It’s Time To Make Advertising a Top Career Choice Again

This spring, the job market was a recurring headline in stories about stressed-out college graduates navigating a tough economy. But instead of wringing our hands, our industry should be seizing the opportunity. The advertising world shouldn’t just be a fallback — it should be a first choice. The question isn’t how young people can get jobs, but why are they not choosing ours?

Not too long ago, advertising wasn’t just a career—it was a calling. Agencies were creative epicenters where culture was shaped, consumer behavior was decoded and business met artistry. For decades, advertising ranked among the top five career destinations for college and MBA graduates. Today, we don’t crack the top 15.

Only 7% of today’s graduates say advertising ranks in their top three preferred industries. Meanwhile, over 60% list tech and consulting as offering more perceived stability and advancement, according to recent LinkedIn surveys. The pay gap is part of that: Entry-level consultants and tech hires often earn 20% to 40% more than their peers in marketing. But money alone doesn’t explain the shift.

The agency world once promised something different: a creative life, cultural relevance and the thrill of making ideas happen. We can’t just compete on salaries. But we can reassert the meaning, the energy and the long-term value proposition that makes advertising a truly special place to build a career.

Treat advertising like a client brand

If we were advising ourselves as marketers, we’d start by clarifying the brand positioning. We need to reframe what a career in advertising is. We need to reclaim the energy, creativity and purpose that once made agencies irresistible to smart and curious people.

Let’s remind this next generation—the 42% of college grads who say they prioritize purpose and values over salary—that advertising is the connective tissue between brands and belief. We turn ideas into culture, and culture into action. We make things mean more in the world, in the marketplace and in people’s lives.

Connect creativity to commerce and real business impact

Advertising isn’t just about clever ideas and cultural relevance, but about growth, sales and real contributions to the economy.

Agencies are among the most potent growth partners a business can have. According to research by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, campaigns focused on long-term brand building generate three times more profit than those relying solely on short-term performance. Combine that with creative excellence, and the results are even more dramatic: Highly creative campaigns are 12 times more efficient at delivering business success, according to Nielsen and Cannes Lions data.

The global advertising industry contributes over $600 billion annually to GDP across developed markets and supports more than 30 million jobs directly or indirectly, per a recent Deloitte report.

So, to those considering a career in consulting, know that what agencies offer isn’t just storytelling but strategy that sells. We don’t just analyze problems, we solve them in the real world. We don’t just recommend, we execute. And we do so in ways that are public, fast-paced and fundamentally creative.

Sell the real story: where art meets innovation

Advertising has always offered something tech and consulting can’t quite replicate: a space where technology is used as a tool for imagination, not bureaucracy. While consultancies optimize processes and tech companies build platforms, we build meaning.

This is a place for the intellectually restless, the curious, the ones who want to make something happen, not run spreadsheets or write code in the corner of a corporation.

Make the culture visible again

Agencies need to redramatize what it's like to work in this industry. We should spotlight our creative chaos, entrepreneurial teams and cultural impact the way start-ups and film studios do. Today’s young professionals don’t want career ladders; they want lattices of growth, community and opportunity. That’s advertising at its best.

We should showcase the real lives of young talent in our industry and the established rock stars that deserve icon status — in documentary shorts, social-first campaigns, and even alumni newsletters. Feature agency staff building campaigns that change perception, win awards, or shift norms. Let future recruits see people like themselves doing work that matters — and having a blast doing it.

Build a two-way bridge to talent

Instead of waiting for top talent to come to us, we need to meet them where they are. That starts in schools. But instead of just lecturing students about advertising, let’s listen.

Agencies should forge immersive partnerships with their leaders’ alma maters and beyond — not just with advertising or marketing departments, but across design, sociology, computer science, and entrepreneurship programs. Sponsor creativity labs. Host real-world briefs. Turn internships into immersive, project-based apprenticeships.

Idea: Launch a national “Campaigns for Change” competition in which students from across disciplines develop purpose-driven brand campaigns for real-world nonprofit or startup clients — judged by top agencies, with internships as prizes.

Promote heroes—old and new

For too long, advertising’s icons have remained industry-side legends. We need to produce the next generation of public-facing creative stars and invest in getting them on stages, screens and in the feeds of young talent.

But just as important as established voices are fresh ones. Highlight new grads who launched something bold or contributed to a breakout campaign. Make them the poster children of possibility. Let peers see peers thriving.

Start small. Start now.

This doesn’t have to begin as a sweeping industry-wide transformation. It can start with one agency deciding to change its approach to hiring— from résumé review to immersive mentorship. One agency visiting classrooms not to recruit but to ask: What are you looking for? What would make you want to work with us?

The world needs more meaning. Brands need more resonance. And culture needs new authors. Advertising sits at the intersection of all three — if we’re bold enough to say so.

It’s time to make advertising matter again—not just in the marketplace, but in the minds of the next generation. Let’s give them a reason to choose us.