5 Things I Learned From Trying a Different Job
After a year in a non-writing role, I'm back doing what I love! Here's what I learned along the way.
What would you do if you applied for a job in line with your current position - but were offered a different role instead?
Would you take the chance/challenge? Or would you politely say “pass”?
Now, let’s say the offer came from a company you’ve been looking to work with for years. Would you take the job, or turn it down?
If you told the 2021 version of me that I would be working a full-time job unrelated to writing, I would not have believed you! After all, I’ve been writing professionally since 2016, so it would seem utterly strange to me.
But hey, you can surprise yourself, too.
Life As a Brand Strategist
From April 2022 up until recently, I worked as a Brand Strategist for an advertising company here in the Philippines. This position is quite unique to the company based on the ad agencies I’ve worked in. Essentially, the role of Brand Strategist combines some responsibilities of the Strat department, Accounts department, and the project management duties shared across departments. This ensures that every output is strategy-driven, and all teams are aligned in driving that strategy.
For the first time, I was in an ad agency bigger than any other I’d been in before.
And I was in a role I’d never handled before.
I had to hit the ground running and learn so many new things on the job: how to reply to clients, how to draw up timelines, how to manage peers, managers, and external partners, how to work with a media team and a web development team…the list goes on!
Life as a Brand Strategist was constantly exciting, interesting, and stimulating. I was never bored, and there was always something to do and learn.
But eventually, I realized that even if it was a great opportunity to learn about the industry as a whole, the role of Brand Strategist wasn’t for me. And despite my exposure and immersion in so many different aspects of producing advertising materials, I still gravitated towards what I knew and loved - writing.
Speaking Your Truth
Eventually, I asked to be transferred to the Content Strategist role (aka the copywriters-slash-strategists in the company). After some months of waiting for my replacement, I eventually got the go-signal to offboard my Brand Strategist commitments and take on Content Strategists assignments.
And as of this May, I officially became a Content Strategist!
It sounds nice and neat and simple writing it up, but the process and the wait took a lot of time and patience and prayers. Thankfully, I have managers and teammates who have been incredibly supportive and have prayed and waited with me. And my choice to stay on until someone came to cover for me was appreciated. A lot of credit goes to my loved ones too - without them as a sounding board, I wouldn’t have figured out soon enough that I needed to go back to writing.
And yes, there’s a lot still that I need to learn as a content strategist - which is why I wanted to become one long ago - but it’s a journey that excites me! After years of wanting a writing mentor, I get not just one, but a whole team of peers and managers who are invested in each other’s growth.
5 Things I Learned From Taking On a Different Job
But just because I ended up going back to writing doesn’t mean mistakes were made. I want to think that things happened the way they did for a reason. Even if that reason was just to teach me these 5 lessons that apply to any job, and even outside working life.
Here are my top 5 key takeaways from working a different job:
Managing projects and talking to “external partners” are a part of life
Despite being dependent on Google Calendar to manage my life, I never quite realized how essential project management is to pretty much everything we do as humans! You could look at errands, life admin stuff, vet check-ups, and buying groceries as mini-recurring projects you need to manage. And many of these involve internal partners (e.g. your parents, siblings, partner) and external partners (e.g. a clerk at City Hall).
Always have a Plan B
One can be hopeful and assume everything will be passed ahead of the deadline, version 1 will be approved, and no technical glitches happen. But if you’re a pessimist (or an anxious person like me), you’ll want to use that pessimism and anxiety beyond just complaining and worrying. Use that nervous energy to find solutions! Your team and your boss will thank you for it.
Knowledge-sharing among your team is vital
It’s nice to have a go-to person on your team for certain aspects of your job. But what if that person is on leave, or sick? What if the things they know can’t be Googled, or aren’t documented anywhere in your office files, or accessed in old messages? It’s important to share pertinent knowledge among members of the team since this means more minds can work on Plan B, C, D, etc.
Having your team’s back is key
As a Brand Strategist, I had a finger in every pie since I had to make sure that client’s requests and the agreed-upon strategy was present in all aspects of the work created - from the writing of a script, to the creation of a layout, even the coverage of a media report. This meant that I was supporting multiple teams, and relied on multiple teams to support me (as the one conveying the materials to client). When you’re working with so many people, you’ll realize just how vastly different everyone’s experiences at work (and outside work) are. This was something I already knew back in college and when I was working with smaller teams, but events in my personal life + the pandemic + the sheer size of my current team is what really drove this point home. It’s crucial to have your teammates’ back and be there for them not just as a co-worker but as a fellow human being. I may not have a grasp of their list of deadlines. And they may not understand what’s going on in my life outside work. But a smiley, some small talk, a message of gratitude, and a bit of extra understanding go a long way.
Trust your gut
If you’re someone whose intuition or gut feeling is never wrong (like me!), it’ll do you good to listen to it. It helped give me the final push to take on the Brand Strategist position. It told me that the team I was with were good people. And it told me when it was time to move on. Not saying you should decide everything based on intuition, but it can help bolster your SWOT analysis and pros-cons list.
If you’re someone considering a career shift or simply a job that’s not your usual line of work, I hope this post helps you make your decision. Either way, you’ll learn a lot about yourself, the industry you’re in, and life! And either way, I’ve got your back. ;)