Questions to Ask in an Advertising Interview
For candidates interviewing at an advertising agency, in account management, creative, media or strategy, who want to know what the job is like behind the client list. The questions are grouped in the order the conversation tends to go: the accounts you would work on, how pitches run, how work gets reviewed and approved, the clients, hours and billing, and the seat itself, including why it is open.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
The accounts
Which accounts would I be working on, and how much of my time would each one take?
Why ask it
The client list on the agency's site is not your client list. A good answer names the brands and a rough split of your week between them. If it is 'wherever the need is', ask which account is short of people right now, because that is probably where you would start.
What does a typical week look like in this role, and how does it change before a big presentation?
Why ask it
The ordinary week gives you the mix of meetings, making and chasing. The week before a presentation shows the agency under pressure, so get a date for the last one and how late it ran.
How is the team on that account set up, and who would I report to?
Why ask it
Agencies organize by department, by client team, or a mix of the two, so ask how it runs here. Find out whether the person who directs your work each day is also the person who writes your review. When those are two people who rarely talk, good work on the account can go unseen.
Which piece of work from the past year is the agency proudest of, and what was hard about getting it made?
Why ask it
The pick shows what the place values: an idea, a result for the client, or an award. The second half is the useful one. Someone who can describe the argument, the budget cut or the rewrite along the way was close to the work, and is telling you how things really get made there.
How long has the agency held these accounts, and is any of them up for review?
Why ask it
An account in review is one the client has opened to other agencies, and if it leaves, the work you were hired for can leave with it. You are hoping for a plain answer and a word on what happens to the team in that case. Contract lengths and notice periods differ from client to client, so ask about the ones you would be on.
Roughly how much of the agency's income depends on its largest client?
Why ask it
When one client pays for much of the building, that client's budget cuts become the agency's staffing decisions. You may not get a figure, and a rough sense such as 'no single client dominates' is enough. Save it for a later round, and for someone senior enough to know.
Are these accounts on retainer, paid project by project, or a mix?
Why ask it
A retainer tends to mean steadier staffing and a longer view of the brand, and project work brings variety with gaps between jobs. The gaps are the part to understand: what do people on a project team do when one job ends and the next has not been signed?
What does the agency do in house, and what goes to partner agencies, production companies or freelancers?
Why ask it
It marks out what you would learn by doing and what you would only brief out to others. A media planner at a shop that hands buying to a partner has a different job from one who sits beside the buyers. Where the agency belongs to a larger group, the partner may be a sister company you would deal with every week.
Is there a kind of client or product the agency will not take on?
Why ask it
A real answer comes with an example of business that was declined. If nothing is off the table and there is a category you would not want to work on, raise it now and ask how such a request has been handled before. It is easier to settle in an interview than on the day a brief arrives.
Pitches
How does new business run here, and who gets pulled onto a pitch?
Why ask it
Some agencies keep a dedicated pitch team and some borrow whoever is good and available. If it is the second, pitching is part of this job whether the posting says so or not. Ask how many pitches the person in this seat worked on last year.
How many pitches did the agency go for in the past year, and how did they turn out?
Why ask it
A long list with few wins means many late nights with little to show for them, and a short list with a fair share of wins suggests someone is choosing carefully. How they talk about the most recent loss counts too: a lesson learned is a better sign than a client who 'did not get it'.
How does the agency decide which pitches to turn down?
Why ask it
Declining is the sign of a pitch process with rules: a minimum budget, a limit on how many agencies are competing, a client the team would want. If they cannot remember passing on one, expect every invitation to become a late project on top of your accounts.
When a pitch lands on top of client work, what gives?
Why ask it
Good answers name a mechanism: freelancers cover the accounts, a deadline is renegotiated, or pitch work has its own team. 'Everyone pitches in' usually means evenings, with a client who still expects the usual service the next morning.
After a win, does the team that pitched stay on the account?
Why ask it
Clients sometimes choose an agency for the people in the room and then meet a different team. If you would be on that second team, you inherit promises you did not make, and seeing the pitch deck and the meeting notes before your first client call is the least you would need.
Would someone at my level present in a pitch, or prepare the material for it?
Why ask it
Both are real work, and which you want depends on where you are headed. Presenting tends to put you in front of the people who run the agency sooner. A name helps here: who at your level last stood up in a pitch, and what did they present?
Does the agency produce finished creative for pitches without a fee?
Why ask it
Practice differs from one agency and one market to the next, and some decline to do speculative work at all. There is no single right policy. How they talk about it shows how they value their own ideas, and for a creative it is worth asking what becomes of work from a pitch that was lost.
The work
Who writes the brief, and does the client sign it before work begins?
Why ask it
A brief the client has agreed to gives the team something to hold later feedback against. Without one, every round of comments can reopen the question of what the work is for. Ask what the brief on the last campaign looked like: one page, a deck, or a forwarded email.
How many internal reviews does work go through before a client sees it, and who has the final say?
Why ask it
You are mapping the chain: a creative director, an account lead, a strategist, sometimes the head of the agency. The answer to hope for ends with one name. Where several people can each send work back, ask what happens when two of them disagree the night before a presentation.
At what point do strategy, creative, media and account people first sit down together on a job?
Why ask it
If the answer is 'at the briefing', the departments shape the idea together. If media is planned once the idea is finished, or the strategist hands over a brief and moves on, the work passes down a line and whoever is last absorbs the delays. Work out where your role stands in that line.
Do creatives work in fixed pairs here, or is a team put together for each brief?
Why ask it
A copywriter and an art director may be kept together for years at one agency and matched job by job at another. If you are a creative, ask whether you would have a partner, who it would be, and whether you could meet them before you decide. In an account or strategy role, it tells you whether you would brief the same two people every time or a new pair on each job.
Who is in the room for a creative review, and how is feedback given?
Why ask it
A group review teaches quickly and can sting, and notes passed along by a third person are gentler and easy to misread. If you are a creative, the detail that matters is how often the creative director sees work in progress: a weekly look and a glance on deadline day are different apprenticeships.
When did a client last turn down work the team believed in, and what did the agency do?
Why ask it
There are two poor endings: folding on the first call, and digging in until the relationship suffers. The better stories have someone going back with a reason the client could accept, or a second route that kept the idea alive. Notice who did the arguing, since that tells you who defends the work.
How does the agency judge whether a campaign worked, and who reports that to the client?
Why ask it
Sales, brand tracking, site traffic, a client who renewed: any answer with a measure in it is a good start. If the only evidence is that the client was pleased, ask what the client itself was measuring. In media and strategy roles the reporting may fall to you, which makes the tools and the reporting calendar part of the job you are weighing.
How much do awards matter here, and who decides what gets entered?
Why ask it
Planning part of the year around award shows and ignoring them altogether can both be healthy. The awkward case is a leadership that prizes awards while the daily work is something else entirely. Ask whether entries and case study films are made on agency time or in people's own.
How much of the output is campaign work, and how much is everyday production such as social posts, resizes and updates?
Why ask it
Most agencies have both, and the reel shows only the first. An honest ratio lets you judge the job you would be doing most days. If the everyday share is high for your level, ask how and when people move on to bigger briefs.
Is there a project management or traffic team, and who sets the timelines?
Why ask it
Where someone's job is to build and guard the schedule, deadlines get negotiated before they are promised. Where there is no such person, dates tend to be set in the client meeting by whoever wants to please. The person to identify is the one who is allowed to say a deadline cannot be met.
How is the agency using AI tools in its work, and what are the rules about client material?
Why ask it
Policies differ by agency and often by client contract, so ask what applies on the accounts you would join. A good answer says what the tools are for, what may not be put into them, and who decided. 'We are still working it out' is fine if a named person owns the question.
Clients
How would you describe the main client I would be working with?
Why ask it
Listen for a person, not a company: the marketing director who wants three options, the brand manager who replies at midnight. Detail and some warmth mean a working relationship. A pause and a careful sentence mean you should ask what has been difficult.
Who is the day-to-day contact on the client side, and can they approve work?
Why ask it
A contact who cannot approve anything has to carry the work up their own chain, often with no one from the agency there to explain it. Ask whether the team ever presents to the person who decides. If not, expect feedback that arrives secondhand and late.
How much direct contact with clients would I have, and how soon?
Why ask it
For an account role the answer is usually 'from the start', and the follow-up is how soon you would run a call alone. For creatives, strategists and media planners it varies: some agencies keep them behind the account team and some put them in the meeting. Say which you would prefer.
What happens when a client asks for something outside the agreed scope?
Why ask it
The healthy version is a conversation about cost or trade-offs, led by someone with the standing to have it. The worrying version is that the team quietly absorbs the extra work. Scope terms sit in each client's contract, so ask how it went the last time on the account you would join.
Does the client work with other agencies, and how is the work divided between you?
Why ask it
Many brands split creative, media, public relations and digital across several shops. Ask who leads when the lines overlap and whether the agencies cooperate or compete for each other's share. For a media or social role it decides whether you are present when the idea is formed or handed it afterwards.
What happened the last time a client changed its marketing lead?
Why ask it
A new marketing lead may want to look again at the agencies they inherited, so an account can be at risk for reasons unrelated to the work. An agency that has been through it can say what it did: who went to meet them and what was presented again. It is also a tactful way to hear whether a change like that is coming on your accounts.
When a client contact is harsh with someone junior, who steps in?
Why ask it
Ask for the last time it happened. A good answer has a senior person taking the next call or raising it with the client's boss. If the story ends with the junior being told that it comes with the job, weigh that against how much you want the account.
Has the agency ever resigned an account, and what led to it?
Why ask it
Walking away from paying business is costly, so a real example shows where the agency's limit is: a client who would not pay, who mistreated staff, or who wanted claims the team could not stand behind. If it has never happened, ask what would make them consider it.
Hours and billing
How often did the team work late or over a weekend in the past month, and what caused it?
Why ask it
Asking about one month gets a count where 'what are the hours like' gets a shrug. The cause matters as much as the number: a pitch or a shoot is a spike that ends, and late client feedback every week is the schedule.
How is time tracked here, and what are the timesheets for?
Why ask it
Agencies that bill by the hour, or price retainers from past hours, usually ask everyone to log their time, so ask how it is done here. Then press on the second half: timesheets kept to price work fairly are a chore, and timesheets kept to rank people change how everyone fills them in.
Is there a billable target for this role, and what counts toward it?
Why ask it
Pitches, training and internal projects are often not billable, and agencies count them differently, so go through them one by one. A target you can only reach when the client is spending puts part of your review in the client's hands, which makes the story of someone who fell short in a slow stretch worth hearing.
What happens when a job runs past the hours that were quoted?
Why ask it
There are three usual outcomes: the agency absorbs the cost, the client is billed more, or people are asked to stop logging the extra time. The third is the one to worry about. It hides the overrun, so the next job gets quoted the same way.
When a week runs long, does the agency give anything back, such as time off afterwards?
Why ask it
Overtime rules depend on where you work and how the role is classified, so this is about what the agency does in practice, not about the law. Some offer a day off after a pitch, some pay for dinner and a ride home on late nights, and some do nothing. 'We are flexible' needs an example.
When the workload peaks, can the team bring in freelancers, and who approves it?
Why ask it
This is the relief valve. If a team lead can book help for a busy two weeks, peaks get shared. If every request goes to finance and usually comes back as no, the permanent staff are the relief valve, and you would be one of them.
The seat
Is this seat open because someone left, because an account grew, or because of a new win?
Why ask it
A new win means building from nothing for a client still forming its first impressions. Growth means joining a team that has been stretched for a while. If someone left, ask how long they stayed and where they went: one move to another agency or to a client says little, and several exits from the same account say more.
What would my review be based on: the work, what clients say, or billable hours?
Why ask it
Agencies weigh these differently, and some add a part in winning new business. A clear answer names two or three measures and says who collects them. If client opinion counts, find out how it reaches your reviewer, so you know whether one sour contact could color a whole year.
What would you want me to have taken off someone's plate by the end of my first three months?
Why ask it
It turns 'settling in' into something you can picture: running the weekly status call, owning a product line, writing the briefs for one brand. The name of the person whose plate it is tells you who will be most glad to see you, and who will be checking the handover.
How long do people at my level tend to stay, and where do they go next?
Why ask it
Moving between agencies is common, so a short tenure is not a warning in itself. Look at the destinations: people promoted here or hired by clients suggest the job builds something, and people leaving the industry after a year suggest it wears them out.
What is the next title up from this one, and who last made that step?
Why ask it
Titles are not standard across agencies, and the same name can sit a level higher or lower at the shop across town, so get the ladder as it is called here. Then ask for a person: how long the last promotion took, and what that person had done by then, is worth more than any description of the criteria.
How do people learn the craft here: courses, a mentor, or being put on the job?
Why ask it
Much of the learning in an agency happens on live work, and it works when someone senior has time to look at what you did. Ask who that would be for you and how many others they look after. A training budget nobody has touched in a year is not a program.
How would you describe the culture here, and how does it differ from other agencies you know?
Why ask it
The comparison is what makes this answerable. Many agency people have worked at more than one, and 'less political than my last place' or 'longer hours, better work' says more than a list of values. If this is their first agency, ask what surprised them in their first few months.
How has the agency changed in the past two years, in size, leadership or ownership?
Why ask it
Layoffs, a merger, a founder leaving or a sale to a larger group all change who decides things and what gets funded. An interviewer who tells it plainly, including the bad quarter, is one you can believe on other subjects.
What is the hardest thing the agency is dealing with this year?
Why ask it
Clients taking work in house, pressure on fees, a senior person leaving: there is always something, and naming it is a mark of candor. Follow with what is being done about it. If the plan involves this hire, you have just learned what the job is really for.
What made you choose this agency, and what has kept you here?
Why ask it
It gives the interviewer an easy turn after the harder ones and still tells you something. The people and the work are the standard answers, so ask which person or which piece of work. If what kept them is a client that has since left, notice that.
From what you have seen of my work so far, where would I need the most support?
Why ask it
It invites the doubt while you can still answer it: a gap in the book for a creative, such as no film or no long copy, or an unfamiliar category or tool for an account or media candidate. Whatever they name, one short answer is enough. Point to a piece of work that speaks to it, or say how you plan to close the gap.
What are the next steps, and is there a task or a portfolio review still to come?
Why ask it
Some agencies set a test brief or ask for a presentation before an offer. Ask how long it is meant to take and whether it is paid, since practice differs. If the task is based on a live client problem, it is fair to ask politely how the work will be used.
How to ask about agency life in an advertising interview
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the interview
Look at the work before you ask about it
The agency's site, its social accounts and the trade press show its clients and its recent campaigns. Arrive knowing two or three pieces well enough to ask how they were made. 'I saw the spring campaign for the grocery client. Who was on that team?' gets further than asking what the agency does.
Who you meet at an agency, and what each one knows
An agency process often puts you in front of a recruiter or talent lead, a department head such as a creative director or a group account director, and one or two future teammates. The recruiter knows the steps, the pay band and the office policy. The department head knows the approval chain and how accounts are staffed. The teammates know the hours and the client. Take the questions about ownership and dependence on one client to the most senior person you meet, and the ones about late nights to whoever sits nearest your own level.
Weight the list toward your discipline
Account candidates should lean on Clients, and on scope above all. Creatives should spend most of their turns in The work: briefs, reviews, who has the final say and whether they would have a partner. Media and strategy candidates need to know when they are brought into a job and who owns the reporting. Everyone should take one from Hours and billing and one from The seat.
Choose the few that could change your mind
There is rarely time for more than a handful. Choose the ones whose answers could change your mind about the job, and write down beforehand the reply that would put you off: three possible accounts and nobody able to say which is yours, or an approval chain six people long. People who present to clients for a living tend to be persuasive, and a note written before you met them is a useful check on that.
In the room
Put a date on it
'What are the hours like?' gets the official answer. 'How many late nights were there last month, and what caused them?' gets a count and a story. The same move works across the list: the last pitch, the last campaign a client turned down, the last request that fell outside the contract.
What to hold for a later round
A first conversation suits The accounts and The work, which show you understand how an agency runs. Billable targets, the share of income that rests on one client and why the last person left sit better in a second or final round, when the agency is also trying to persuade you.
Give a reason for the money questions
Questions about timesheets, overruns and client dependence can sound like suspicion. A short reason helps: 'I have worked where hours over the quote were written off, so I like to know how it is handled.' If this would be your first agency job, say that you are trying to understand how the business works.
Ask for one job, start to finish
Invite the interviewer to walk you through a single recent job from the brief to the day it ran: who wrote the brief, who reviewed the work, what the client changed, how long it took. One job told in order answers a dozen of these questions at once, and people enjoy telling it.
Reading the answers
Names are the good sign
An interviewer who says which client, which creative director and which week is describing something that happened. 'We are very collaborative' and 'we work hard and play hard' describe nothing until you ask for an example.
Compare the account side with the creative side
Ask an account person and a creative how work gets approved, or who talks to the client. Each tends to describe the process from their own side. Where the two versions match, the process is real. Where they differ, you have found the friction you would be working in.
Allow for what they cannot say
Client names under confidentiality, live pitches and contract terms may be off limits, and a polite refusal on those is not evasion. Ask for the shape without the name: the category, the size of the team, how long the relationship has run.
Judge it against what you want
Heavy pitching is a burden to one person and the best part of the job to another. The same goes for a small shop where everyone does a bit of everything and a large one with a specialist for each step. Decide which trade you are making before you compare offers.
Mistakes to avoid
Asking only about the famous work
The campaign everyone knows may have been made by a team that has since left, for a client that is no longer there. Ask about the accounts and the people you would actually join.
Reviewing their work uninvited
Opinions about the agency's campaigns are welcome when someone asks for them. Opening with what you would have done differently puts the interviewer on the defensive and suggests how you might treat a colleague's idea.
Dodging the hours, or boasting about them
Skipping the question means finding out in your first pitch week. Announcing that you are happy to work every weekend sets a term you may regret. Ask plainly, once, with a time frame, and listen.
Leaving without knowing your accounts
It is easy to accept an agency job knowing the agency and not the assignment. If nobody can tell you which clients you would start on, ask when that will be decided and who decides it, and ask again if an offer comes.