The benefits of agency life
Truthfully, I wish every SEO started their career at an agency. Like a boot camp, the pace of agency life early in your career will be very formative.
Being in-house your entire life (especially at just one or two companies) can give you a tunnel-vision view of the world.
The exposure to sites of different sizes and the SEO savviness one can get inside an agency are unparalleled.
Experience is a superpower in SEO, so while now in life I (clearly) enjoy in-house life, I highly recommend SEOs work at agencies, even if just for a few years.
Here are other advantages of working in an agency:
Exposure to many clients and verticals.
Learning incredible project management skills.
Many senior informatica people mentoring you in what you do.
Quickly learning a repeatable playbook of best practices for each vertical.
Company incentives (i.e., sending you to SEO events or allowing you to speak).
A more developed career ladder (i.e., an opportunity to be Director or Sr. Director).
Fewer meetings and easier transition to consulting.
Exposure to many clients and verticals
One of the biggest shortcomings I see in SEO hires is a lack of experience working across sites of different sizes with different resources.
