Does the current crop of young eventprofs have unrealistic expectations
about career progression?
It’s certainly an issue that is ruffling a few feathers in
the sector at the moment.
I had a senior event professional sounding off about the
subject to me recently, telling me that for the younger talent that joined at
the start of Covid “there’s a disconnect and a misunderstanding of what it
takes and how long it takes to progress in the industry.”
The eventprof, who didn’t want to be named, added: “A lot of
businesses have swathes of young individuals who are constantly pushing to level
up for salaries and positions that are wild. There’s a swathe of professionals that believe they are godlike,
I’ve seen it happening across 20 or so agencies with their younger talent.
“Things are going to slow down, the market will return to
stability, and they’re going to be having troubles with younger employees, both
brand side and supplier side, who want to be MD in five years without the hard
yards.”
Then at Cvent CONNECT Europe this week the topic came up on the
panel discussion Salaries, Rising Costs & The Great Resignation: Macroeconomic Impacts on Your Events, with both corporate and agency sides seeming to
confirm the trend.
Panellist Becky Harmer, global brand experience
manager at Snap Inc, said: “We've got people coming in who are
junior event coordinators, wanting to be directors. They are actively applying
for director level jobs and you're like ‘You're 27!’. No offence to 27 year-olds,
but you've been in the industry three years and you're going for director?”
Fellow panellist Karen Kadin, founding partner of experience
agency Brands at Work, added: “One staggering experience we had recently was
somebody joining us who was a senior account manager, and we were going to put
them in that role with the view of promoting them to an account director. They
weren't even with the business three months before they took another job to get
that promotion elsewhere.
“I was like, you're missing a huge chapter of your career
here! There are certain things, on the skill jobs, that you can't learn without
having that experience. The leadership development, the ability to engage and
have an entire C-suite audience be able to see you as a leader and value your
opinion.
“If you're skipping those steps, it's a worry. I think we're
seeing in the market some CVs coming through with people saying they're an
executive producer, but they wouldn't even be, at our agency, a senior producer.
It’s a bit of a worrying trend, because of course with that they have the
expectation of salary.”
It's a really interesting development. Are we talking about ambition
running wild, or a new gifted generation of eventprofs with the skills to back up
their confidence? Time will tell...
M&IT editor Paul Harvey is a journalist with more than 15 years of experience. He began his career in the local press, working for various titles across the north. Since joining M&IT in 2013, he has become a trusted and respected voice in the sector, championing event professionals and reporting on all aspects of the events industry for the brand.
