No longer in advertising

This was my response to the question ‘Does it make sense to stay on in advertising?’ raised by an industry professional in another blog:

“The fact that I’m no longer in advertising means I’ve found career opportunities which are more attractive than advertising. For me, money has not been the reason for leaving advertising. It has been the lack of professionalism and skills in handling people that drove me away.

There are too many incompetent people in responsible positions in advertising agencies. In a people business, they know very little about managing – or being responsive to – people who make up their teams. In a communication business, most advertising people cannot even communicate well... and that includes senior executives in the ‘creative’ department.

Most managers lack leadership skills. They move up the ladder not because of their ability to lead their teams to higher levels of achievement, but by default, typically, when their superiors leave to pursue better-paid jobs. Many are bullies (I once had a psychotic as a boss) running down their juniors and taking credit for others’ work.

Developing people doesn’t seem to be a priority in advertising agencies. There’s hardly any training provided by the agencies to make their executives better managers. What’s worse, the senior management totally ignores this vacuum in their HR systems... maybe because they themselves have grown up in the same ignorant manner.”