Corporate To Agency

I recently secured a Senior UX Consultant role here at System Concepts, an agency specialising in UX, Health and Safety and Ergonomics. I had come from large corporate companies, and I had also worked in a large UK based charity. Reflecting on my first 6 months of agency life, I feel there definitely are key differences between the corporate and agency workplace. If you are toying with the idea of jumping between the two, I hope my following thoughts helps you in some way.

Well-meaning colleagues and friends provided me with words of warning and mixed messages about accepting an agency role. It’s amazing just how freely people can share such strong opinions which, in a world that often feels hard to navigate is something we

could do with dialling down a notch.

My expectations of the move to agency:

• I believed that by stepping away from following many company processes and standards, my work would be less efficient, and I would be panicking to find a way to make my work consistent whilst maintaining high quality.

• I’ve never worked in companies that have less than 3000 employees, would I suddenly feel lonely in my day-to day-work?

• Lastly, I was sure that my workload would feel like that of 3 people.

The reality:

• A process is definitely a helpful document! But when they’ve grown legs, arms and take up pages on PowerPoint, their help becomes diluted, and they have the potential to slow us down. I now work with very few processes within my work and I’m OK with this because, it’s amazing how efficient one can be when we remove the red tape that some unnecessary processes tend to create for us.

• The shift in company size from large corporate companies I’ve experienced, to now working in an agency of under 30 was the most significant difference to me. I would speak often to over 20 people in one day in my previous roles, each conversation under 30 mins. Now I talk to a few colleagues in one day for over 1 hour at a time; I feel I know how that person is truly feeling by the end of our first conversation of the day.

• Finally, I knew I’d be running, not walking with my new workload but there are times between projects where there are gaps to breathe, concentrate on CPD, and reflect on how the previous project went. These periods make me realise how meaningful my contribution to the project was and, makes me appreciate these breathers.

Many of the warnings I had received before I moved to agency were real; I had consoled close friends after tough agency office days, reassuring them that, tomorrow was a new day. The thing is, I too had also been consoled by my loved ones after my tough corporate office days. All jobs have their hard, stressful and testing times regardless of the workplace.

I truly believe that having an open mind enough to accept that different ways of working are good for us is key. I’ve learnt that they develop our experiences further, our minds and they help us flex to adapt in different situations outside our work life too.

There are certainly differences between the corporate and agency world, but the most important thing I’ve learnt is that developing ways to overcome, cope, and move on from the tricky workdays is actually what matters the most, not the stigma we place on certain workplaces.

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