How the HubSpot Community Landed Me My Dream Job in a Digital Consultancy

[ConnorSlivensky]

In March this year, I started an exciting new job as a HubSpot Implementation Specialist at Huble Digital.

The offer came nearly a year after I found myself out of work when the pandemic hit in March 2020. Like many who lost their jobs with Covid-19, the following months involved a cycle of:

1. Figuring out what I wanted to do
2. Figuring out how I was going to stand out against others when so many talented people were in a similar position

Throughout these months, I experienced the usual highs and lows. Initially, I treated being unwillingly unemployed as a long vacation, enjoying my first ever time at having no responsibility. But as most people probably discovered, doing nothing quickly becomes less ‘fun’, and I knew I wanted to find a new job to fill my time. 

When I began looking for my next role, I soon realised that there were very few job openings. I checked a few times a week on the usual large job sites (LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster) and I also began checking the HubSpot Community Job Board as I had used the HubSpot Community in my previous role. 

I knew that I loved working in HubSpot but I was struggling to nail down the exact title I was looking for. Marketing Coordinator (my old title) and other marketing titles were too general and barely touched HubSpot, if mentioned at all. HubSpot Development titles were too code intensive for what I was looking for (I can tweak and read code, but not write it). 

I knew I wanted to be a “HubSpot Engineer” but was unable to nail down the exact search terms for automatic job alerts, especially on generic job sites.

Finding my niche

Understanding I needed to try a new approach to job searching, and after months of finding the same 10 jobs getting reposted onto the big job sites (and I really mean the same job with companies bumping the visibility of their posts once a week) I decided to put more effort into HubSpot, specifically the HubSpot Community.

I had already been using the HubSpot Community in my previous role to hone my knowledge of the HubSpot tech stack (my previous company had Marketing Pro so I was accustomed to using the Community to ask questions and also learn about HubSpot’s other offerings across Sales, Service, CMS).

To drive attention to my profile, I changed my username to be more recognisable and added a profile picture, as well as a link to my LinkedIn profile to curate a strong brand image every time I responded to a thread. 

Utilising my Community Network

Deciding the HubSpot Community would be my key channel to finding a new role, I tasked myself with being an active user on the platform.

I added other Community users as friends to grow my network, and soon I found myself interacting with other HubSpot Specialists on a daily basis - a couple of users even ended up endorsing my HubSpot skill on LinkedIn!  

I made sure to answer as many questions as I could and racked up not only solutions but a consistent presence and reputation. (Reputation also refers to the grading of users by HubSpot in their new advocacy tiering system).  

After a few months of branding myself on the HubSpot Community, community moderators also noticed my activity and even began to ping me other user’s threads to help with. This enabled me to stand out at the top of the thread and become more visible in the community, helping other HubSpottters with their problems. 

Overall, I found that one post on the community which provided me a niche platform to excel in, was worth 20 posts on LinkedIn that get swamped among other communications.

 

The final push 

With my profile built out, solutions under my belt and name recognition around the Community, I then kept an eye on the HubSpot Community Jobs Board for new opportunities. 

I knew that each post on the Board was specifically looking for a HubSpot Specialist, and not just a marketer who recognises the name of the software, so it was the perfect channel for helping me find my dream job.

And, in late February, I finally found the post I had been waiting for. Huble Digital was advertising for a HubSpot Specialist to join its growing team which included a direct link to its website to apply. 

So I did. 

And a few months later I am now putting my skills to use and loving my role as a HubSpot Implementation Specialist in a digital HubSpot consultancy. 

Understanding my niche and finding a unique channel to excel in which avoided general job boards is what helped me stand out against other candidates. I can officially say, thanks to the HubSpot Community, I am now working at my dream job.