There’s hope for you yet, TechCommGeekMom, if you are deciding not to be a pudding brain like the rest of the humans. — The 12th Doctor (Who)
Now that it’s the start of the new year, it’s time to make some resolutions–or at least set some goals. While I’ll be continuing my eternal quest to lose weight, it also means it’s time to start seriously thinking about what I need to do professionally in the coming year. Since I now know my contract has an end date, I need to figure out a plan. I’ve given presentations on the subject of how to get a tech comm job these days, and I know I’ve had to go back and follow my own advice. One of my big pieces of advice has been to learn something that can help you gain a new skill, or update an old one. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Lynda.com course refreshing your InDesign skills or learning Framemaker, or learning more about…well, anything that can help you find a job as technology advancements continue to speed by us.
During the last few weeks, I’ve started to look and see what kind of jobs are available, and think about tech comm trends to help me figure out what my next move might be. It’s different for each person, obviously, based on interests and skills, but learning something new can’t hurt, that’s for sure. I’m a person who believes I always have something to learn, and heaven knows, even after a Masters degree and some experience under my belt now, I feel I still have a LOT to learn still.
I still don’t have a clear path as to what I’ll be doing when my contract ends, but I think I’ve figured out something that will hopefully provide either some direction, or at least provide me with some new skills that will help me somehow.
One of the biggest trends I’ve continually heard about in the last year is that content marketing is the big thing that content strategists need to be pursuing. I have a strong background in customer/client services, so I have a good understanding of the importance of post-purchase content for goods and services. The perspective needed to create content for content marketing is something I have–it’s rather logical for me, really. And I’ve seen more content marketing jobs listed in my area…which is good. Well, almost good. It’s not good because in the end, I don’t have any real marketing background. There are a few skills that I sorely lack. I understand what some of these skills involve, but not enough to truly say I have enough experience to apply for a position.
So, after researching several options and having several conversations with my husband about it, I decided to register for a mini-MBA program in digital marketing that starts at the end of this month (January 2015). The curriculum includes sessions covering several topics that were in my personal checklist of subjects I wanted to learn to get ahead, and the structure of a 12-week online program from an accredited school meets my learning needs (personalized e-learning!). I sent in my registration form online tonight, and I’m probably going to get a phone call for the program to get further details to become fully registered, but the first step has been taken.
So, this is how I’m investing in myself to better my chances in finding a position when my current contract ends. The program ends around the same time as my contract, so the timing couldn’t be better. I haven’t decided if and how I will still break out on my own after the contract, but I figure whether I become an independent contractor or get a full-time job, these new digital marketing skills will come in handy either way.
I’ve taken a step forward. It’s always that first step that’s the hardest to take, but it had to be made. I’m sure there will be a few more first steps in whatever this new direction will be, and I’ll be sure to report them. But it’s that very first one that can be the most difficult. It’s now been made. I’ve got support in my decision at home, so that helps immensely. Time will tell if it’s a correct decision. I think it is. I’ve got nothing to lose but time and money, and a lot to gain with new information to learn. It’s an opportunity to diminish my chances of being a pudding brain.
This was part of the Chiluly exhibit that was at the Botanical Gardens while I was at the STC Summit in Phoenix, AZ. It was cool!
As the year 2014 winds down, many have summarized the past year, as a reflection of all that has transpired. When I started to think about the past year, I wasn’t sure that it was all that great of a year at first, but the more I thought about it, I realized that despite some less than desirable things transpiring towards the end, there were actually a few good things that happened that were worth noting.
1) This was the first year that the number of hits my blog received for the entire year topped over 10,000 hits. It was a goal I had hoped to achieve, and I had to work for it. My stats would falter if I didn’t write an original blog post (like this one), and I think, despite the new achievement, my stats didn’t reflect what I had hoped, but I put that on myself. This was a very busy year, and it was difficult for me to keep up with writing original posts. So despite that, I’m glad that so many people still enjoy the content that I share here, whether it’s original content or shared content. I try my best to share what I find interesting in the hopes that others will find it interesting, too, and perhaps learn from that little piece of information as well.
2) I was able to travel to some new places and do new things. I went to the Intelligent Content Conference in San Jose, CA back in February, and went to the STC Summit in Phoenix in May. Not only did I have an opportunity to enhance my knowledge during these conference through the fantastic learning sessions, I also met a lot of new people. I love that I have some wonderful new professional connections as well as new friends. These conferences also gave me the chance to strengthen professional connections and friendships with technical communicators I met in the year before and the year before that. Becoming more ensconced in the tech comm community has meant a lot to me, and I have appreciated every connection I’ve made or deepened in the last year.
3) My writing opportunities changed. While I was writing mostly for my blog this year, I also wrote for other outlets instead. Some of those opportunities folded or didn’t work out, but other opportunities arose from the ashes, including two top ten articles for Content Rules’ blog, and a new opportunity to write for STC Intercom (which will be seen in the new year). I thank those who helped make those opportunities, and appreciate your faith in my abilities when I’ve sometimes doubted them.
4) I gave more presentations this year. I presented at the STC-PMC Mid-Atlantic Conference, but I also did my first presentation at the STC Summit. I also presented for the first time to a non-tech comm audience at the e-Learning 3.0 Conference at Drexel University this year. In other words, I pushed myself to do more this year and put myself “out there” more, even though I think there are others who have more to contribute than I do.
5) I had an opportunity to stretch myself professionally at work. I became more confident in my abilities to be a project manager and content strategist working on new websites at work with assignments I was given. I learned a new CMS (Adobe CQ) as a skill I’ll be able to carry with me going forward, and I was chosen to help with the most important part of the company’s new external site–the Careers section. I spread my wings so much in my job this year, and gained myself back in the process. My knowledge and full abilities were suppressed for so many years, that having the chance to truly use them and have people find them to be valuable helped me immensely.
6) In a somewhat unrelated topic, while I stretched my mind, I shrunk my body. To date, I’ve lost about 40 pounds this year. For once, I kept to my new year’s resolution, even if didn’t actually start until May or June! Part of my success was due to the tech comm community. Many have supported me or taken this journey with me. I love that the tech comm community’s reach goes beyond tech comm–and with this support, I know I will be able to continue to lose another 40 (or more) pounds into the next year.
I took a quick look at last year’s year in review, and in some respects, this year’s review isn’t that much different in overview. What makes this year different was that many of the events were new experiences, new faces came into my life both online and in-person, new relationships were forged, and old relationships became deeper and stronger. Networking connections have become friendships, both professionally and personally. For a person who lives a highly isolated life as I do, this is so incredibly valuable to me. I’ve always supported social media because it supports connections between people all over the world. Social media keeps me connected to all of you who support me–whether it’s through this blog, or on Facebook or Twitter or Google+ or LinkedIn.
Thank you all for being there for me through the good times and the bad. It’s because of these connections that this upcoming year, which is going to be filled with a lot of changes, that I know I’ll be okay. I have a support system that I didn’t have a few years ago. And hopefully, I’ve been part of others’ support systems as well. I know that several people were kind enough to reach out to me after my last blog post, and I felt humbled. I also reached out to a few people who were happy to offer help when I asked. I know that as I go forward in the next year, the tech comm community is one that I can easily crowdsource for feedback in my steps forward. My experiences this year reinforced this for me more than ever, and it’s not one I take for granted.
David Bowie is trying to assure me that everything will be okay. “Oh baby, just you shut your mouth.”
2014 has been a whirlwind of a year, so much so that I’ll be reviewing that in another post soon. But much of what’s been on my mind lately is how I want 2015 to be a significant year of change. I keep hearing David Bowie singing his song, “Changes” in my sub-conscious much of the time these days, as I try to make some sense of what kind of changes I want to make.
But recently, some of these decisions have been made for me. I was told within the last two weeks that my contract has not been extended by a year, but only by four months. When I had discussions with my managers about the upcoming year’s workload months ago, I was assured that there was plenty to do, and no worries. They suddenly were changing their tune, because of instructions from higher up from them that the direction of content needs were going to be changing, so there might not be as much work and maintenance down the line. When they first said they couldn’t commit to a year, I thought, “Well, if it’s six months, that would be okay. I would get off in time for summer break when my son has off from school, and then I can find something in the fall.” When they said that they could only commit to about three months, I was shocked. It really sent a ripple through me that I’m still recovering from. They assured me that it was not a reflection of my work, but quite the contrary. I had proven my value and commitment to my job throughly this past year. With my contribution to their new external website, they told me that had I been an employee, I would have been recommended for company recognition, but since I’m a contractor…well…
It’s hard to hear the “It’s not you, it’s me” line from employers after so many times of hearing it. I’ve always worked hard and proven my worth as an asset to the company, and yet something like this always happens. I see other people go from contractor or temporary worker to employee–why not me? I’ve been told time after time to not take it personally and that it’s not a reflection of my work, but after a while, you can’t help but not completely believe that, and wonder what’s wrong with yourself that you can’t fix to make yourself someone they will fight not to let go. I know that employees don’t have much security anymore either, some say, but having been through the process more times than I’d like, I can tell you that employees have a little bit more security, because a)they let the contractors go first and b) there is usually some sort of severance pay involved, including unused vacation time. Even if it’s not much severance pay, you get something. Not with contractors. It’s usually short notice that your contract is ending when you thought you might be renewed due to the workload, and barely a word of thanks. Trust me, like I said, I’ve been through this several times before.
I’m pretty sure that this is hurting more than other times when this has happened because I really liked this job. I like the company. I like the people I work with. I like the set-up of working from home most of the time. I liked the work, and finally had a chance to have more freedom in how I did things–I could call my own shots more often than I had in any other job, and my voice was heard, making this very valuable to me. I also had the opportunity to learn how to use new tools to add to my personal toolbox of skills. Why would I want to leave that?
So, for now, I know I just have a few more months left on my contract, and I need to try to figure out what my next step will be. What kind of job should I get next? I have a little more experience now, but it doesn’t feel like much when looking at job listings. Do I settle for another contracting job, or look only for permanent employment? The other idea that’s been floating in my mind is becoming an independent contractor, as in setting up my own little tech comm consultancy. The job I have now might not completely end, but might slow down to a crawl. I’m still one of their uber-users for thier custom CMS, so I can keep them on part-time if they’ll have me. Part-time work is better than no work, and usually pays better than unemployment, after all. But perhaps I could find some other clients and start doing work, and get my own business running. The trick is figuring out where to find those clients! I wouldn’t know where to begin doing that. The rest of the business set-up doesn’t concern me, like setting up an LLC or stuff like that. It’s finding the work. I’m thinking of getting the LLC set up, even if I don’t use it right away. But where do I go from here? Continue in content strategy? Revisit looking at instructional design work? (I’m thinking “no” on that for now.) Look at social media strategy work? Find a job being a professional blogger? Or should I take a technical writing job? I feel like I’m swimming in confusion.
Originally, when I was setting out to write this blog post, it was going to be about how I felt I needed to make some changes in how I expanded my knowledge, more specifically in what conferences I was going to attend this year. I wasn’t accepted as a presenter for this year’s STC Summit, so that presents a financial issue for me, as the registration–even with the early bird special–is a lot. I would attend some others that I’ve attended before as well, like ICC or Lavacon, but again, expenses are high when they come out of your own pocket. So, I was thinking of exploring some new conferences. But with this empending unemployment situation in a few months, I’m thinking that might not be a great idea financially. It’s not that I’m against investing in myself to learn more, but I think I have to find more affordable alternatives that are more suitable to my needs right now.
Related to all of this, then, is that I have some time before my contract ends to start teaching myself some new skills that will help make me more marketable. I keep going back to my own advice that I’ve given in presentations about finding tech comm jobs which is you need to always be learning something new or brushing up on a skill to make yourself into a more attractive candidate. But for myself, I’m not sure what that would be. I know it wouldn’t hurt to learn more about SEO, even though there are those who say it’s going away. I keep hearing about Content Marketing. Well, I’ve spend many years doing customer service-related work, so I understand the principles with this, but have never done any formal marketing work other than marketing this blog. Does that count? Or would taking a Marketing 101 class be necessary to be taken seriously for a content marketing job? Or, should I start learning more about coding so that I can learn how to do API documentation? There are so many possibilities that my brain feels like it’s going to explode, and I don’t know what do to.
Add the conundrum of having difficulty finding work in my area without commuting to a major city (usually more than an hour away) or finding another remote position like my current position, and you’ve added another twist to the problem.
David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust
So, 2015 will be a year of change. Maybe it’s shaping up to be going in a direction I hadn’t expected, but there will be changes, for sure. At this writing, it absolutely terrifies me, like David Bowie’s look during his Ziggy Stardust years (not my favorite look, Dave). I know I’ll be fine in the end. I’ve got great support at home, and I know the tech comm community is there to support and help me, too. It’s the Aspie in me that doesn’t like changes that aren’t on my terms. I like routine to a certain point, and if there’s change, it’s easier when I make the changes. When something or someone else imposes them, I freak out, perhaps looking more like Ziggy here myself as a result. I’m guessing this will be another year of reinvention. Constant reinvention has worked for Bowie, right?
(If you have any recommendations for me based on the above, or recommendations for anyone else who’s looking for work in the next year, feel free to comment below.)
Marc Schnau posted this on Google+ with the comment, “This should work properly with any language one is trying to learn. And not only while learning languages, Maybe this is valid for every kind of learning one will do.”
After watching this video, I think he’s completely correct. I know that the speaker in the video is correct with the idea of using shorter, intense sessions versus longer ones. One of my cousins is a personal trainer, and this is one of the methods he endorses with exercising, so the speaker is correct about it working with physical exercise of larger muscles. But Marc is right too–this applies to any kind of learning, not just with languages.
This video proved to be helpful to me, as there are events going on with my life that are leading me to try to figure out what I need to be learning next.
What do you think? Do you think this is hype, or do you think there’s some validity to this approach for learning anything, not just languages?
The book is available as an e-book on Amazon! (Image courtesy of Amazon.com)
A few weeks ago, I was asked by new author, Ben Woelk (who some in the tech comm field will recognize as a leader in our STC community) to review his new book in the Guru Guides series called Shockproofing Your Use of Social Media: Staying Safe Online. I’ve been busy trying to keep up with work, and finally had an opportunity to read the book.
The book is actually very short, but jam-packed with useful information. Ben is in charge of internet security at Rochester Institute of Technology, so I think he’s got a pretty good idea of what he’s talking about. This is a subject that he speaks about regularly at STC gatherings when he can, and he’s always got good information and insight. This short volume is no different. Ben covers internet security related to social media, but many of his tips and suggestions easily can be carried over into other online experiences, like shopping and banking. In fact, after reading his book, I used one of his tips about passwords when having to change my credit card password for the umpteenth time today. His tips are practical, easy, and he also makes suggestions for free or low-cost solutions to safeguard your information.
As I mentioned, this is a slim volume, so I was able to read the entire book in less than an hour, but it’s organized in a way that you could read the entire book in a sitting, or use it as a handy reference for specific topics. It works either way easily.
The one thing that I hope will be done going forward is that there will be frequent updates to this guide. As I read it, I realized that some of this information may be dated in a year or so, since both social media and OS platforms update and change quickly over a short period of time. Making frequent updates–or new editions of the book–will ensure that the information stays fresh and relevant. For the moment, this is a brand-new book, so the information is good!
At this writing, the book is available on Amazon.com on sale for a mere $0.99 (USD), and will go up in a day or so back to its original price of $2.99. Either way, even at full price, it’s a BARGAIN for invaluable information that can help protect your identity!
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