There was a time when people took a job and stayed in that job for their entire career; 20 years or more. Those days are long gone.
There are cultural norms in every industry and Advertising is no exception, but the norms in Advertising seem to be (not surprisingly) on the extreme end.
Advertising has an unwritten 5 Year Rule, which means that if you're at an agency for longer than five years, you have to start explaining why. It's the opposite of the "jumper" who bounces from agency to agency every year. This is what is often referred to as a "lifer" which carries the perception that you've lost the motivation to advance your career and are basically operating on auto-pilot with the intention of staying where you are as long as possible. It's not a positive perception.
Why 5 Years?
There are both personal and corporate reasons why the five-year mark is a turning point for employees. We'll look at a couple from each. Let's start with some personal reasons:
WAGE GROWTH
After five years in a particular position, you should have reached mastery or near mastery of whatever you're doing. You should be overdue for a promotion, which means that every day you spend in your role incurs an Opportunity Cost of what you could be making somewhere else in a more senior role that you're amply qualified for at this point. Agencies often provide annual salary increases but those increases rarely keep up with wage growth in the broader market. After five years the gap between what you're currently making and what you could be making elsewhere is significant - usually in the 20% - 40% range. And that's just for the role you're currently in. The reality is you should be applying for a more senior role given your experience, which carries a much higher salary expectation.
CAREER PROGRESSION
Everyone knows what you're capable of after five years. They know your strengths and weaknesses. If you're being passed-over for promotion, it's because something's out of step with your abilities and either the agency's culture or the agency's expectations for your boss' job. Chances are, you're only still at the agency because your salary is so low that it doesn't make financial sense to replace you with someone else. The 5 Year Rule makes sense on the personal front because it serves as a reality check for everyone to make sure your career is still progressing.
For agencies, the 5 Year Rule has both strategic and financial reasons:
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
COST CONTAINMENT
Don't get caught by the 5 Year Rule
Many employees find themselves in a bind. They're told that in order to get promoted, they need to show that they can do their boss' job. Which means that they not only have to do their own job, but they have to find the time to take work off of their boss' plate as well. How do you do that?
Today's Agency Management Systems (at least the best in class ones) have features that enable you to automate time-intensive, highly repetitive actions that can free up a significant amount of time in your day and allow you to work a lot smarter (like taking on responsibilities that your boss has today). You doing so then frees them up to take things off their boss' plate and so on until the CEO winds up with lots of time to actually run the agency and you wind up with the promotion you'd like.
If your agency isn't using a system that enables you to automate repetitive tasks, then it's time to recommend a change. Schedule a free online demo of Advantage's agency management system to see how far automation has come and how powerful it can be when applied to agency tasks. Advantage is designed specifically for agencies, so you won't struggle to understand how the system works, what things are called, etc. It may be the most intuitive software you've used to date. Automate your way to a promotion with Advantage and fear the 5 Year Rule no longer.