How long to stay in your first job
Submitted by JPfuzzhead on Wed, 09/13/2006 - 00:52.
Thanks for all your advice Dabitch. I*ll have to hang in there, develop a coping strategy, and make sure I do some serious networking around the agency.
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Hi everyone,
Here is my dilemma. I*ve very recently been employed by a great agency in London, with my art director partner. It was our first placement together and we did 3 months before being hired. We were very lucky and I was obviously overjoyed about this. The thing is, we had only met for 40 minutes in the pub before teaming up. We looked at each others book and went for a book crit in the agency where we now work. We*ve done some reasonable work in the 6 months we*ve been employed and even done a couple of TV spots, but having only met for 40 minutes before we started working together I hardly new the guy when we got employed. Having got to know him better now, I am faced with a simple problem- I just don*t like the guy. It would do no good for me to go into detail about the qualities I don*t like in him, but lets just say they relate to arrogance and shallowness. We just don*t seem to be on the same wavelength, and I find it hard to motivate myself to communicate with him. Like I said we produce reasonable work together, but I can*t help feeling we could produce much better work if we actually liked each other and could bear to communicate more. I*ve tried to tell him how he annoys me, but he*s such a bloody narcissist he takes these comments as compliments, and thinks they*re symptoms of his creative genius!
I don*t think we can work it out, so I am thinking seriously about how soon I can look for a new partner and a new job probably. But how long do I stay in my current job, considering it*s my first job in a really good agency, which art director aside is a great place to work. How do I go about looking for a new partner?- would I have to team up and start at another agency on placement? Or maybe I*m overeacting and tension between us is part of the deal and good for generating ideas. Hmmn it*s all so confusing.
Has anybody been in this kind of situation, or have any advice on this?
Thanks
Stay in the job, whatever you do!
Back when I started out there was a bit of a badge to stick in a team even though ones partner was an asshole. If they produce great work, they can be all sorts of dumbarse. I know better now and yes, you will do better if you work with someone you genuinly like. Here*s the sad news
talent and likability in the same package are very hard to find.
It*s a bit like being married I guess, since everyone always compared teaming up to marriage. How many life partners do you think you can find out there who are hawt, interesting, interested in you, with the same ambition in their life as you and all around lovable perfect matches? One if you*re lucky, right?
So here*s my advice - I understand you are miserable with the guy and I know how that feels having only worked with 1 - one - copyrighter that I genuinly liked in the past twelve years - grin and bear it for a little while. Make sure your bosses like YOU better than the narccissist by working harder, having the right *tude, and going the extra mile. Never backtalk your partner but when there*s a good oppertunity, let your bosses know that you are open to trying other team constillations. Try and get a new partner at your job.
ps - and to cheer you up you can count yourself lucky he*s just a bigheaded narcissist, quite common in adland really. I*ve had older malechauvinist partners harass me every day for being a younger (and higher educated more awarded) girl who "should be a home", and I had to grin and bear it in order to make rent and come out with the winning "I*m a team player" badge.
Shame my arsehole CD*s didn*t renew my contract anyway. heh.
Actually that*s a good point, if your partner starts to talk shit the mud will taint you no matter what it seems. So keep your ears wide open - if you are asking advice here chances are that the narcissist is out touting his superiority to co-workers. Unless he*s so into himself he can*t see that you are unhappy.
Thanks for the advice dabitch. I think he probably knows I*m unhappy, but doesn*t know why. You said there was a bit of a badge about bein* in a team where one of them is an arsehole. What do you mean by that? do you mean it reflects on the other person in a bad way?
JP
I kind of agree with Dabitch! Try stay in the job at least for a good year.... I think anything less than that and employers will either question why youv*e finished so early or not think you have sufficient experience to join them. (perhaps)
I*m in a similar situation actually! I*ve just signed up for a house in Sheffield having got told a million time to go to London. I*ve been here 4 months now and am faced with agencies that look at me blankly when I tell them I studied Marketing and try and offer me telesales roles!
I*m faced with two sides of arguments - friends in London want me there and my friends in Sheffield and my tenancy contract want me to stay in Sheffield! But everyday I check my emails or speak to my family and just wish that just one would say *definately leave Sheffield* - So I guess I cant preach because, I think you know what you should do
Oh and I think Dabitch is trying to say that working in a team reflects well with future employers! It helps that if you can go to an interview and say with conviction that you have worked in a team and enjoy the atmosphere - thats the badge!
Whatever you do good luck! Things have a way of sorting themselves out
The badge is that you are a team player, basically. Or so I*ve been told everywhere and every year that I*ve worked. See I used to work much better on my own than with anyone, not that I minded working with anyone I just didn*t like the "you*ll only get a job if you come in pairs" deal that was going on in London at the time.
On my second placement I found a dude that I met in the pub for only 30 minutes before we started, kinda like you. My getting a placement at hip agency Y totally depended on having a partner - they said "You are great. You*ll have a placement here starting next week if you find a partner." I would have hired a homeless guy if I had to.
The first week on placement he embarrased me countless times by simply being quite naive and asking dumb questions repeatedly. Which is fine really but he could have asked me and not everyone else. The second week he ran off and showed ideas that we had both agreed were shite and off brief to our group head - without me! - the group head then had the impression that all our answers to brief X were that shite and steered the all-powerful ECD away from our room when it came time to see if any teams had good answers to brief X. (a week later, much to late the ECD saw my answer to brief X and said it was much better than the one they had sent off to get produced and he wished he*d seen it last week. "But its too late now!" arrrrrghhhh!)
By the third week I couldn*t deal anymore and asked him to leave so that I could work in peace.
Presto - I was then the instant bad guy with many cold shoulders turned against me for the rest of my placement time. I was told "it*s simply not done" and my group heads office door was closed to me most of the time. I explained that the guy was just hired to fill the chair and everything that came out of our office was - honestly - done by me alone but nobody cared. I was the horrible person who couldn*t "make a team work". It reflects badly on you if you can*t deal with the fact that your partner is an asshole. In advertising, if your partner is a skilled copywriter/art director people won*t care if he*s a KKK member and you are black - make it work, they*ll say. The only reason they*ll prefer one team member of the other is how good they are - so make sure that you shine in everything that you do!
Also, if you leave your first job early, you will always be seen as a flake/genius complex to anyone who reads your resume. Hang in there. Try to make life easier by joining bigger teams on bigger projects or whatever you can do. But don*t leave.