The advertising industry is amuck with Millennials, like myself. Yet, without age knowledge, can you find us in your sea of employees? In contract to my colleague Kelly Eidson's article regarding the advantages of youth, I feel a Millennial must blur her age to succeed. We live in an oxymoronic world wherein agencies value Millennials' ability to fuel digital advertising growth yet do not trust us with their strategic checkbook. Americans associate business intellect with age. The greater your age, the greater your business intellect and vice versa. As the oldest of my generation start to assume management positions, we feel our success depends upon our ability to appear to be young and uncharactically tech saavy Gen-X account manager rather than an old but slightly less managerially experienced Millennial.

Few people want to tell their client that a 26-year-old is manging their account, regardless of that persons' education and experience. We use Wizard of Oz tactics to conceal ourselves behind the veils of technology. It is more difficult to detect an account managers' age if they are never seen. Yet we cannot remain that way forever. Managers meet clients. Clients, colleagues, and classmates would almost always jokingly ask 'how old are you?' upon meeting me. Despite the positive financial/brand impact that Millennials' digital advertising skills brings, the age/experience correlation is a dial which will take much longer for the industry to change.

As a result, advertising agencies need to train us on how to position our youth to our clients. Advertising agencies also need to support us and push us into the spotlight. We aren't just any account managers. We are Millennial account managers. We are helping to drive a digital revolution and your advertising account checkbook and strategy couldn't be in more capable hands.

Well, If You Want to Build Me a Gym

Incentives. Few single words possess such great power. For prospective employees, incentives in an offer letter serve the same purpose as a child in an advertisement: the target is instantly attracted to it. Prospective employees drool for Fortune Magazine's 100 Best Companies to Work For 2008. Why? Benefits. Yet, as Spiderman's Uncle Ben says, "with great power comes great responsibility." Benefits are only good if both employees and companies understand and benefit from its value. For example, recently, when I received two jobs offers from two amazing organizations with the same salary, I was torn between job responsibility and corporate perks. The strategic marketing position provided a standard incentives package: Health, Dental, 401K, and Education Compensation. However, here is a sample of the tactical marketing position's benefits: Health, Vision, Dental, 401K, Education Compensation, Complimentary gym, free beverages, referral bonuses, and volunteer days. I won't lie. I wanted the gym. I really wanted the gym. I came from the Google world: a world where you had more perks than you could ever use. However, that world also taught me that companies use perks to substitute for salary, especially in economic hard times. Just like one works for salary, one also works for incentives. They are part of your compensation, not an added bonus (literally and figuratively). If we are going to be compensated via perks, I only want useful perks or the cash. My now supervisor recognized that. She told me that although she couldn't build me a gym, she could increase my compensation. Although not all employees would benefit from a gym, she understand that benefit's value. I took the strategic position (and the cash).

Yes, free food is amazing (and no longer working for a company with a bazillion cafes still makes me heave a hungrily longing sigh). Yes, a free gym is a great incentive to stay fit (and burn off the calories from said bazillion cafes and reduce health care). And yes, transportation subsidies decrease my commute and increase my productivity. I have worked for one of the top companies on Fortune's list. However, not everybody is drawn to those incentives or those incentives have catches (cafes open between pre-work and post-work hours without to-go boxes). Although, you may think your benefits will draw young advertising professionals to you like a moth to a flame, I recommend that you segment your employees and re-prioritize your benefits list to suit each employee segment. And if not everybody will or can eat on campus, provide your employees with cookbook compensation.