A thing I am afraid of
Am I onto something or am I overthinking?
This newsletter will feel like I am thinking on paper. And that’s because I am.
I am not quite sure of all the things I am about to share with you. I am hoping that as I write, things will become clearer to you. And to me.
Let’s start with a thing that I used to fear.
In the past, I was afraid that as I moved from one job to the other, I’d be doing the exact same thing, and the only thing that would change on my resume would be the job title and the company.
And then, over time, no one would want to hire me because I’ve not grown in my career.
But now I have a new fear.
I fear that I will do a lot of new things that would take up space on my resume and contribute nothing to my career. (Keep in mind that my current goal is to become a content strategist).
From what I have observed, there are a thousand and one things that you could be told to do at work. Especially if you’re a junior marketer.
One day, you could be writing 2,500-word blog posts and then the next day, you’re trying to make sense of GA4 reports. And the next day, you could be interviewing customers for case studies. And then creating a short-term SEO strategy for the company blog.
These are all good things. They could potentially look appealing on the resume of someone who, for example, wants to get into the role of a content strategist.
But if I keep executing as ordered for years and years and don’t start self-directing towards work that’s meaningful to my future, I might find myself with a patchwork of random skills when I could have directed my time to experiment with projects that will give me a chance to hone strategy related skills (for the record, I am still trying to figure out what these are)
But I can’t move on without acknowledging that there is an advantage to trying everything and anything. You build a diverse skill set if you want to be a generalist content marketer, or you just have fun if, well, you’re a person looking for fun.
But sometimes I feel that I don’t have this option. I’ve watched the remote job market dry up in front of me and it feels like the people who still have jobs or are getting hired have been intentional about mastering a skill that’s hard to acquire. I’ve to be strategic about what I do in every role so that when I am ready to take the next leap, I can.
(Btw, that’s three buts in a row. And I’ve used the word “skill” too many times 😩😭.)
All of this brings me to my next question.
What type of work should I be doing now so that in the next few years, I can get my future job?
I dunno!
One could argue that the sum of all my experiences in previous marketing roles led me to my content writing job at Float. But I wouldn’t have gotten here if I continued to say yes to social media marketing gigs.
I am working towards finding out and this newsletter is one of my attempts at figuring things out.
The newsletter is also an invitation I am extending to you. What do you think? Are these ramblings of an overthinker (probably) or am I onto something?
What’s been going on lately?
I’ve always wanted to attend an industry conference. There aren’t many marketing conferences where I live, so the next best thing are technology conferences. I attended one organized by NITDA. Aside from the chaos of getting my name tag, it was a beautiful experience.
I met two cybersecurity experts and an Edtech startup founder. I ran into an old friend who introduced me to a CTO of an Ivorian startup and a backend engineer. I also saw a robot built by a Nigerian company. I’d classify it as an AI-powered robot (?). I might be very wrong and I expect all the experts to come at me in the comments.
I think I spoke to no less than 20 people and connected with half of them on LinkedIn. I love that I’m expanding my network
. But it came at a cost. I feel exhausted and don’t want to talk to any human being for at least a week.
I guess I’m really not a people person 😂.
But I’ll keep going to conferences and randomly strolling into founder’s mixers (don’t worry if you don’t get the reference).
Till next time 👋🏾.
you can write. and oh yeah, you are funny