I am sitting at work while I write this with Junoon’s Khudi playing in the background…and involuntarily I found myself comparing my job at a marketing communication firm (and my side job as a translator) to my sister’s job at Standard Chartered. I may not make as much money as her in the long run, but at the end of the day my job kicks her job’s ass…BIG TIME…and here’s why.

• The chichora Hindi/Urdu songs. Every day after lunch, when the biryani is getting us down, someone or the other puts on loud music at full volume to avoid the post-lunch lethargy. It was also during one of these sessions that I was introduced to Kishore Kumar’s “Naach Meri Jan” reproduced here for the sheer laughs of it.

• I get home every day at 6.30 pm without fail. Since my firm primarily relies on email and telephonic communication rather than face-to-face communication, there is no need to stay in the office beyond 6pm. If there is anything left over, we simply take it home and do it from there. Any communication with clients can be deferred safely to the next working day.

• Two day weekends. Try getting away with that at a bank.

• Where else but a marketing agency can you get away with spending the entire day on sites like Facebook, Youtube, Songs.pk, Twitter and Cricinfo/Crictime in the name of research and/or inspiration? It helps that my company is trying to expand its portfolio to include Facebook apps, which means…..more research, and even more Facebook. JACKPOT!

• In the name of creativity, ANYTHING is acceptable.

• Scattering pieces of paper with sketches of the weirdest things possible, actually counts as work

• Can you proudly point out a hot pink ATM screen like this one and claim “I made this”? What gives me a double high is that this ATM screen is installed in an equally hot pink ATM machine. I have half a mind to apply for a Silk bank (formerly Saudi Pak Commercial Bank) credit card, so that I can be the proud owner of a pink and black credit card too.

Hot Pink ATM screen designed by my firm for Silk Bank

• Does the largest mobile phone manufacturer  proudly display what you have done for them? Samsung? LG? (Couldn’t find the soft copies of the Urdu manuals for Samsung or LG)

Downloadable version of Nokia 6600 user manual

• Or the world’s most popular search engine?

Google Urdu home page

• Can you work at controversial projects such as this one at a bank?

Urdu page of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

• Even the “Yahan Paan thookna mana hai” sign outside your office door is “all in a day’s work”, and therefore deserving of awe and respect

• The corporate webmail account will never be a cute little squirrel

Squirrel Mail

• I wouldn’t go to seedy locations just to take dozens of photographs (for an upcoming project for Lucky Aluminium, photographs will be out soon)

I may not get a big fat pay cheque at the end of the month, but nothing beats the sheer satisfaction of being responsible for creating something  from scratch – and that too something as  beautiful as that – having your work displayed and being able to point things like the above out to others and being able to say “Yes, I did that!”

For a photographic account of why working at an advertising agency is “way cooler” than working at a bank, feel free to check out Umair Kazi (aka “The Idea Artist“)’s Facebook album “Why NOT to work at a bank” (Also the primary source of inspiration for this work)