Does Size Matter?

Everyone has an opinion about which is better - working for a large or small PR firm. I would love to hear everyone's opinions, and here are mine.

It really depends on your personality and career goals. I worked at a small ("boutique" is the term they are using these days) agency for two years and just recently moved to Burson-Marsteller, one of the largest agencies in the world. The move has been hard for me so far, but not for reasons you'd typically think. Things have been very slow to ramp up, and while I realize this is certainly not always the case with you make such a move, it has been in my casse. At my first day at the boutique firm, I had three client meetings, several press releases to write and a new business proposal that needed drafting.

At smaller agencies, you are a vital member of the team and are intimately aware of all (or nearly all) client projects taking place. My (mind you, very limited thus far) experience at a larger agency is that you are only intimately aware of certain client projects. At any given time, there may be many projects the agency is taking on on behalf of a client, but you might only be working on one particular project.

But, unlike what I've been told, larger agencies (at least mine) still have a small agency feel. Sure, there are probably more than 100 people working here, but there are only 8 or so on my immediate team.

My final comment for now (I will have an update post in a few months about more I've learned) is that at a larger agency, you can become specialized in one area. At my small firm, I was a "jill of all trades," knowing a little about every industry you could think of and performing everything from media relations to new business to community relations to event planning. Here, I am in the issues and advocacy practice, which means I am specializing in crisis communications. And where I had 12 clients before, I only have 4 right now.

So, it really just depends on your personality - I don't think one is better than the other. For me, big agency life is proving to be better than I ever hoped and certainly a better place for me. But, that's not to knock smaller firms - there are a lot of good ones out there. Does anyone else have examples you'd like to share?