One Day, Three Clients, A Million Ideas: A Day in the Life of a Recruitment Marketing Agency

– Mollie O’Sullivan, Account Lead, Pesto Mum

6:30am - Rise & Shine (sort of)
Pesto, my sidekick greyhound, is the only reason I see mornings before 8am. She insists on her walk, and I insist she doesn’t eat anything suspicious off the pavement. Our daily battle of wills usually ends with her side-eyeing squirrels while I try to remember how to function as a human.

7:45am - Return of the Underdog
Back home, I shower and attempt “skincare.” I say attempt, because I’m still not sure if splashing on the same serum I panic-bought two years ago is doing anything other than making me shinier on Google Meet.

8:30am - Team Catch-Up
Login, emotional support water bottle in hand, and straight into the team catch-up. The updates range from impressive client wins to what everyone did at the weekend. Mondays are the worst for this - everyone else seems to have done something super cool while I...napped and walked the dog. Again.

9:00 – 10:00am - Battle of the Inbox
Stare at an inbox full of emails that appeared between 5:30pm yesterday and this morning. Heart rate briefly spikes, before realising most are quick wins: client updates, campaign approvals, and a couple of “looks amazing, thanks!” (the agency marketer’s version of a Michelin star).

10:00am – 12:00pm - Focus Mode: Engaged
Now it’s game time. Building automation flows, campaign concepts, writing briefs, and approving content. This is when agency life is at its best - bouncing between clients, projects, and platforms faster than Pesto spots a squirrel.

12:00 – 1:00pm - The Lunch of Champions
Toast. Butter. Occasionally crisps if I’m feeling fancy. This gourmet feast is consumed while scrolling TikTok and pretending it’s “market research.” Pesto gets shoved into the garden to stretch her legs and stop plotting her afternoon chaos.

1:00 – 3:00pm - Client Catch-Ups
Ah, the WIP calls. A chance to update clients on what’s been delivered, what’s in progress, and what’s about to blow their socks off. Best case: you get that golden “we love it, go ahead.” Worst case: three more rounds of feedback. Either way, the adrenaline hits and I leave buzzing with new ideas.

3:00 – 4:00pm - Brief Writing Bonanza
Time to unload the brain. Writing briefs is equal parts exhilarating and terrifying. Exhilarating because you’re putting wild ideas into words for the team to bring to life. Terrifying because you need to get the brief spot on. Putting into words what you see in your head is a whole different ball game.

4:00 – 5:00pm - Inbox, Round Two
Back into the email trenches. More updates, more approvals, more “can we get this by tomorrow?” (spoiler: yes). Agency time moves differently - somehow there are 37 hours of work in every day, and yet things still get done.

5:00 – 5:30pm - The Never-Ending List
Update the to-do list. Cross out some things, add twice as many new ones. Feel oddly satisfied despite being net negative on progress. That’s agency life: always moving, always adding, always...in slight panic mode. Alongside the serum, these things keep me young.

5:30pm - Back to the Dog Life 
Another walk for Pesto, who now fully believes my schedule revolves around her (and honestly, she’s not wrong). Gearing up to do it all again tomorrow.

And I wouldn’t change it

After a few years in-house, I realised something: it’s a bit...beige. Same campaigns, same stakeholders, same “can we push this back a quarter?” conversations. I found myself craving a bit of chaos - but only the best kind. The kind where no two days look the same, where creativity has to move at speed, and where “boredom” is a word you only ever hear from people in-house.

So I jumped ship into agency life. And honestly? It’s exactly what I was looking for. Every day is a mash-up of client calls, campaign launches, frantic bursts of creativity, and about three times as many ideas as I can possibly write down. The team around me are brilliant - equal parts talented and hilarious - which makes even the busiest days feel like the best kind of chaos.

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It’s a lot, don’t get me wrong. But it’s the good kind of a lot. And truthfully? I’ve never enjoyed a job more.

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