Like the meaning of life, success in digital careers means something different for each and every single one of us. For some, it may be a high-end position – VP of marketing with a big company. For others, success is being able to select the projects you work on and making your own schedule.
Whatever your definition of success, chances are it’s really about finding a balance. This can be between hard and soft skills, collaboration or working on your own.
However, the path to getting to that sweet spot to isn’t very clear.
Why digital careers are different
For anyone working in digital, things are even trickier. UX designers, digital marketers, SEO strategists, growth marketers or any other career in this space – are relatively new careers, with no clearly defined curricula.
Yet, digital careers are all somewhat similar: we all create. Whether it’s a prototype for a new product, crafting the copy for a perfect ad or putting together a new report, we’re constantly putting together new things.
Hooked on our medium
As digital professionals, our entire activity is within a digital medium. For us, if it’s important, it’s somewhere online.
Yet, even if we focus all our attention on digital environments, there’s a world beyond that. There’s an analoge world as well and it’s still pretty much alive, no matter how much we’d like to kid ourselves that digital is the only thing worth investing in.
Take for example pre-university education. There are products that aim to reshape the way we learn, but they’re a long way from becoming mainstream.
To succeed in any digital career, we all need to find a balance between digital and analog. Here are three steps to do that.
How to be successful in digital careers
1. Go offline and talk to people
Compared to other professions, we spend considerably more time in front of screens – big and small, online and offline.
This gets problematic when our perspective becomes skewed. What seems intuitive for us might not be straightforward for someone who, for example, deals with payroll, day in day out. Also, at times, we can confuse our problems as everyone else’s.
Because we spend considerably more time removed from actually dealing with people we create for, we can easily lose sight of who our audience is.
Yet our work is always meant for a specific audience. Even the best-designed product won’t stand a chance if it doesn’t resonate with the people it’s meant for.
If we want our work to be successful, we need to go beyond numbers and stereotypes. We need to know the people we create for. The more we notice who they are, what they’re made of, what motivates them, the better we understand what makes them tick. And the better equipped we’ll be to craft something that resonates with them.
Going offline will make us realize that there’s a world beyond our screens and computers. And in many cases, whatever we’re selling is just a small part of someone else’s life.
But until we go offline to see what that is, we won’t know.
2. Be kind
In a crowded world, being kind can make the difference between any of us and the next digital professional.
Knowledge today is easily accessible. At any given moment, we’re always one quick search away from finding the answer to just about anything.
Kindness, on the other hand, takes effort. And sometimes, it might be a considerable one.
Yet, whenever we get angry, start screaming, losing our temper, others might perceive us a threat. Also, how would we, ourselves go about approaching someone who’s often unpredictable?
Kindness is important because no matter how good our ideas are, we will still need buy-in to make them happen. This might mean technical support to implement a new email marketing provider. Or it could be budget to add a new marketing or design tool.
Being kind, adding a nice personal touch can set us apart.
That’s why we should reinforce kindness with any opportunity we get. Whether it’s the way we handle ourselves, the way we dress, the way we talk, the way we sip our coffee, insert something of what we stand for along the way.
3. Keep learning
To succeed in any digital career, we need to stay on top of the ever-changing technology landscape. New tools get launched every day and we need to know how to work with them to stay competitive.
We might not often get what we want. Or what we need, as a matter of fact. But we always get to choose between saying oh, well, that was it or doing something about it.
Whenever we learn something new, we invest in ourselves. It might not always be within our responsibilities, but chances are that it will pay off in the long run.
Also, in an increasingly data-focused world, relying on opinions alone won’t be very effective. Data analysis is very useful, so learn the basic concepts.
Lifelong learning will make the difference between people who stay in business and people who hit plateau. By developing our skills – hard and soft, we’re improving ourselves.
Summing up….
Even if they’re high growth and exciting, digital professions are not as easy as they may look. As creators, we make the connection between people and products or experiences, and sometimes we’re faced with a hundred different conflicting requests.
Yet the best rise above all this. By talking to people, being kind and investing in yourself, anyone can put together the skills needed to succeed in any digital career.
Back over to you
Share your experience. What has helped your digital career?
Looking forward to your insights in the comments below 🙂