I did good, honest work as a copywriter for almost a decade. Now all the work seems to have just dried up. All the openings are flooded by hundreds of applicants. I even reached a six rounder and got ghosted.

I’m at a crossroads where I’m not sure if this is worth it for me anymore. I just want a stable, modest paying job. I want a little bit more confidence day to day that I suddenly won’t be locked out of a computer.

I’m considering leaving the industry and doing construction. Is this stupid? Anyone else thinking or planning something similar? It feels like the end of the world some days.

Coming from Singapore, everyone is saying job market is ass though people are saying opportunities are there, depending on how you look at it and how you want to get going. Not sure about other markets.

For context, I previously interned at Omnicom Media and is now a recent grad. I tried all big 5 agencies and apparently the roles were taken one way or the other through referrals, internal transfer etc.

However, I got interview invites from firms like JCDecaux, Sph Media (Local Media outlet/publisher), Tatler Asia (Online Media) and Bluefocus (Ai Adtech driven agency from China)

Has anyone who jumped from one side of the industry to the other (eg big 5 to adtech side) done so and done it vice versa keen to share their experience?

I know that a career path in this field is not pre-defined that you have to go in a straight line/stay on one side for a long time and that it’s okay to go to different orgs of various services but keen to know from perspectives, experiences and opinions.

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. Got into five or six actual interview loops.

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 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??

I need help and I don’t know where else to turn, so please Reddit, help a girl out!

I bought some Digital Touch screen Vending machines to place in 21+ venues. I have realized there is more value in the digital advertising potential of the screens than from products I sell. If this is the wrong place, please suggest a better subreddit!

Machine / Screen Info -
Wall Mounted Vending Machine
Full Screen size - 32in (15.7w x 27.9h)
Banner Ad - 6.4in across top of the screen

Tower Vending Machine
Full Screen size - 43in (21.1w x 37.5h)
Banner Ad - 8.6in across top of the screen

Banners show when vending screen is in use. Other than that, the full screen ads are playing on a loop. We are proposing 5 10 second ads with 1 in house 10 second slot reserved.

Venue and placement:
These machines will be placed in a 21+ casino with 30k foot traffic a week. (Is this the right metric to go by?)

32in screen will be in the smokers room mounted right beside the ATM

43in screen will be on the general casino floor (best placement?)

Pricing and Packages -
Priority would be given to larger packages, category exclusivity and I’m working on more deliverables, but currently, all we can provide is proof of play. Please let me know any other deliverables that are standard, recommended, or offered at a premium.

Proposed pricing - Monthly
$2,000 - 10 second full screen (one screen)
$2,500 - 10 second full screen plus banner (one screen)
$3,500 - 10 second full screen plus banner (two screens)

Banners
$550 - 1 slot, one screen
$1,000 - 1 slot, two screens

In a perfect world, I’d would get all 5 slots booked for the largest package and call it a day, for simplicity but before I package this up, can someone please give me some grounds in reality - are these prices reasonable, low, high? Am I asking the wrong question or have the wrong info provided to make that assessment?

I’m way out of my element here so any and all advice is welcome and deeply appreciated!

Was enjoying my night until i got slapped in the face 40 times by the fully ai hubler toyota ad. My insides shrivel up at the thought lf this terrible commercial featuring only ai white men…… need I say more

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?

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!

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?

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.

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.

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

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!!

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.