Why Do Creative Professionals Choose To Work At Agencies

Working at an agency offers creative professionals a fast-paced, collaborative environment where they'll be exposed to a wide variety of projects instead of working with just one client.
The mentorship and education that senior creative professionals at an agency can provide is a big advantage for younger creative professionals when choosing between agency and in-house work.
The ad agency market is strong and expected to stay strong -- the total number of agencies in the US is trending up, and in total, US creative agencies are expected to pull in over $45 billion in annual revenue by 2020.
Overview

Hi! Thanks for your question about the reasons why creative professionals choose to work at agencies instead of working in-house for one client.

Through that search, I found several pro/con lists of both, which I used to put together a summary of reasons why these professionals choose to work at agencies. I also included the results of two studies: one on the value of diversity in the agency environment and one on the general employment outlook in the agency industry for 2017. I supplemented these with a few more creative industry sources.

I also came across several articles that give reasons why clients would hire an agency for creative work instead of creating an in-house team. That information is included at the end of my rundown.

AGENCY ADVANTAGES FOR CREATIVE PROS

Agency creative jobs offer several distinct advantages over in-house creative work. Kim Jacobson, a writer at Nelson Cash, calls in-house work "a fundamentally uncreative environment" where the daily grind stifles new ideas. The agency environment, on the other hand, offers a wide variety of projects and, often, a higher expectation of quality than in-house jobs. The fast pace and spontaneity of the agency environment are also a draw for many creative