Career Lane Change - Advice?

[DFerguson110]

Hi everyone, 

I'm Dustin. Currently working in Customer Success, but I am looking for something more strategic and dynamic. I'm checking out some of the Hubspot courses to gain some knowledge and possibly make a shift from CS to Marketing. If anyone has made this change or has done something similar, feel free to share all of your advice! Thank you!

[TCorcoran]

@DFerguson110I am working on making a similar jump. I would love to connect to chat. @ChazG I love your suggestions! The though journal is  agreat idea! What Google Certification course did you do?

[ChazG]

I'm glad you like the journal idea! I highly recommend it. I use Google's
free Skillshop course to get the Google Ads Search Certification. It's very
straightforward!

Feel free to reach out with any questions! Happy to connect and chat!

[DavidDennison]

What are you interested in? There are a bunch of different paths to take in marketing. Let me know some of your passions and I'll be able to help ya bit more!

[ChazG]

I came from video production into Content Marketing in January of 2021. I'm still super new. I shifted careers because I wanted to be able to tell people the actual numerical impact of my videos rather than just make a cool video and send it off to corporate. 

My advice to shifting career paths is to approach your first marketing job with copious amounts of humility. My first month at my first marketing job after switching I was tasked with getting as many inbound leads as possible. How do I do that?! Here are 3 tools are I used to help make the career shift easier:

1. Google Doc Thought Journal
2. Listen, Listen, Listen
3. Be a sponge and learn

Thought Journal

On my first day, I had the idea of starting a thought journal. After each meeting and at the beginning, middle, and end of the day, I wrote out my thoughts about what I had just learned that day. As an INTJ personality, this was extremely effective for me to process all the new information I was receiving.

Listen, Listen, Listen

I paid very close attention to each of my meetings. Despite my extensive knowledge in my previous field, I kept my mouth shut and my ears open. I learned about the new product, I listened to the vision of the C-Suit, and I started to hear a story. The story of the company was the beginning of my marketing strategy.

Be a Sponge, Learn

I began watching youtube channels on marketing, learning from HubSpot's free blog, studying my competition, listening to podcasts, learning from Google's free Certification course. Most of this was done in my free time. This provided the ammunition I needed when an executive turned to me asking what I thought as a marketer (me, a marketer!) I actually had some sort of answer.

I am by no means an expert. But I'm a very sincere beginner at marketing. I hope my 3 tools to transitioning helped!

[kvlschaefer]

Hi @DFerguson110,

Welcome to the Content Marketing Study Group!

Upskilling with HubSpot courses and focusing on practical exercises such as creating an imaginary content plan is a great place to start.

I'll tag in some members of our group to get their input as well. 

Hi all! @DFerguson110 is considering shifting from Customer Success to Marketing. Do you have any advice on shifting career paths? 

@DavidDennison, @elsordo, @Alan-Wine-Fan, @Sam62, @MAdams90, @SamRoff, @ChazG 

Thanks!