Compensation and benefits are a crucial part in deciding where to work. At Talented, we aim to offer you compensation that is fair, easily understood and competitive. Fair compensation is critical to making Talented a desirable place to work and helping our talent lead happy, healthy lives inside and outside of the office.
We've spent significant time studying compensation in the advertising and agency business trying to ensure that our offers are the best in the market. To the best of our knowledge, our compensation (combined with ESOPs in certain cases) will be top of the market for all of our roles across levels.
While determining compensation, we want to be:
Fair & equitable: meaning, no games. Our compensation is not based on how well you negotiate or how often you ask for raises--it's based on a repeatable, predictable system. A basic tenet of our framework is that everyone doing the same work gets paid within the same compensation range assigned for the position.
Easily understood: meaning, everyone understands what variables are used to determine how salaries are determined. You understand what you need to do to move up in your career.
Competitive: meaning, you're earning at least as much here, if not more than you would earn in a similar role elsewhere, even without our incredible benefits.
Starting salaries for new professionals in advertising have remained stagnant since the early 2000s. In early 2022, we established our compensation policies and pay structures for the first time and as part of this process, we reviewed starting salaries for junior account executives and junior creatives at leading agencies and networks across the country. These positions are generally filled by recent college graduates in their first jobs.
Based on our sample size of 44 agencies (both independent and network), we took the highest level of the starting salary bracket in each organisation (study conducted in April 2022). The average annual salary for freshers across these companies was INR 3,67,045. With a 5% upward margin of error, this number averages out to INR 3,85,397.
As we begin in 2022, our base starting salary for all full-time new joiners at Talented will be at least INR 6,00,000. We understand that this is only a start and the least we should be doing. Compared to other industries, we still have a long way to go. We also hope to keep re-evaluating this every year. Note: This has been revised to INR 6,50,000/- for the year 2023-24.
As for internships for creative students at Talented, all internships are paid, and weekly stipends will be based on the recommendation of the schools in consideration.
Furthermore, if you are asked to take a copy test, strategy test, or any other test that requires you to spend creative/brain time during the interview process, we will compensate you for your effort with a one-time fee, the amount of which will depend on the level you are applying for.