When you feel stuck in your current line of work, dreaming about switching industries can be tempting. But what happens when you actually take the leap? @Anne Mbugua, former Community Fellow, did just that when she made the decision to switch from nonprofit to community management. Her fellowship at The Community Roundtable helped her learn the ins and outs of digital communities in a hands-on and more effective way than online courses or more traditional learning models ever could.
Now that it’s been a few months since Anne has graduated on to her new role I touched base with her to see what she learned during her fellowship.
What was your experience as a Community Fellow like?
I was really excited to be a fellow this year, especially learning more about community online management. And since I was pivoting from the nonprofit world — being a program manager — into community management, my passion to connect with people and build relationships really drew me to that.
Having the opportunity was great. I got to meet a lot of community managers, learn new terminology I didn't even know existed, learn about starting a community from scratch — what you need to do to have a vibrant, growing community — the different community types (I didn't even know there were internal and external communities or even what a community of practice looks like), etc.
The other thing I found fascinating was how people's career path led them to be a community manager. Hearing their stories helped me understand my own pivoting journey. While their path may have been very different, the underlying passion to come together to co-learn and collaborate connected us.
What made you interested in Community initially?
Being in the nonprofit industry for as long as I was, I started to love this idea of community, — even though it wasn’t an online community, there was still community — and reaching out to community partners. So, my supervisor at the time recognized this love and let me know about the community management industry as a career opportunity.
I had been thinking about my next steps when the pandemic started, so I took that as my sign to learn more about online community management. And so I started doing my research. There weren't really any university degrees you could earn, and there were limited courses here and there, but nobody really seemed to focus on what is community. I wanted to be able to learn hands-on, while also learning what it really is to be a community manager, so I continued my research. That’s when I met a community manager who told me about their experience in a fellowship program and how beneficial it was. When they said the organization — The CR — was looking for a fellow I applied and, you know, the rest is history.
What were some of the challenges you faced when you first tried to start in community?
Community, as a whole, is completely different from nonprofits, so it was a lot of new terminology and changing my way of thinking. After all, community isn’t a project and it’s not a program, it’s more of a group of people working together, co-learning and collaborating.
Another challenge was the lack of information around the industry. Even before I started my fellowship, when I was applying for community jobs I frequently heard “you don’t have enough experience,” but how could I get experience if I was struggling to find information on the subject? I needed someone who would listen when I said, “these are the transferable skills I have, how do I use them in this industry?”
Beyond that, there was a whole lot of talk about how difficult it can be to transition industries. That's what you hear most, “This is such a challenge. It's really hard, or you don't have enough experience.” Fortunately, when the pandemic happened remote work became more of a thing, so it just opened some doors for me. I was able to say, “Okay, these are places that I can go and learn more about [community management].” Thankfully, now, there are a lot of courses where you can learn more about community management, which is good.
Have there been any skills that transitioned well from nonprofit to community?
I’ve found a number of soft skills that translate well in community management. From my ability to relate to people while I’m conducting interviews, to time management, these skills are so important in this line of work.
One that I can’t speak to enough is organization and the ability to wear multiple hats. When you’re facing a number of projects — because there’s always a lot of things happening in a community — it's good to know how to prioritize. When you don't stay organized, it's very easy to feel overwhelmed or that there’s so much work you won’t be able to do it all. Then add to the mix the extra pieces needed to make a community successful. Without organization and prioritization, juggling all of these balls gets difficult.
What skills do you think are crucial in community management?
Being able to work on a team — to collaborate — because community is not about just one person, it's about many different people. And so having the ability to look at the strengths of all your community members, and find a way that you can collaborate to create this beautiful community is so important.
I think curiosity is also really important. Your community has a goal, but so do your members. What is it all about? Once you know that, it doesn't end there. You have to keep continuing with your curiosity, so you can keep asking why, learn new things, and grow as a professional and as a community.
How did the fellowship change how you looked at communities?
[My perception now] is very different. I hadn't realized that a community of interest is very different from internal and external communities.
I think it's important to understand the kind of community you're in, or part of, so you can also understand its pain points. Once that’s understood you can understand what kind of engagement or strategy you might need, and that can be very different depending on your community type. And so, being able to see those differences and apply the strategy in a different way based on your community use case makes for a better community experience overall.
It also helped me realize the areas of community I’m not interested in, career-wise. I'm definitely not interested in operations. Processes and putting systems in place, it's not my thing. I do like the content role and I like being a community manager, but I wouldn't really go into Community Operations. There are some content roles that are heavy on social media, and I wouldn't go into that either. I am a little bit hesitant about being a Director, and I think it's more so because while I'm not against people management, I just don't think it's a thing that I really want to do.
Any advice to someone considering a fellowship?
Come in with curiosity, ask questions, and be ready to learn. There'll be lots of things to learn, so you need to be open to discovering different things. They may be tasks you don’t like, but who knows where those tasks are gonna end up leading you down your career path or intersecting with your trajectory.
The other thing is to connect with people. Just get to know people, grow your network, help where you can, because giving produces that reciprocity for people to give back to you. Even now, after the fellowship, I'm still meeting and talking with some of those community managers, and we are having these conversations where we can just serve as sounding boards for one another, which is amazing, and it continues on.