How I focused on building a career story instead of a career path
I was fresh out of college when I got my first job at a digital marketing agency as their -only- community manager. At least that part was intentional. I’d been a creator for years already, and this seemed like the next logical step, and the first one on a very clear career path.
However, the reality of working in marketing and social media, wasn’t as clear-cut as I’d imagined. I took on projects that weren’t exciting, accepted roles and opportunities that weren’t ‘part of the plan’, and made moves that on paper, looked like steps backwards.
The thing is, there is so much that you can’t control. Let’s be honest, a career sounds nice, but it’s hard to think about a long term impact when you’re struggling with the day-to-day grind. Sometimes the tradeoff looks like choosing growth, sometimes you’re choosing stability, or peace, or just doing the best you can for where you’re at.
I think there is a way through the uncertainty of it all, while building something meaningful, that works for you. I’ll tell you a bit about how I dealt with it, so this is going to be very centered around the digital marketing fields, but you can totally apply the concept to anything.
The problem with career paths
They don’t always work. The job market is crazy everywhere, things aren’t as clear cut as when you could start as an intern and climb up until you’re the CEO 15 years later.
As for the social media landscape… While new discipines keep appearing, shifting priorities, small budgets, and not a whole lot of interest in developing talent, mean that path is even blurrier. You might get ‘stuck’ with the same job title for many years, even across different employers.
On the other hand, you might not even be ‘stuck’. That’s just your career, and you’re perfectly fine with it. The idea of a path/ladder itself, sometimes suggests you should always keep moving upwards/forward, when there’re so many profesionally and finaniancially fullfilling alternatives.
Making strategic moves that change the story
For five years I stayed in the digital marketing lane (Community manager, social media manager, web copywriter, content manager, etc), and then I quit the company I was at. I wasn’t sure about what exactly was it that I wanted to do. I just knew I wouldn’t find it where I was.
About six months later I came across a content creator opening in a well-known creative agency.
The role, I was already familiar with, it was essentially social media. But the environment was different. I wanted to know how it’d look like to do work in a place that pushed the envelope a bit more.
The catch: The role felt like a step -or a couple- backwards.
After five years of growing into more senior responsibilities, it meant going back to mostly execution -creating social content, responding messages, and filming the content myself. And my ego wasn’t a fan. I’d been working towards roles like Senior Social Media Manager, Head of Content, or Creative Lead. Taking this role felt like stepping off that ladder altogether.
But the more I thought about it, the more I had to admit it wasn’t a fair comparison. I could cling to my ego and a cool title, or… I could trade that for exposure to stronger creative processes, more experienced creatives, and the chance to learn about creative copy
I took the leap, applied and got the job. The salary ended up being higher than anything I’d earned before, which certainly made the decision easier, but it all started with that small decision to accept the tradeoff.
Full disclosure: The job didn’t work out for me, I struggled a lot and I wasn’t a good fit. I think this is important to note because that can happen, for sure. But I’m proud of the move anyway. And in my story, it was me figuring out what I didn’t want to do. In a way, by having that experience, I was able to double down on what I was actually good at, which was, creating stories out of numbers, and frameworks out of content.
Curating for the next step, not the next title
I’ve become less, and less attached to job titles. I still care about them, but they’re more of an outcome than the story itself.
Are you really a social media manager? Or are you the person who understands audiences and platforms, builds content strategies around them, structures information and communicates with designers and developers?
Focusing too much on a title can even be limiting. We’re more than a list of jobs, specially considering one role can look very different across companies. I thought I was a pretty good content strategist and social media manager, but that wasn’t the full scope of my value.
When I was struggling with the job at the creative agency, I went out for mexican food with a couple of friends from a previous job. I was feeling super frustrated. Then one of them told me something I’ll never forget. She told me one of the things she’d appreciated about working with me was how I interpreted performance metrics. She reminded me of several instances where she’d relied on me to communicate those insights to clients.
I was quite surprised. I mean, yeah, I liked working with analytics, but I never thought twice about it.
By the time I was applying for my next role, I had a better sense of the story I wanted to tell. And it was definitely not a story of one single path, not even a sequence of roles, but a set of skills and outcomes that made me the person I am today.
I’m still not quite sure of where will my career will take me, but I know each chapter makes me more prepared for the next one, and that as long as I’m thinking of each step as part of something bigger, I’ll be building something -even if I don’t what it is yet.
