We get back into the swing of things, we took September to talk about a topic that affects everyone: careers. While this year has been a rollercoaster for many and their careers, it is also an opportune time to take a look at where we have taken our career journeys, reflect on what we have learned and experienced, and think about where we (and the community space) are going.
Because we wanted to dig more into all of this (and revisit 2020's Community Careers and Compensation Report), we focused September on: Careers in Community.
For the month of September, we aimed to explore different roles and responsibilities, career paths, skillsets, and reflections from different perspectives, so we facilitated calls and discussions to hear from our members on what they thought...
September in TheCR Network: Roundtable Calls
Our first Roundtable Call of September focused on two of the four roles we profiled in the Community Careers and Compensation 2020 Report: Community Managers and Community Strategists...
On our first panel call of the month, "Community Careers Panel - Community Managers and Community Strategists", we heard from several members who gave insight into their career paths, skills that were most valuable for them, and what they have learned in their time as community managers and strategists.
In this panel discussion, the panel of TheCR Network members shared experiences from their past (work) "lives" as Civil Technical Engineers, Online Communications Managers, Project Managers, Account Managers, Writers, Editors, and SEO Content Writers. They shared about what skills they have found most valuable and helpful to have in their current and community roles, specifically technical skills (platforms, troubleshooting, training, etc.), people skills (not just members, but coworkers and stakeholders), and communication skills (speaking to different audiences) to name a few.
Agreeing, the panel identified business skills (and a subset: public relations) as an area of skills that they would like to improve. They felt as though they could learn more about "selling" yourself and your community and that is something that is not unfamiliar.
The State of Community Management 2018 report found that only 10% of respondents were prioritizing business management vs. other areas like engagement (30%) and content (27%). As resources are tight, community professionals are spending their time on what proves community performance rather than the critical tasks that are measuring value, program management, and internal advocacy which all fall under business management.
This call was only an entry point into the conversation around these community roles, so we do not have answers quite yet, but we gleamed a lot of insight and and knowledge from our peers, and that was a perfect start. It was such a great start that one panelist actually started a discussion thread to curate notable quotes from the panel.
If you want to listen in on this Roundtable Call, you can find the Roundtable Recording here.
Our second panel call of the month, "Community Career Panel - Community Specialists and Directors", focused on similar topic areas as our first panel call, but through different perspectives.
On this panel discussion, we heard from TheCR Network members who work as Community Specialists and Community Directors as they shared about their career paths, valuable skills, lessons learned, and notable experiences.
This panel shared some of the skills and experiences that have helped them get to where they are, including professional development spaces and peer support, working directly and collaborating with customers, empathy (and remembering that digital communities allow people to be more of themselves), active listening, and learning to say no. Panelists also shared resources that have helped them along their career journeys, mentioning to cross-functional relationships, Google(!), and other community professionals (specifically shouting out TheCR Network, Feverbee, Brian Oblinger and Erica Kuhl's In Before The Lock podcast, and past and current members @Jay Graff and @Elizabeth Massa).
One interesting topic that came out of this panel looked at the pros and cons of defining your own title versus having a standardized title that is understood across departments and organizations. Attendees discussed the merits of creating a title that aptly describes your role, but might not be understood by others outside of the community team or space. They also discussed the merits of having standardized roles that could be easily interpreted by people across organizations, but that standardization does not exist for many organizations. The State of Community Management 2019 found that only 25% of respondents had community roles formally defined, documented, and approved by HR, so this standardization (or institutionalization) is something that community professionals need to work towards as a whole.
To finish up with a similar topic, panelists closed the call by talking through challenges that they have found some sort of solution to and touched on explaining the value of community (it took one panelist five years!), communicating and addressing negative sentiment, getting executive buy-in, and COVID and "accidental" engagement.
This call did a great job of continuing the conversation on community roles and we were able to add more to the discussion thread on notable quotes from the panels as we worked through the month.
If you want to listen in on this Roundtable Call, you can find the Roundtable Recording here.
Our last Roundtable Call (and panel) of September took on a different perspective and showcased the lessons learned and experiences of several members who are new to the community space and/or their community roles. On "Community Reflections: A Panel on the New and Firsts", several TheCR Network members gave us a look into how they found themselves in community, what they have learned thus far, and what their experience has been being new to the space.
On this call, TheCR Network members @Erin Ernser, @Olufunmilayo Makinde, @Ryan Priddy, and @Sam Zelitch talked about their career journeys, backgrounds, invaluable skills, how they communicate value and "manage up", big challenges, and proudest accomplishments.
Being driven by a desire to be a "direct and tangible impact" on people they work with and for, the panelists also talked about some key pieces of advice and what they have learned along their journeys thus far. One panelist mentioned a great piece of advice he received, "You do not need to have the answer, but you do need to know who to ask". Another panelist talked about conveying value to leadership by saying you need to "connect what is important to you with what is important to them".
Whether you're a fast learner, or an intuitive learner, we are all always learning and growing; we are never stagnant. We were all new once and we will all be new to something again. Whether you are new, will be new, or were new in the past, taking time to reflect on how far we have come is a great way to identify key wins, lessons learned, and think through where we want to go in the future.
Community professionals of all experience levels have a lot in common and can (and should) always find time to learn from one another in order to benefit ourselves and the community space.
If you want to listen in on this Roundtable Call, you can find the Roundtable Recording here.
We heard some great examples and had some great discussions this month, so why not round it out with what we learned about members of TheCR Network overall...
What Did You Think?
For the month of September, we opened a poll to ask a demographics question and get to understand what perspectives our members are coming from: For how many years have you worked in Community?
Anecdotally, we know that we have a great range of experience in TheCR Network, but we wanted to get an idea of what that looks like in number form. Keeping in mind how Community seems to be the hot topic in this increasingly digital time (whether by choice or by force), we could hypothetically expect to see more new faces in our networks...
But is that true? Let's see...
The poll results show a graph where almost half of respondents said they have between 5-10 years of experience working in community with a close second (just over a quarter of respondents) saying they have between 10-15 years of experience.
In the State of Community Management 2019, we saw respondents having an average of 6.3 years of experience working in community and 17.6 years of overall work experience, so this small survey reflects the SOCM 2019 results as well. In our September poll, 20% of respondents said they have between 1-5 years of community experience, so this shows that TheCR Network both reflects the overall average as well as a great range of experience.
This poll enabled us to not only see what kind of experiences and experience levels members have, but also understand what we all might be thinking about and focusing on in terms of careers and community programs. While we do have some members who are more advanced in their careers, we also have quite a few who are quite new and many who are just finding their stride, so membership reflects a range of perspectives, knowledge bases, and experience levels and is prime for learning from each other.
No matter how recently you came to community, we all have similar questions, challenges, and topics of interest, so we can (and should) always be learning from each other.
So, Where Do We Go From Here?
Our goal for September was to take another look at community careers and see where we have gone over this rollercoaster of a year. While careers will always be an ever-changing topic of interest, we wanted to refresh the conversation to make sure we are understanding the perspectives we all have and have access to.
Whether you are aiming to get to the Chief Community Officer title or are perfectly happy as a Community Manager, we have a wealth of experience from the expanse of community roles right here in TheCR Network, as well as the opportunity to learn from each other.
As we get to continue developing ourselves and our roles, we can continue to develop our teams and the broader community space, and that's exciting.
I hope to get to look at careers in community again in the near future to see what else we have done and learned, but, in the meantime, I am looking forward to learning more from all of our peers at TheCR Connect 2020 as we explore how community is changing the way the world works.
If any of these conversations or concepts have sparked an idea or recommendation for you, let us know! While we plan our programming calendar, we also leave space for reactive programming, spur-of-the-moment topics, and member involvement, so leave us a note or send us a message and we'll get something together to address your topics of interest.
And if you're not a member of TheCR Network, or if you know someone who isn't a member of TheCR Network, but would love to participate in these conversations, please reach out! We're happy to talk about how you or they can get involved.
If you'd rather do that yourself, you can find out more about how to join TheCR Network here.
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