creativecircle, Author at Creative Circle

If you’re at a point where the stress of your career is impacting your quality of life, you’re not alone. 39% of adults in the U.S. experience stress in professional situations; 29% in balancing family and work. Maybe it’s the stress of having too many days that start with early morning conference calls with clients and end with working to meet late night deadlines. Perhaps you can’t deal with the rage you feel when the client sacks your most brilliant ideas and asks you for a “Got Milk?” inspired headline instead. Or maybe you’re like me, and you wake up in the middle of the night worrying that a robot is going to take your job in five years.

Whatever got you to this mid-career crisis, now you feel irreparably fried and like it’s time to get out of the industry. So, what do you do now?

First, get your head in the right space.

Whether the solution is finding a new job or just making a small change, it’s critical to get some mental space from your work issues before you make any life-changing decision. Then you’ll know you’re making thoughtful choices that are based in reason and not simply having a knee-jerk reaction that you may regret later.

If it’s possible, take a few days off, or use your weekend to seriously recharge. Block out time for yourself just like you might block off time for projects. It also might help to seek out therapy. A therapist can teach you skills to better handle your challenges and reveal other opportunities for change. If you have health care coverage through your employer you probably have access to mental health benefits, or even an Employee Assistance Plan, which provides benefits like a certain number of visits to a mental health professional, financial planning advice, and similar services that can come in handy when you’re trying to figure out the rest of your life.

Then, do some soul-searching.

If you’re able to get time for yourself, start asking the hard questions. Swapping careers is a big jump, and for some, a big risk, so getting specific about your wants and needs in a new job needs to be a serious step. Some questions to ask could be:

Do I still enjoy what I do?
Perhaps switching to a different company or organization in your industry is what you need, instead of a significant career shift.

Is it something, or someone, in my current work environment that’s making me unhappy?
If you have that one co-worker you can’t seem to shake, consider a different department or asking to be reassigned to a different account. If the entire work environment is getting you down, it might be time to find a new one.

What am I great at and what tangible skills do I have?
List your abilities out if you need to, so you can see where else they might translate.

Where do I want to be in five years? 10 years?
Keep asking yourself this until you have a clear picture of the type of person you want to be.

Take an honest look at your answers. If you’re at the point where the fear of the unknown feels less awful than the dread of another Monday, you’re ready for a change.

Now, make time to move forward.

If you know what you want to do next:
Congratulations! You’re that much closer to transitioning to something new. Your next steps are to address the skills gap, in case your expertise won’t transfer laterally.

If you need to acquire new skills, there’s no shortage of online learning options. If you can’t swing new training or classes, start with MeetUps and networking events in the area you want to shift to with the goal of getting to know more about the types of people who’ll be your future colleagues.

If you have no idea of what you want to be when you grow up:
There’s no easy answer, but start by looking at your strengths and what you love. If there’s still nothing that stands out to you, reverse engineer a career by looking at people whose lives you love and want for your own. (No, Beyoncé doesn’t count.)

There is perhaps no more daunting feeling in the world than knowing you can’t continue as you have been, yet also not knowing what you want to do. As you did when getting your head in the right space, take time and work through it with yourself and others. This is another part where a knee-jerk reaction will risk you being no better off than where you are now.

If you’re not quite ready to make the switch:
Volunteering for a cause can make you feel like you’re doing something more meaningful or worthwhile than what you’re currently doing at work. Volunteering can also help you build a new network, make new friends, and burnish your self-esteem — all of which can make you happier, in general, and make it easier to stick it out in your present circumstances until you’re ready to take the plunge.

Many of us also find extracurricular creative outlets to be essential. Discover the things you enjoy doing; they can give you a feeling of accomplishment that you just aren’t finding at your job. And above all, remember that you deserve to be happy and it’s never too late to make a change – mid-career crisis or not.

Lisa is a Creative Circle candidate and seasoned advertising copywriter who lives in Los Angeles. Her background includes both in-house and agency work on Fortune 500 and global accounts in the consumer and healthcare/pharmaceutical fields. She excels at words, fashion, and cats. If you want to work with Lisa, contact Creative Circle Los Angeles.

As creatives, we don’t always have control over what the day brings us (hello, same-day deadlines!), but there are several time management strategies that can help you have both the time to complete a project and the creative energy to do it well. Try one or all of these time management strategies so you’re prepared the next time you get asked to deliver something by 2 p.m. (and you were about to run out to grab lunch real quick…)

1. Ask more questions at kickoff meetings.

Before kickoff meetings, take time to go over the project brief; review everything you know (and don’t know) about the project and list out questions or missing pieces you find. Having a little knowledge upfront can keep a project from bottlenecking once you’ve started it so you don’t have to stop mid-project to wait on someone to give you what you need.

Ask questions that are appropriate to the clients and project, including ones that will save you time and money down the road.

Who is the point person at your end?
Are there brand guidelines I should be aware of?
When is my first draft due, and what is the drop-dead date for completion?
How many different concepts/approaches would you like to see?
Are there additional creative assets for this job I might need? Who has them?
Do you already have something in mind?
How many people will need to review it?
If there’s more than one reviewer, will you collect all of the changes, or will I need to make changes after each individual reviews it?

2. Come up with a system for classifying your jobs.

It isn’t always sound business to have a creative director, a senior art and copy team, a proofreader, and a designer at a kick-off meeting to discuss edits to a small change in an e-blast. Yes, clients don’t always understand that. A few years ago, when I was working at an in-house shop, we struggled to make our clients aware that, even though we were right on the premises, our team didn’t function like bottomless mimosas, so we came up with a project classification system. The system pre-determined how much time and creative energy we could expend on an assignment:

Level 1 were basic jobs requiring simple art or copy elements without much strategy;
Level 2 might require a little ideation, but was mainly just design or writing; and
Level 3 needed the big creative guns and the whole team working.

Even when I left that job, I held onto that system, and I currently use it for all of my freelance assignments. I spend my peak working hours on the more challenging assignments, and the lower-grade projects are shoehorned in at the end of the day.

3. Keep a well-organized swipe file.

Technically, a swipe file is a physical collection of ads, direct mailers, and brochures that have performed well in the past. It’s a way of keeping things that inspire you and have been called a “must-have” if you want to improve your marketing and communications. Your creative swipe file would work in the same way and can also include photos, magazine spreads, packaging, or whatever else wows or inspires you. Some people do keep physical copies but others use tools like Trello, Evernote, or Pinterest to look for and organize inspirational images and ads.

If you don’t already have one, start with one file for one topic and you’ll find that you’ll keep thinking of cool new things you want to save. Whether it’s digital or analog, keep your files organized so when you get that last-minute request and it’s time to brainstorm you can easily look through the work that inspires you.

4. Look for things you can automate.

If your job includes a lot of repetitive actions — for example, copying and pasting, resizing images, or creating many similar web pages, take advantage of whatever technology is available to automate the process or do things faster. You can probably find thousands of tips for specific programs you use, but here are a few that will apply to any program you’re working in:

Customize your workspace so that all of the tools or tabs you use frequently are in one place.
Learn the keystroke shortcuts for the functions you do frequently, and try programming your own (which you can do in everything from Word to After Effects).
Create your own templates and style sheets (and save them in the same spot).

5. Practice the “Two Minute” rule.

The “Two Minute” rule is simple: If you can do a task in under two minutes, do it immediately. Whether it’s responding with a quick approval to an email, or updating the one line of copy in round 4 of the deck, get it out of the way so you can move on to the bigger things and also let the people waiting on you move on with the project. The bonus is that you won’t have to deal with what would have been a small task at the end of the day.

Those two-minute tasks can pile up, though so there’s a lot of back and forth about procrastination making you more creative, but the reality is if it’s something that can be done in two minutes, you’re not robbing the world of a masterpiece of innovation. If you have a hard time sticking with this, and two minutes turns into 20, time yourself or set aside a 30-minute time block for these small tasks.

We’re always looking for ways to improve our productivity, and these time management strategies are just a few ways to do it. Keep reading and learning new ways for yourself, though; it’s time well spent!

Looking for a change of pace, but afraid that freelancing will bring too many? It may not be as bad as you think! If you’ve been playing with the idea of going freelance, know that there are plenty of pros to go with the cons, and that it’s worth your time to look into it for these reasons:

1. Freelancing can help you find your next full-time relationship.

While you may not be open to considering freelancing on a full-time basis, it’s okay to get into freelancing on a temporary basis. A freelancing stint can be an invaluably proactive way of finding the next phase in your career without the direct pressure of making a long-term, upfront commitment — both on the part of you and your client/employer. Getting to know each other over a project is the best form of mutual discovery, and will more likely lead to a harmonious long-term fit when the time is right.

2. New clients can re-invigorate your creativity.

You can’t rest on your laurels or risk becoming outdated as a freelancer. Each new client and assignment demands you bring your best foot forward. If you want to continue to win new work, you must continue to be impressive. Rising to this challenge will do wonders for your engagement and make you a stronger creative force.

3. Diversifying your work opens new doors.

There’s a lot to be said for stability, but if you feel yourself wondering what options lay outside the purview of your current role, you need to make yourself available to new opportunities. Once you let go and make space for new experience, you’ll find that each new job grows the breadth of your knowledge and makes you a more appropriate candidate for a greater variety of opportunities. You may find your next niche unexpectedly by trying a number of things, or simply decide you want to preserve the stimulating diversity of self-employment in the long term.

4. “Gig culture” is here.

As the prevalence of “gig culture” gains popularity and workers take advantage of the flexibility that freelance life affords, the agencies that specialize in pairing companies with the talent they need are having a huge moment. Gone are the days when you had to do all your own prospecting; now you have extra resources. These agencies not only keep an eye out for an appropriate fit, they also advocate for you in negotiating pay, navigating the protocols of on-boarding, and — most importantly — see to it that you’re paid consistently.

Freelancing doesn’t have to be all unknown paychecks and instability – sometimes it’s exactly the change of pace that a creative needs to find their creativity again.

Interested in learning more? Check out this article on the difference between freelance and full-time.

Are you sure the freelance life isn’t for you? See how you can work full-time but live like a freelancer.

Marjorie is a former Creative Circle candidate based in Portland who recently accepted a full-time offer for her dream job. She is a writer/editor and stylist/producer with an emphasis in the design world. If you are interested in working with someone like Marjorie, please contact your nearest Creative Circle office.

Stock photo literacy isn’t just for designers and art directors! Beyond producing LOL-worthy memes, stock imagery is one of the great equalizers in marketing, allowing companies that don’t have the budget for original photography to use sharp, high-quality images in their communications.

If you work at a small agency or company and wear many different hats, you’ll probably be asked at least once to help research stock photos. Or, you may even be asked to complete a project that requires using stock photography. Here are a few basic terms and ideas that can set you up for success (and help you avoid getting sued).

Rights-managed images vs. Royalty-free images

When you go to select images from one of the leading online stock photo agencies like Getty Images or Shutterstock, you’ll be able to search and filter based on photos that are either royalty-free or rights-managed. Know the difference before you make your selection.

Rights-managed images
For public-facing communications that have to stand out for the right reasons, you’ll probably want to choose rights-managed images (which are generally more expensive). The costs are based on the intended usage, duration of time, the media you’re using (e.g., digital only, print, billboard), where the image will appear, and if you want any exclusivity — that is, if you are willing to pay enough so that the photographer or agency won’t license it to other companies in your industry, and geographical location. You can even purchase complete exclusivity. It’s not quite ownership, but you are drastically reducing the chances that one of your images will turn up in a competitor’s ad in two months. Rights-managed images have very specific terms of use, and you may need to renew your rights (i.e., pay more) to use the image over time.

Royalty-free images
The basic idea behind a royalty-free image is that you pay for it once, and you can use it as many times and in as many different places as you want. Royalty-free image prices are based on image size (and of course, where you get them) and tend to be much less expensive than rights-managed images. The downside is that you have no guarantees of exclusivity — the same image you purchased to represent your customer service rep may be used on a package for adult incontinence products or grace a magazine spread for an article about heroin addiction. These are admittedly extreme examples, but there are more than a few angst-riddled tales about stock photo models who’ve suffered the consequences of having their photos used as stand-ins for terrorists, werewolves, and guys with really awful penis conditions (SFW). Royalty-free images are great for internal communications, images of secondary importance, backgrounds, or inanimate objects.

Free images

There are also public domain or Creative Commons images. These images are free, but you may need to credit the photographer or agree to use them in a specific fashion. There are hundreds of sites dedicated to hosting Creative Commons images; if you want to go this route, try places like Flickr’s Creative Commons section or the aggregator site Creative Commons Search. All of them have different legalese and licensing agreements so make sure to read the fine print before downloading and using photos!

Illustrations

Most stock houses also sell illustrations known as vector graphics. Vector images are drawings or clip art that can be used in logos and illustrations. These are usually created in Illustrator. Unlike a photographic image, which is usually made of pixels, vector graphics can be scaled up or down without losing resolution.

Things to know

You can assemble an entire image library from stock photography. Many agencies have extensive selections of work from each of the photographers they represent. Most of the bigger stock photos houses have representatives who can help you find “of a kind” images (i.e., you give them a photo, and they can suggest ones that are stylistically or compositionally similar), which can save you countless hours of research.

You should never “screenshot” stock images or use “samples.” Even if you’re just creating an internal PowerPoint deck that will only be seen by three other people, grabbing low-res “samples” from stock photo agencies is technically stealing. Of course, it’s not likely that you’ll be discovered, but it’s really bad form and could be liable for fines or criminal charges. It’s risky and unnecessary, considering there are places where you can buy royalty-free stock photos for as low as $3.

Choosing and using stock photos is fun, but it is serious business. No matter what your needs are, ALWAYS read the fine print to keep yourself and your company in the clear.

You’ve probably been told that when looking for a full-time job, it needs to be your top priority. That’s perfectly solid advice but cranking out resume after resume is not going to get the attention of a hiring manager or creative director. To invoke another cliché, you and your resume needs to work smarter, not harder.

It all starts with keywords — those hyper-specific words that describe skillsets, experiences, or qualifications that employers call out in their “help wanted” posts. Many companies use what’s called an applicant tracking system that allows them to screen applicants very closely by having the system exclude resumes that don’t include the pre-specified keywords. Even if you have an amazing portfolio or you interned at famous agencies, no one is going to know, or care, unless you can get your cover letter and resume past a slew of digital gatekeepers. Take notes and optimize your job search up with these keyword tips.

For Your Resume

Keyword-optimizing your resume is essential to get a foot in the door. While it doesn’t make sense (and doesn’t look natural) to include all the keywords the ad utilizes, between your resume and your cover letter, you should be able to include most. Spend some time analyzing the ad, particularly the summary of the position and its duties, as well as a requirements section. If the ad is sparse on details, find similar ads and similar companies, and look at those keywords. You can also turn to keyword-analysis tools that can help you boost your odds.

Don’t settle for close: if one job description calls for “photo editing software” and your resume details your proficiency in Photoshop, you might not make it through the filter unless you use the exact same words.

Important: Don’t just write for the resume bots
When your resume DOES make it into the hands of a real-live human being, it shouldn’t read like you just stuffed every single keyword in. Besides just dropping the words, use them in a way that makes it clear you know what you’re talking about. Better yet, use them in a way that demonstrates your value to the company, especially in quantifiable terms. Good examples for popular roles might be:

Art Director: Designed 508-compliant elements of an integrated marketing campaign that resulted in sales of $100,000
Digital Copywriter: Wrote SEO-optimized copy for a landing page that resulted in a 11% conversion rate
Brand Strategist: Used business insights and quantitative research to develop the creative brief used on a winning brand pitch for an account worth $5 million
Traffic Manager: Initiated new jobs and created timelines for more than 100 complex, multi-media projects each month

For Your Cover Letter

By now, you probably understand what a huge buzzword the phrase “cultural fit” is: companies want employees who reflect their values and fit in with the existing workforce. This will require you to go deeper than just the job requirement and skills. Find information on the company’s culture in the website’s “About” section, the company blog, and their social media feeds. Are there words, phrases, or attributes that are used repeatedly? What themes do you notice?

It probably isn’t going to be a single word or skill – for example, if you visit the About Us page for NYC-based healthcare agency Area 23, you’ll see language not only about creativity, but entrepreneurship, curiosity, inventiveness. Granted, many agencies will employee similar language, but find what stands out to you and weave it in to your cover letter where appropriate.

For Your Portfolio

First off, your portfolio should be open and accessible 24/7 on your website. The beauty in that is that a keyword-optimized portfolio can attract exposure, even beyond those who see your resume. Take advantage of it in a few different ways:

Use targeted keywords in your permalinks (the unique name/URL that refers to a page).
Don’t forget to specify keywords in the alt-text for all of your images.
Photographers, add keyword-rich text in as many different places as you can. Your “About Us” is a good place for this.
Make sure other, reputable sites are linking to you (which you can do easily with your blog).
Create lots of internal links for your site.
Above all, create great content that’s useful to whoever is looking for you.

For Your LinkedIn

70% of employers admit they’re peeping on your social media. If a hiring manager or recruiter makes it to your LinkedIn profile after reviewing your resume, the first thing they’re going to look at is whether or not your skills match the requirements for their open position. We can’t say this enough: it’s OK to emphasize your skills at different jobs, but never misrepresent yourself or lie. At best, a recruiter might see the inconsistencies and worry that you’re not very detail-oriented; at worst, they’ll think you could be fibbing. Your LinkedIn doesn’t have to be an exact, word-for-word match, but the keywords should match up to complement your resume.

Optimizing your resume, cover letter, portfolio and social media take a lot of work, but can only take you so far. Make sure you’re doing everything you can to improve your job search odds with more resources like these.

“A leader doesn’t have to be dynamic and charming — just highly communicative and transparent.”
– The Leadership Development Trends in 2018

It’s well established that leaders can be made, not just born. And in today’s climate, the ability to learn and to grow — in short, to innovate — is one of the most crucial commodities to ensure that businesses remain relevant and ahead of the curve. But innovation shouldn’t just happen at the technical/operational level. For executive-level management especially, personal innovation — while perhaps harder to quantify — is also now an absolute necessity for successful leadership.

Self-awareness is the cornerstone of any effort at personal improvement, and as such has also been called the “secret weapon” to developing great leaders. While authentic self-awareness takes time and reflection, there are a few broad steps executives can take to get the process started, and to ensure they’re on the right path towards cultivating the proper tools and mindset for purposeful and productive growth.

1. Don’t ignore the hard stuff.

“Soft skills” are universally considered the most important indicators of success for executives, but the ability to inspire confidence, and maintain loyalty at all levels is one of the most important soft skills there is. Technical teams are often the heart and soul of business operations and, understandably, they can be highly protective of their domains. No one expects you to become Coder-in-Chief, but taking some time to re-acquaint and/or immerse yourself with the people and practices that drive production will lend a more tactile understanding of new technologies and other operational advances in your industry, and also serve to shore up respect among a valuable business asset — the skillful gatekeepers of the day-to-day.

2. Sensitivity training is back (and more important than ever).

The recent string of high-profile sexual harassment cases placed gender discrimination in the workplace front-and-center, along with the need to re-calibrate outdated corporate training modules on the matter. But #MeToo was just the tip of the iceberg: the future is not just female, it’s also more diverse, more self-actualized, and more “woke” than ever before. As even more recent events have shown so clearly, businesses and individuals who remain tone-deaf to these important cultural shifts risk a potentially irreparable public reckoning.

Executives who wish to harness this moment — for their own good, as well as for the good of their company — should do more than just mandate updated training: They should also show that they are eager to take part. Attitudes among the C-Suite won’t adjust if they just stick to familiar circles, and authentic change starts with a willingness to listen and, whenever possible, accommodate. Participating in sensitivity training with those from different backgrounds, and at different points in their careers, can provide executives with valuable insight into how certain of their behaviors may be perceived, and shed light on the unintentional biases to which so many can fall prey. Opening up to new perspectives from different generations and social/ethnic groups will not only serve to create a safer workplace but will also help your company — and yourself — stay ahead of the curve.

3. Check your communication.

Communication is one of those all-powerful, all-encompassing skills that can make or break a career, and it’s also one of those skills that many executives have already mastered. But mastering is not the same as refining, and not all messages will stick over time. This is not just about embracing new technologies and platforms. Sure, podcasts or Twitter can help spread your word, but if your words don’t resonate, neither will you.

Improving how you communicate can be as simple as changing who you talk to. Putting yourself in unfamiliar situations — via travel, meet-ups or other networking events — is a great way for executives to vet their messaging and delivery with those outside their standard sphere of influence. Engaging in less conventional training like acting or improv workshops can also help; sometimes working with the words of others is the best way to ensure that your own don’t fall on deaf ears.

Kate is a Creative Circle candidate, a senior copywriter, and a seasoned corporate communications consultant based in New York. If you want to work with Kate, contact Creative Circle New York.

As we all know, a gold-star resume is just one facet of finding the right candidate. Here are four important soft skills to be on the lookout for when meeting with potential candidates to fill your upcoming creative roles.

Curiosity

People often think that curiosity is about the quantity of questions one can ask. But it’s actually more about the process of deducing.

When meeting with potential hires, look for someone who asks thoughtful questions. In the same way that a good storyteller illustrates a narrative with an end in mind, a curious person seeks a conclusion with the questions as their roadmap.

Is your candidate curious about your path? Do they want to know about your daily work environment? Are they curious about the business foundation and its revenue stream? They should be as interested in finding out about you/your company as you are about finding out about their experience.

Communication

There is an art and a tact to how people connect to others. In the workplace, the ability to get along with anyone is key to an efficient workflow, increased productivity, and impressive output.

If an employee is not articulate or thoughtful in how they communicate, there is the potential for misunderstandings – which only serve to block the best / most collaborative work from being done.

A desire to communicate is a desire to reach understanding, which makes any strong communicator a really great cooperator and team player.

Humility

Someone who shows humility and self-awareness is a candidate who likely seeks purpose – looking to foster an environment for others to do their best work, regardless of their own power. This is a mindset that can’t be taught. And in the words of Pulitzer Prize winner, Kendrick Lamar, “Sit down. Be humble.”

Do they need recognition? Are they seeking validation? Ego is problematic because it blocks most people from seeing what others need. In the workplace, the work and company mission, must come first. Be aware of someone who seems more concerned with their own personal goals over how their role feeds back into the company’s bottom line.

Inquire into how your candidate feels about ownership of their work, how they talk about their past work experiences and accomplishments, and how often they use “I” vs. “we.”

Creative Problem-Solving

When interviewing, look for someone who is not only solution-oriented, but also solves problems from an a-linear perspective. Inquiring into how your candidate thinks by asking them specific questions that engage their other human skills (communication, self-awareness, curiosity, etc.) will help better highlight how they think on their feet vs. when they tactically solved a problem in the past.

These are just some (of many) soft skills to help guide your search. Great interview questions can help you figure out if your candidate has what it takes beyond their years of experience.

Annie is a Creative Circle candidate and freelance creative strategist/copywriter working and living in Los Angeles. She knows digital media as well as she knows her own horoscope (she’s a Virgo), having worked at the likes of BuzzFeed and Mashable. She has created branded content strategies for the top Fortune 500 brands, which means she knows the true meaning of “going native.” If you want to work with Annie, contact Creative Circle Los Angeles.

Instagram might be a platform for people, influencers, and brands to market chosen personas and lifestyles to their online community, but that doesn’t mean that the reasons why we like their content are anything but human.

In fact, there’s a science behind why we engage with certain content over others. Research found that viewers can determine the “gist” of what they’re looking at “with over 80% accuracy” within 36 milliseconds, which means you have less than a second to make a literal impression.

Psychologically, people want to build and maintain relationships over social media – where the act of “liking” a photo has become a mode of reinforcing closeness or encouraging someone to return the favor. Sharing a photo/video is as vulnerable of an act as sharing personal information 1:1 nowadays.

Even though Instagram content is often perceived to be “misleading” or “inauthentic,” people are still drawn to photos that appear as close to real life as possible. Dan Zarrella, a social media scientist, discovered that photos with no filter actually perform better than ones that do. Therefore, things like over-saturation, lack of depth, and photos without human faces don’t garner as much engagement.

Next time you’re trying to “get those likes,” remember to just keep it human.

Many of us seem to be blindly scrambling for that next rung on the career ladder without giving much thought to what it entails. Our culture has conditioned us to accept an equation that says: “If you’re not making moves up the ladder, you can’t be a success at work; and if you’re not a success at work, you’re not a success at life.”

It’s enraging, right? And not true. You might be better off embracing the rung you’re currently occupying so never forget that your happiness is even more important than a job title. If you’re uneasy about making the move up, here are a few reasons why you might be right.

New titles don’t always come with more money.

To badly paraphrase a quote from The Princess Bride, “Your fancy title does not mean what you think it means.” That is, to say, gaining a new title, such as adding on a “Senior” or a “V.P.” to your current title, doesn’t always bring you any more money.

Some companies bestow these titles in lieu of a raise, working under the assumption that since people move around a lot in the industry, you’ll be able to cash in at your next place of employment. There may be some room for you to negotiate other perks and benefits, but make sure you’re comfortable with your new professional demands (e.g., longer hours, more client contact, required travel – all things that could impact your finances as well as your personal life).

You might not like the new job that much.

Speaking on behalf of creatives, from the time most of us get our first jobs, it’s implied that we should all be making strides toward the position of Creative Director, a Group Creative Director, or an Executive Creative Director. After all, those are the folks who end up with the awards, the vacation homes in Aspen, and their names on the agency marquee.

They’re great jobs to aspire to, but they require skillsets vastly different from what it takes to be an Art Director or a Copywriter. Besides being able to hire, fire, and motivate people, and organize departments, budgets, and design workflows, being a CD or above means selling work too, and occasionally taking flak from every direction. So even if you spend six hours a day in meetings, you still need to figure out a way to get the work done (no matter how much sleep you or your team loses).

In short, this kind of life is the opposite of everything most creatives want out of their jobs.

Even for those outside the creative department, climbing higher usually requires taking on more duties related to management and operations. You’ll likely work more hours, which means you’ll spend a greater percentage of your life doing things that are radically different from the job you signed up for.

The more entrenched you are, the harder it is to get out.

If you work in advertising, branding or design, it’s really easy to get stuck in a particular category. For example, if you’ve worked on brands in automotive, healthcare, consumer packaged goods, or restaurants, you’ll be seen as someone with expertise: i.e., you’re the car guy, the financial writer, etc. Sure, it’s easier to find similar jobs, but it’s much harder to make a change. If you don’t like the path you’re on, don’t take a more senior position unless it will give you skills that you can transfer laterally to another job.

Said in a different way, if you don’t like what you’re doing, why would you put yourself in a situation to do more of it?

It’s true that you can keep your horizons broad by taking on freelance or doing volunteer work, but you have to be willing to sacrifice your personal time (which you’ll probably have even less of if you make a big jump up the ladder).

If you love your job, stay put.

Staying put isn’t career suicide and there’s a lot to be said about really owning and growing within your current role: stability, job security, and hopefully, the chance to make the right move at the right time. Ultimately, though, you’re the only person who can do the cost/benefit analysis to figure out if you should seek or take a promotion.

If you do find yourself craving change or wanting to move up, it actually is possible to pick up some of the essential traits and skills that are outside of your current job description or comfort level. You may never be able to teach yourself to like late nights or act as a punching bag for clients, but it’s easier than you think to learn the leadership skills you need if you do decide to keep climbing. Many of these skills you can start to use immediately: the faster you start applying them at your current position, the faster you’ll move up into a new one.

Still not sure? For your inspiration, The Muse has collected nine stories about people who stepped away from highly paid, high-power careers and had zero regrets about it.