Ask HN: Is Ad Agency experience perceived negatively?

You're looking at this from the wrong angle. I actually did a lot of work for fairly large ad agencies and I still only knew Chiat Day from your list (I did work for them, never heard of the others).

The bottom line is, nobody cares. They care about what you say you've done and what you have actually done, and the passion you bring to your cover letter or whatever. The names on the resume won't mean anything to them.

The bigger problem is you've been stewing in the ad agency world and think other people outside it know wtf it's about.

(Having some of that bg myself, I would be very hesitant to hire someone from an ad agency unless they told me in very clear uncertain terms why and how broken it is. On the flip side, I know way more people at ad agencies who actually ship than I do at any other large organizations.)

Startups have started to see the value in branding, design, and storytelling. Those are things you learn in the agency world.

The thing about ad agencies that startups don't like is their lack of accountability. If an ad campaign doesn't increase sales, the agency says to the client "hey, no biggie, we increased brand awareness".

That kind of measurement is dangerous at a startup. And if you've worked in that environment for the past 10 years, I could see a VC being concerned that you don't know how to "hustle".

But if you have a product with traction, that trumps everything.

I just got out of the ad agency after working full time for several years while freelancing in my spare time. Agency experience is perceived negatively in the startup community because it's common knowledge that most agencies don't treat developers well. Mediocre developers often get high rates because there's such a lack of developers willing to put up with the kind of work (stressful, low budget, extremely short deadlines, not much room for polishing). A developer coming from an ad agency with "Javascript" on their resume is likely to only know enough jQuery to get by.

That said, it's often possible to differentiate yourself from the crowd by using phrasing that only knowledgeable developers use or listing a more detailed toolset that shows the same (eg: "Javascript, jQuery" vs "OO Javascript, jQuery, Backbone.js").

if you came from a background where you were on an ad sales/accountability team and knew all the metrics they usually look for in a website, I'd say that's VERY valuable.

From my own dealings with ad agencies, I can tell you that many of them are permanently behind the curve regarding technology and internet developments. So that kind of experience on your resume may be like wearing a t-shirt that says "mediocre" - even if such assumptions are patently unfair.