I’ve been working in Communications, Social Media and Marketing for over 12 years now. I’ve moved past so many roles, all so different and so similar at the same time. And I think that my time in this field has come to an end.
But first… I have to share the song obsessing me right now.
Great, know that we have a song and a coffee, I am ready to dive in. So yeah, I was sharing in another article that I’ve taken a sabbatical from my work. But, in all honesty, I’m not sure I want to go back there. Partly because of my experience. But also because I really don’t fit in their culture or way of working anymore.
Actually, I don’t think I fit in this social media manager role I’ve been playing for sooooo long either. Was I too excited when I chose Public Relations? Can we really decide our professional path at 18?
These two questions have been popping into my mind almost weekly for the past year. And more recently, even daily. I remember deciding to study Communications and Public Relations because my goal was to be like this famous Romanian TV presenter. Then I met my first boss in PR, and I remember thinking: I want to be this badass. 😀
And then I started working in social media at an agency, and I really liked it. I started when we only had Facebook. And I’ve been living in social media ever since. Managing local and global accounts. Meeting cool people. Working on projects I had only dreamed of.
But as I grew professionally, I couldn’t help noticing how I no longer fit the role. How behind every request there was always an account manager, a brand manager, or a CMO asking for things just to please their own superiors. Not the users. No the clients.
My 5 cents were always: we do things users and customers want and need, not what makes John Doe or Jane Doe happy. We’re here for the users. We’re here to humanize the content and respond to customers’ needs.
The answer I always got: I don’t make the rules. The client is paying, and the client needs to be happy.
But the truth is: the client – this John Doe or Jane Doe – are just employees of the brand they lead. Tomorrow, if there’s a better offer, they’ll leave and run another brand. But the brand itself stays. And we can’t change direction every two years just because there’s a new account manager, brand manager, or CMO.
Well… I’ve been ranting here for some time. 😀 And it is ok. Been keeping these things in my mind for a very long time and overthinking them. And I am happy I got to let them out.
I still have to respond to the question in the title. 😀 If you got here… the answer is… that now I had to stop. Rethink all my career and what makes me happy. Have the courage to say “This is not what I want”. And start from here, building something in the direction I want.
It is not going to be easy, that I know. And it is not going to be good from the start. But I know that I have now more courage to pursue what I want than I had when I was 19.ar