Changing Directions: From Agency to Corporate

Since I’ve been struggling to identify a topic for this week’s blog post, I decided to turn inward for inspiration. Or, more specifically, I’m reflecting on my personal transition in the past year moving from the agency side to working in-house. I’ve worked for non-profit and small and large agencies for five years, including Ketchum, here in New York. At the beginning of this year, I joined the corporate communications team at Time Warner Inc.

As most of my agency friends have joked with me, one of the easiest changes has been not tracking my time. I will admit that I have no regret in leaving this necessary, but tedious task behind. Especially considering that my former client, FedEx, was one of the agency’s largest and required dozens of billing codes across the account. For those of you working in agencies, I’m sure you can appreciate how much work it takes to manage all those project codes!

I loved working for this client and learned a great deal from the variety of projects we supported. I also benefited from learning how to manage my time with competing demands. In my previous role, I balanced multiple client requests on an hourly basis, researched and developed campaign materials (sometimes within 24 hours or less!) and pitched and secured media opportunities on a regular basis. I also learned how to quickly solve problems while thinking on my feet and how to provide my clients with insights and strategic communications recommendations that addressed their business challenges and opportunities.

I’m learning that while my background and experience on the agency side has served me well in my new position and company, there is still a great deal to learn! For starters, I primarily worked on the external communications side in my old agency jobs. The projects I supported ranged from enterprise-wide CSR campaigns and local market outreach events to product/service launches and media relations support during the client’s busiest shipping time of the year: the peak holiday season.

Now that I work in corporate communications, I’m learning a brand new area of tactics and strategies. I focus on crafting messages about our business and internal company policies, so that they are clear, actionable and resonate with employees. I work with an amazing team to create internal campaigns that promote company or department-specific initiatives.

A lot of our campaigns involve the development of creative marketing collateral, including brochures, videos, elevator wraps, micro-sites, e-vites and more. I’ve had a lot of fun drafting content or working with vendors to create these materials. And it’s always fulfilling to see the finished product around the building or watch employees engage with a campaign that my team developed.

I also oversee our weekly company e-newsletter, where we provide employees with important company announcements, updates on upcoming events and articles about the exciting content our divisions (HBO, Time Inc., Turner Broadcasting System and Warner Bros.) are working on and producing. I’ve also learned basic HTML language and support an associate director with the management of our company intranet.

Although it was a tough choice to leave an agency and client that I loved working for and learned from every day, I’m glad that I took a step down a new path. I’m really enjoying my new role and look forward to growing my career with Time Warner. It’s only been six months, so I have a lot more to learn!

And eventually, I will stop thinking in 15-minute billable increments throughout the day.

Has anyone else recently transitioned to a new company or industry? How has the process been for you?