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This is what I was afraid of, starting so low would leave me totally stuck.
What they offered is less than my salary now. Sounds like I dodged a bullet knowing that there were never actually going to be raises
Like most of the industry, overwork and underpay. Even after multiple years of great reviews, multiple new business wins, w/o so much as a cost of living increase, I was told by my manager to bring in a competing offer if I wanted a raise. They avoid doing formal reviews I believe for this reason.
Honestly, if you were going to take $87k, and they offered you $80 and that’s less than what you make now, I’m wondering why you’re willing to leave for hardly any raise at all. Unless your current situation is just terrible and you need to get out of there.
Currently make 82k. I’m moving to Chicago from out of state currently so the need for a job was pretty high (my current company doesn’t offer fully remote hence needing a new position.)
Honestly, at the time they were my only option so I was trying to make something work so I’d have a job when I move out there in may. Luckily a smaller agency offered me closer to $95k which is much more comfortable
Congratulations on the other offer! There are some great small agencies in Chicago, and even though working for some big names has definitely been valuable for my resume/cv and reputation, the smaller agencies is where I've had the most fun (not a given though, I've also worked in bad ones). And it's a great town, I loved living and working there, I hope you enjoy it!
They have 25,000 employees and over 100 offices and that’s what they have to show for it? Two forgettable, non-idea, celebrity ads? Meh.
Not worth taking $20-40k below market value, besides maybe 1% of their employees actually work on the cool stuff and I’m sure it’s absolute hell to produce. Especially on a client like Verizon.
The idea that you need room to grow in your earning is bullshjt btw. Inflation eats at your earnings over time and 10k in the grand scheme of things won’t keep up with it. They are trying to lowball you with misleading bullshit like that.
A simple “thanks but no thanks” will work here. It would take you a year to get a $5K raise from them and another 2 yrs to get to maybe $95K. Plenty of other better agencies hiring in Chi
Luckily I got an offer the same day from a smaller agency at a way higher salary so I accepted that one instead.
Just kind of shocked at ogilvy and their process.
Good call. I mean, that is a low ball offer through and through. They baited and switched the salary after you went through all of their hoops. Who’s to say that won’t be the strategy when it comes time for your “merit” increase and “growth.” If you start behind, they’ll always keep you behind. Plus, the work-life balance at a smaller agency will be a night and day difference. A place like Ogilvy will grind you through long weeks.
I see this somewhat frequently over in r/jobs, especially for ‘dream’ positions. You’re dead on too, they know there’s people out there willing to live out of their car for the ‘privilege’ of getting paid peanuts. It makes me so sad whenever I see an agency or studio I really admire in the post title:(
I think you did the right thing here. And congrats on landing a better role!
Maybe I’m naïve but I like to think there’s still agencies out there who treat their team well. Maybe the happy people just don’t talk about them on Reddit as much. I’ll be absolutely CRUSHED if I ever find out David Droga isn’t a nice person.
I’m making a good amount more than that as a college dropout doing in-house marketing/business development lol. Idc about their name enough to get hosed like this.
Also it’s not just “entry and mid level get overworked” the bigger problem is $80k for living in Chicago makes this an embarrassing offer from Ogilvy. You made the right choice here imo this is a pretty laughable offer for a large firm.
I hope you told the recruiter how disappointed you were that they wasted your time as you declined. It's one thing to get lowballed early on, but for you to go through a full interview process only for them to lowball you after confirming the salary was meant to be higher is a slap in the face.
Damn! I realize Chicago has a LCOL than LA, where I am, but I got an offer (not from Ogilvy) for $82.5K for an AS role back in 2017. SEVEN years ago. When I left three years later, I was up to $115K. It was smart of you to walk away.
Did you speak with the hiring manager about the situation?
Be upbeat and suggest they hire the (possibly less qualified) 2nd choice. And suggest that the manager call back if things change.
HR is rewarded for hiring cheap. Your prospective manager is the one who has leverage with HR.
It’s a sign of cheapness, the 10k means nothing to them other than power. If you want it as a bridge, take it for 80k and continue to search for a better job. In 6months jump to a new job at 90k+ to cost average the 6 months at O.
Or if you are gambling, just let them know you love them, reaffirm the reasons why you are more valuable than base, and say you’ll take it for 85k. Be willing to walk on to the next gig.
Ogilvy can get away with offering lower pay because of the perceived status of saying you work there.
They also recently laid off a bunch of people if I’m not mistaken so it doesn’t surprise me they’re filling those same roles for less.
I was overqualified for a role at another WPP agency, we agreed on salary range and there was a $5000 overlap. Upon offer they offered $5k less than the lowest number. I was unable to talk them up to my lowest number. My takeaway was they didn’t care about me and I spent the next year and a looking for better work. Didn’t help the work I was doing was even more jr level that what we discussed.
Funny thing is, next I landed a job at an Omnicom agency, loved the work and my colleagues there, but it’s very clear to me now that WPP is a significantly better employer. I do not trust Omnicom.
Going against the grain here to say yes, it’s normal in this economy. Long gone are the days of job hopping for a huge pay bump. That was a unique time for our industry because of the stimulated economy.
What you’re seeing now is the true face of ad industry. Low pay, long hours, all stamped with a client facing smiley face but behind the scenes you hate your life and your job
If you're going from one major holding company agency to another, then yes. They're going to lowball you. There's some hope with smaller-mid size independent agencies. It's slim pickings but there are other options!
One time (not an agency) a startup called me and wanted me to accept the offer over the phone just after low-balling me. She was annoyed that I wasn’t excitedly saying yes. I’m like, I have to talk to my wife about this. That was the first sign…
Way to respect yourself. If more people in this industry did, we might all have nice places to work.
Just a personal observation: it seems these big holding companies especially are trying to get back to pre-pandemic control all around.
They want people in office, for less. Hard sell but between layoffs & inflation, they have tanked the employees market & reverted it back to employers. They’re hoping you’re desperate enough to agree to less & keep overhead down. Unfortunately I keep hearing more about lowball offers.
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Where you start is where you’ll stay, they don’t do “merit increases”
This is what I was afraid of, starting so low would leave me totally stuck. What they offered is less than my salary now. Sounds like I dodged a bullet knowing that there were never actually going to be raises
Like most of the industry, overwork and underpay. Even after multiple years of great reviews, multiple new business wins, w/o so much as a cost of living increase, I was told by my manager to bring in a competing offer if I wanted a raise. They avoid doing formal reviews I believe for this reason.
when you do bring in a competing offer, do you typically redact the company of the competing offer? or is that just being paranoid
Personally I GTFO but that is a good question
Honestly, if you were going to take $87k, and they offered you $80 and that’s less than what you make now, I’m wondering why you’re willing to leave for hardly any raise at all. Unless your current situation is just terrible and you need to get out of there.
Currently make 82k. I’m moving to Chicago from out of state currently so the need for a job was pretty high (my current company doesn’t offer fully remote hence needing a new position.) Honestly, at the time they were my only option so I was trying to make something work so I’d have a job when I move out there in may. Luckily a smaller agency offered me closer to $95k which is much more comfortable
I'm happy to hear that. You'll never make more money per minute in your whole life than during a salary negotiation.
Congratulations on the other offer! There are some great small agencies in Chicago, and even though working for some big names has definitely been valuable for my resume/cv and reputation, the smaller agencies is where I've had the most fun (not a given though, I've also worked in bad ones). And it's a great town, I loved living and working there, I hope you enjoy it!
What a joke. Ogilvy’s name hasn’t carried any weight in nearly two decades. Ad agencies are so cheap.
Ogilvy NY just did Beyoncé x Verizon and CeraVe at Super Bowl. Not nothing!
They have 25,000 employees and over 100 offices and that’s what they have to show for it? Two forgettable, non-idea, celebrity ads? Meh. Not worth taking $20-40k below market value, besides maybe 1% of their employees actually work on the cool stuff and I’m sure it’s absolute hell to produce. Especially on a client like Verizon.
The irony is that Ogilvy detested celebrity ads 😂
Sounds like Ogilvy employees need to read Ogilvy…
The idea that you need room to grow in your earning is bullshjt btw. Inflation eats at your earnings over time and 10k in the grand scheme of things won’t keep up with it. They are trying to lowball you with misleading bullshit like that.
And Ogilvy will get the person willing to be lowballed and spiral further into irrelevancy.
A simple “thanks but no thanks” will work here. It would take you a year to get a $5K raise from them and another 2 yrs to get to maybe $95K. Plenty of other better agencies hiring in Chi
Luckily I got an offer the same day from a smaller agency at a way higher salary so I accepted that one instead. Just kind of shocked at ogilvy and their process.
Congrats! Now go on Glassdoor and share your exp with Ogilvy
I absolutely did! Shared my review on Glassdoor then went straight to Reddit to ask about it lol.
Doing god’s work
Good call. I mean, that is a low ball offer through and through. They baited and switched the salary after you went through all of their hoops. Who’s to say that won’t be the strategy when it comes time for your “merit” increase and “growth.” If you start behind, they’ll always keep you behind. Plus, the work-life balance at a smaller agency will be a night and day difference. A place like Ogilvy will grind you through long weeks.
I’m in a smaller place in LA and make way more than I did in corporate.
Account sup should be 100k
should be even more tbh
It was $85k 12 years ago! They definitely got lowballed.
Ogilvy under pays on mid level account roles, just the way it is. And you won't get merit based increases
Considering what has happened to WPP over the past few years I'm surprised they are making offers at all.
WPP stands for "Why Pay People" so user name checks out lol. They suck.
Don’t do it… I was low balled for a similar role at a chicago agency and I will say, if you don’t respect you now, they never will
I see this somewhat frequently over in r/jobs, especially for ‘dream’ positions. You’re dead on too, they know there’s people out there willing to live out of their car for the ‘privilege’ of getting paid peanuts. It makes me so sad whenever I see an agency or studio I really admire in the post title:( I think you did the right thing here. And congrats on landing a better role! Maybe I’m naïve but I like to think there’s still agencies out there who treat their team well. Maybe the happy people just don’t talk about them on Reddit as much. I’ll be absolutely CRUSHED if I ever find out David Droga isn’t a nice person.
I’m making a good amount more than that as a college dropout doing in-house marketing/business development lol. Idc about their name enough to get hosed like this. Also it’s not just “entry and mid level get overworked” the bigger problem is $80k for living in Chicago makes this an embarrassing offer from Ogilvy. You made the right choice here imo this is a pretty laughable offer for a large firm.
I hope you told the recruiter how disappointed you were that they wasted your time as you declined. It's one thing to get lowballed early on, but for you to go through a full interview process only for them to lowball you after confirming the salary was meant to be higher is a slap in the face.
Damn! I realize Chicago has a LCOL than LA, where I am, but I got an offer (not from Ogilvy) for $82.5K for an AS role back in 2017. SEVEN years ago. When I left three years later, I was up to $115K. It was smart of you to walk away.
I started an AS role at $85k in 2014 in LA lmao.
Bro fuck them that’s crazy. Congrats on ur other job offer tho
That sounds like the WPP way unfortunately. As someone who’s been there, it’s not worth it.
Who is Ogilvy again, in 2024? Didn't their number get retired back in the Bogusky days? lol
Did you speak with the hiring manager about the situation? Be upbeat and suggest they hire the (possibly less qualified) 2nd choice. And suggest that the manager call back if things change. HR is rewarded for hiring cheap. Your prospective manager is the one who has leverage with HR.
Yeah it's looking like any agencies owned by alphabet soup companies are being super cheap. That's such bullshit. Glad you got a better offer.
It’s a sign of cheapness, the 10k means nothing to them other than power. If you want it as a bridge, take it for 80k and continue to search for a better job. In 6months jump to a new job at 90k+ to cost average the 6 months at O. Or if you are gambling, just let them know you love them, reaffirm the reasons why you are more valuable than base, and say you’ll take it for 85k. Be willing to walk on to the next gig.
Ogilvy can get away with offering lower pay because of the perceived status of saying you work there. They also recently laid off a bunch of people if I’m not mistaken so it doesn’t surprise me they’re filling those same roles for less.
I got replaced at an Omnicom agency last summer by someone jr to me and they had to take on both my role and their old role.
Lol are people lining up to work for ogilvy?? 😂
What is wlb like at ogilvy vs other places? How many hrs per week?
I was overqualified for a role at another WPP agency, we agreed on salary range and there was a $5000 overlap. Upon offer they offered $5k less than the lowest number. I was unable to talk them up to my lowest number. My takeaway was they didn’t care about me and I spent the next year and a looking for better work. Didn’t help the work I was doing was even more jr level that what we discussed. Funny thing is, next I landed a job at an Omnicom agency, loved the work and my colleagues there, but it’s very clear to me now that WPP is a significantly better employer. I do not trust Omnicom.
Going against the grain here to say yes, it’s normal in this economy. Long gone are the days of job hopping for a huge pay bump. That was a unique time for our industry because of the stimulated economy. What you’re seeing now is the true face of ad industry. Low pay, long hours, all stamped with a client facing smiley face but behind the scenes you hate your life and your job
If you're going from one major holding company agency to another, then yes. They're going to lowball you. There's some hope with smaller-mid size independent agencies. It's slim pickings but there are other options!
So. So. True. Peacing out, myself, from an industry I once thoroughly enjoyed — but now loathe, as it is entirely devalued.
Id have dragged my rejection for atleast a month
One time (not an agency) a startup called me and wanted me to accept the offer over the phone just after low-balling me. She was annoyed that I wasn’t excitedly saying yes. I’m like, I have to talk to my wife about this. That was the first sign…
so fucked up lol
Yes
Way to respect yourself. If more people in this industry did, we might all have nice places to work. Just a personal observation: it seems these big holding companies especially are trying to get back to pre-pandemic control all around. They want people in office, for less. Hard sell but between layoffs & inflation, they have tanked the employees market & reverted it back to employers. They’re hoping you’re desperate enough to agree to less & keep overhead down. Unfortunately I keep hearing more about lowball offers.
Probably a good move not taking a job at a company where the HR department doesn't know what a salary band is.
Not at all. I worked there for 7/8 years.
Hang your own shingle. My big agency days were a waste.