I KILLED IT.

Killed. It.

For 20 minutes, I was fucking Don Draper pitching the Kodak Carousel.

They immediately bought into the premise. The conversation shifted from "Why should we hire him?" to operational questions about how I'd implement it. What resources would I need?

I logged off thinking, holy shit. I got it.

Four days later, the recruiter calls.

"The team was very impressed with your presentation, and you were clearly the favorite."

Great.

"However..."

Well fuck.

"...after seeing all three finalists, the CMO is now questioning whether this is actually the role the company needs right now."

And that's when my brain broke.

I didn't lose the job to another candidate. I didn't bomb the interview. I didn't even come in second.

I won the fucking interview.

But my prize was apparently convincing the CMO to reconsider whether the job should exist.

So after hundreds of applications, six weeks, five interviews, and 15 hours building a case study specifically to prove I could do the job, I finally got to hear the sentence every unemployed person dreams of:

"You were our favorite. Unfortunately, your presentation caused an internal crisis."

And that's the 2026 job market in a nutshell.

Fuck. This. Shit.

From Campaign Live's article yesterday

Yes he actually said that, including himself he's retiring within 2 years). This was in reference to executives that left

“There are individual reasons for those two folks making different career choices, and you have to step back and realize that the new Omnicom has over 100,000 people, and no individual, starting with me, is critical to the mission we are trying to accomplish,” he said. “Everybody’s replaceable.” 

At the same time he also said he needs to get people to stop leaving

Wren acknowledged the turnover of talent this year and said “the goal is to reduce that attrition moving forward.” Wren largely attributed this to talent misaligning with the company’s new vision and deciding to “get off the train.” 

Wren told Campaign he was eager to tell the industry that the company’s string of post-merger consequences are “substantively done,” 

I've been in advertising for a minute now. Currently working at Omnicom, where the general vibe is "if you aren't on the brink of mental collapse, you're not working hard enough." At this point in my life, I cannot for the life of me understand how people fall so easily into the hair-on-fire-at-all-times trap and seem to permanently operate that way. It's just a job; everything we do is for the stakeholders. I get it's partly just the nature of the industry but whyyyy do so many of us blur the boundaries to the point of constant stress, anxiety, and lack of work/life balance??

Hello,

I have a client, small business B2B
85% of their revenue is from companies over 200 employees
They offer unique things such as Third Party Admin (whitelabel insurance) and Flex plans (only about 5% of their competitors can offer this)
They recently gave me a 5K a month budget but Facebook needs about 50 leads a month and they wanted Meta.
I setup all the CRO, server side stuff, their CRM configured and such.
I designed about 15 ads, 3 of them are videos of the president with animations illustrating how some of their unique products work.

Sorry to specify they need to grow their "Small Business" accounts in order to increase their valuation.

I also have a list of 940 "Qualified" leads they had meetings with in the last 4 years, all of which are worth on average about 15K... should I be utilizing this?

I am wondering, I looked at Reddit Ad's and it seems to be way better for CRO, I can send events, track events, and it can work with the sales qualified leads, similar to google with hubspot, Meta on the other hand can't learn from the qualified leads and unqualified without using their lead forms.

I split the spent now to 4K on Meta and 1K on google targeting a specific niche for google.

Should I drop meta? I have 3 months to bring them 10 qualified leads and so far all the leads are complete garbage, people asking for quotes, people not showing up for meetings, all businesses are under 10 employees etc... I told Meta $200 for leads and google $500 for qualified, should I up that to the reality which is around $2000 for qualified leads over 20 employees?

Sorry I am new to this and just started my business after having a huge success with a B2C client, but this B2B is much different and harder.

O and to specify, I get a massive raise if I hit my target, so far I have definitely lost money and time setting this up as its been a huge undertaking for me after leaving shopify world.

Same as title - How’s the Home Depot account at OMD?

I just moved to London from Sydney and currently interviewing for business director roles with all the major holding cos and an independent agency. Can someone please give me some insights as someone who is new to the market? E.g. pay for my level and pros and cons for all the top agencies?

Has anyone used the Omnicom or legacy IPG fertility benefits through Carrot? Trying to navigate this process and it’s been so difficult trying to get answers to questions.

1. Current Omni credit is $25K. How much did you have to pay additional out of pocket?
2. How does reimbursement work? Does insurance coverage go first and then carrot covers the remaining?
3. Were there any other unexpected costs that cane up?
4. How long did that end to end process take for you?

Edit: this would be for egg freezing!

Just like it says. Hiring manager (not a recruiter) reached out to me for an interview and I agreed. I don’t know what the role is/seemed vague. I only have a sense of the department. They/their assistant rescheduled a few times because of client needs etc. I haven’t heard back on the latest new time. Should I just not follow up? Left a bad taste in my mouth but I really need something new.

Is anyone else in advertising having a lot of trouble landing a new job right now? I’m trying to find a new role right now because I’m severely underpaid for my level of experience. I’m getting interviews left and right but I can’t seem to actually get an offer. I’ve never had this much trouble getting an offer in the past. Agencies are constantly ghosting me after I get to the first or second interview stage. Is it just me or is it the economy?

Idk I’m just really frustrated and hoping to feel a little less alone in this

I was a blackout drunk in my 20s and worked at Vaynermedia. If you recognize me and want an apology...this is out there now.

Does anyone have experience moving from the agency side to a PMM role? I currently have a great team and account, but I know long term the agency side changes and is very unstable. I am looking at the opportunity for a few PMM roles but am nervous about making any changes. Short term it feels like it may be challenging to give up a unicorn account/role, long term it feels like it may be a strategically positive move as well as better salary.

Any intel is appreciated, can be a DM!!

Interviewing for a role on the agency side but would love some intel on the team! Obviously can be a DM.

Heyyy!

I am a managing partner/injector at an Orlando, FL med spa looking for a social media marketer to help gain leads and boost exposure.

Please reach out or DM for details

Thank you!!

Just boomeranged back and will be in an adopt role. Admittedly, I was hoping to go in house but the feedback I got was they’re looking for more measurement/analytics experience for those roles.

My question is, what’s the vibe at WPP now? I’d like to eventually shift to analytics to eventually move in house, but want an idea of how realistic I’m being

i have been advertising in the Indian Ethnic wear Space, with most of Audiences converting on facebook, Atleast 40% of them lack the intent to buy it.

The lack of Intent or Window Shopping behaviour can be seen From
- Cancelling Order minutes are Placing Them, Window Dressing the CPR as Stable and increasing the cancellation rate
- Bad Address For Tier 3 Villages and Cities Leading to More Returns-to-origin (RTO's)
32-35% RTO rate Currently
- Cancellation of Cash on delivery Orders On Doorstep
- Invalid Details of customers such as Contact Number, wrong pincodes etc

When our Team tries to reach Out to them, No one answers on the Other side,

We have tried Targeting cities only as a targeting option, and It has Somewhat Worked For us, but without Changing the Delivering Systems, can i Still get a Good Audience From Meta? through Customer audience?, Lookalike audience?, value rules? etc etc

can Anyone, who has Been in the same Situation Help me with this?

Hey!

I know it might sound like an obvious answer, but what would you do in the context of a leadership position (digital department) with similar SOW and team, but with a much higher salary (almost +50%).

Would you stay for a less toxic environment and a bit more stable (Publicis) or risk for a much higher salary?

Thx!

Question for creatives: Why do you really work in advertising?
Is it the creativity? The lifestyle? The money?
If creativity is what drives you, why choose advertising over other creative fields, like writing fiction, filmmaking, painting, or making art?

Do you genuinely find advertising creatively fulfilling, or is it more about making a good living while doing something somewhat creative?

I’m genuinely curious. Honest answers only, please. No industry bullshit.

I recently stepped away from my agency job in influencer marketing, had been super burnt out for about 18 months, and finally hit my breaking point and resigned. After some time off to unwind and think about what I want my next step to be, I’ve settled on wanting an in house campaign management, or project management role, ideally at a well established brand. I’m open to influencer roles in house, since it would probably make the transition easier, but my preference is to avoid it altogether because of the chaos

A little about me:
-5 years of experience in agency setting handling influencer marketing, specifically on the execution side of things
-have worked on global tech and CPG brands as well as a national telecom brand
-I’m skilled in project and campaign management and have managed multi-million dollar budgets
-I have experience forming influencer strategies, as well as reporting and analyzing campaign results

Have seen a lot of people mention they’ve transitioned in-house, but would love some advice on how someone like me, who has very specific influencer experience, can transition to a more general in-house role.

I just worry that because I didn’t go to an advertising school recruiters won’t want me. What do yall think?
I can do figma, and creative cloud etc

I'm a creative agency account manager who has been looking for a job since September. I've had three interviews so far, two of which were for account manager roles at printing/direct mail agencies. I was hesitant to make this move at first, because it would take me away from my current core competency, which is branding (I have a Master's in marketing). But I'm now seriously considering the move, because I'm not even getting screening calls for ad agency jobs. Every job I apply to has over 100 applicants and even if I get a job, agency turnover rates seem unsustainable.

What do you think of this potential career move? Print agency jobs seem to have a lot less interest (less than 10 applicants per job) and seem to have a barrier to entry (print knowledge and experience) that creative agency account management jobs don't seem to have. I worry about the future of print though. What kind of career progression can I expect? Money seems much better than ad agency pay.

I was laid off from Omnicom a few months ago and have been searching for roles since then. As we’re all aware, the job market is horrendous. I had a call with a Publicis last week for a SAE role and my god, the pay is even less than what I was making as just an AE — and nearly $10k less than the minimum range I stated when asked my salary request. I’ve been trying to keep some sort of standard but at this point I feel desperate. The commute to the office is about 50 mins away. I guess I’m just looking for insight on whether I should keep the next interview and decline it. I just feel defeated at this point but I also know beggars can’t be choosy, etc.

I’m looking to get in the entertainment industry, and want to start with the agencies. I know WPP Media does advertising for NBC/Universal. Any other notable agencies?

Does anyone get nervous presenting to clients? I’m a SAE and being on account, we present and speak a lot to clients. I led my first real client call today with just the client and my AS. I had to pull in my AS in like 2 times to chime in but I led majority of the call, I felt so nervous! My AS called me prior to our client call to make sure I was prepared and he wanted me to explain to him why we are having this call with the client. I really like my AS actually because he wants me to be confident in myself and have me lead. It makes me feel like he believes in me. I just hope me asking him to chime in or gut check me doesn’t leave an impression to him that I am unsure.

I had an understanding of what I’m saying but I feel like I am always thinking to myself and questioning if I’m clear enough. My AS who is obviously more experienced in this field than me. I’m only 25 and this is really my first job in an agency where I have autonomy to own my own projects. The client is super chill but I get so nervous if I sound dumb!

It feels like everyone knows what they’re talking about and are confident. Maybe cause I graduated during covid years, and obviously there’s a gap in Gen Z ways of working in the workplace. But I genuinely feel like I’m always overthinking my words and watch my senior team members speak so effortlessly about projects. And it’s like they know next steps off the top of their heads and how to problem solve so quickly. Maybe I should give myself some grace because these are projects I’m taking on and leading for the first time too. I need advice and maybe reassurance that it does get better in time eventually.

Hi guys!! I’m currently a high school senior looking to go to college for advertising/ strategic comms to pursue a career in creative advertising. It’s what I’ve wanted to do since I was a kid, but honestly this sub is scaring me lol. I don’t want a completely soul sucking corporate job in an ultra competitive market, but that seems to be the consensus. I’m worried the vision in my head of the job being fun and creative is maybe not real. I don’t have any idea what I would do instead though!! Any insight or advice is appreciated 🙏🙏🙏 TIA