Six months ago, during a brainstorming session at work, I made a joke. It wasn’t my most professional moment, but my colleagues loved it. So much so that they decided to put it into a creative ideas package and present it to a client – who then loved it enough to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in its execution.

Actor and comedian Ramy Youssef was right when he said that “there really is nothing funnier than a joke.” But pisses aside, what I want you to take from this experience is that your ideas are worth a lot more than you think.

The barometer of internet coolness fluctuates rapidly, and brands have never been more hungry for unique, current niche ideas to help them pass the Gen Z vibe check.

They are willing to spend millions of dollars to do so – and the agencies know it. That’s why when you see a job listing today, requirements tend to include things like having an “innate interest in the pop culture zeitgeist” or being “able to combine trends and culture into meaningful strategies.”

What this really means is that the role will require you to be chronically online.

I strongly believe that everyone can be creative and that great ideas can come from any part of an organization. But I can’t help but feel that the kind of thinking we need to bring to the table as young communications professionals requires a level of nuance that only comes from the lived experience of participating in pockets of the Internet accessible only to Gen Z. .

This is not the standard media monitoring that has been delegated to juniors in the past. And most social listening tools simply aren’t good enough to identify or translate obscure internet trends. It’s time to at least acknowledge this adjustment in expectations and consider what it might mean for entry-level roles.

When I left my agency job in September, I was making $78,000 as a 26-year-old account supervisor living in Brooklyn. Although I lived paycheck to paycheck the whole time, I stayed for four years and honestly enjoyed every second of it because it felt like a place that valued me. brain rot and it gave me space to share the weird and completely off-putting things I experience in my corner of the internet.

Similarly, I have Gen Z friends who work in social media, love to create content, and don’t mind scrolling their watch for inspiration. In fact, we’re constantly sharing ideas and resources during and after hours because we trust each other’s ability to discern what will resonate with their respective audiences.

For those just graduating and entering the workforce as account executives or in-house equivalents, you can expect to earn anywhere between $62,000 and $69,000, according to PRWeek’s 2024 Salary Survey. That’s assuming you already have at least one internship experience under your belt.

You’ll learn a lot from your first job out of college, but I promise you’ll get more out of it if you bring your personality to work with you every day.

Brand leaders and agencies: Make sure your juniors feel comfortable and encouraged to speak up in meetings. Don’t let formalities and professionalism be the reason you lose a million dollar campaign idea, and don’t be scared off by internet trends or language you don’t fully understand.

Gen Zers entering the workforce: Share what you hear and see, make friends with your peers, and most importantly, advocate for your unfiltered ideas—even the tainted ones.

Christian Ornelas is communication manager at Tala.