Today's Globe & Mail has an article about the most and least stressful jobs in today's market. Smack dab in the middle of the most stressful list, along with commercial airline pilot and surgeon, is my role: advertising account executive.

I'm surprised that it made the list, but not that it qualified for the dubious honour. There's this perception about the advertising industry that it's uber cool, laid-back, and fun. That we advertising folks collect insanely high paycheques while goofing around, playing air hockey and watching YouTubes all day with the occasional break for an alcohol and/or pot-fueled brainstorming session. This is only partially true. We spend some time schmoozing at glamourous parties, snorting coke off a stripper's tatas, and sleeping with our clients, too.

All kidding aside, the ad industry involves a lot of work and a hell of a lot of stress. Every client wants to feel like they are the one and only company you deal with. They need to feel the love--they are trusting you with their brands and their (significant) marketing dollars and you have to treat them accordingly. You're managing enormous budgets, ridiculous deadlines, and a team that can include creatives, suppliers, and outside vendors, all with very different personalities and objectives. You have to keep everyone informed of every step in the process, make sure the project is rolling along smoothly, deal with any number of emergencies that crop up, and all the while maintain a veneer of having your shit one thousand percent together.

Picture a duck swimming on a lake. On the surface it's gliding along, no sweat. Under the surface, the duck's feet are frantically paddling. This is how an ad exec feels 24/7. (Okay, maybe not 24/7, but certainly not 8/5). The hours are long. The paycheques are unimpressive. There is no glory--the creatives get to enjoy any of that for coming up with the big ideas and making the ads look pretty. The "suits" are generally regarded as unimaginative whip-crackers who have to play the heavy on every project, have zero personality, and restrict creativity by enforcing budgets and timelines. It's largely a tiring and thankless job, one that's super hard to turn off from when the workday finally ends.

"So why work in advertising?" you're probably wondering. There are plenty of great things about the industry. I'm lucky to work at an agency that's doing some awesome forward-thinking things, jumping into social media with both feet, and working with some very diverse and cool clients. I have fantastic coworkers and lots of opportunity to contribute creative ideas and suggestions. If there's something industry-related I'm interested in learning more about, I have that option. Blogging and Twitter-ing are encouraged. There's always a ton of food left over from client presentations and meetings, so even though I won't get rich doing this, I won't starve to death.

The thing I love most is being able to contribute strategically to something that could change business for a client. It's really satisfying to see a client's business grow or to read about a campaign that's gotten lots of recognition. It's nice to build a relationship that involves so much trust a client will essentially put their business in your hands.

I agree completely that advertising is one of the most stressful jobs around, but you can approach it in a way that helps you cope. It's not brain surgery. Ask yourself: "Is someone going to die if this idea bombs?" If you keep that in mind, have fun, know your client's business, stay on top of things, and show some initiative, you should be able to deal quite nicely.

The average ad exec agency "burnout" occurs after working in advertising for three years. If that happens, consider one of these careers which appear on the Globe & Mail's least stressful jobs list:

-Actuary
-Dietician
-Statistician
-Astronomer
-Computer systems analyst
-Historian
-Software engineer

Giggity.