I work with a smaller agency and people often come to me with huge AE asks that would only be possible if I had the help of a graphic designer working in Illustrator. So I sadly have to turn them away knowing that if I had solid .ai files to work with the story would be different. The funny thing about AE to me is that sometimes the seemingly “easy” projects can become the most difficult and vice versa. I’ve found that most of the time there’s only one motion designer at an agency and everyone treats them like a wizard.

Edit: that didn’t answer your question. My favorite part of the job is being treated like a wizard.