Content writing isn’t a joke, whoever said it is, lied!
For someone who was still trying to figure out what kind of content to put up on the blog, many times, I was not so sure of what to write.
It’s a lot easier when something comes to mind, that way, I just start drafting ideas, then form them into a story before publishing, but on several occasions, I’m uncertain of what and what not to write or how to begin.
Content writing isn’t a joke, whoever said it is, lied!
Nobody told me owning a blog isn’t the core thing but knowing what to post.
I guess I didn’t get that memo early enough, still, I had to find a way to help myself.
Honestly, the whole blogging thing was becoming exhausting, majorly because I was indecisive. I couldn’t carve out my niche, I was writing different things that were pointing toward different directions, wrote a sequel, wrote an educative article, and some movie reviews before I finally settled with tech-related stories.
…I was called for an audition at SceneOne Tv….
Let me add that prior to when I graduated from the University, I already created a LinkedIn account for myself, the software app came in handy for job hunting as I used it to search for content writing roles.
However, asides from LinkedIn, I searched for jobs everywhere else, though with linkedin I streamlined my search to a particular role… content writing specifically, but I went outside that.
Casting opportunities?
Hit me up
I remember the day I saw a message that I had an audition at Sceneone TV, a Nigerian film production Company, I already missed the supposed date given because I didn’t see the notification early enough and for a long time, I blamed myself for missing out on what could have been a way out.
Yh!
This is me thinking I had a chance in acting, well I think I do but probably I’m not ready for that yet. You can give me five years or seven maybe….. And you will see me doing drama on your screen.
Anyways, I decided to sign up for some foreign acting agency's mailing list. I made a wrong choice doing that and each time I got a mail with this content;
“Profile match - A female actress between 18 - 25 years of age living in Athens is needed for a sitcom...”
I just laugh weirdly. I never showed interest in any, I don’t even bother applying because you and I know I don’t need to,
There was a time I thought to myself,
“If only they can sponsor my travel visa, they will see me in Athens, Texas, Uk, Canada... anywhere in a second.”
Alright, let’s come back to reality…
At the end of the day, I had to unsubscribe and sign out to stop receiving those imaginary emails. It was of no good to me either way.
你好 (Hello)
谢谢你的阅读 我故事 (Thanks for reading my story)
我爱你! (I love you!)
You see this Career journey, I've been through it and I'm still traveling.
The hustle didn’t end there, I registered for a Chinese class to learn Chinese language. I’ve always wanted to learn the language and I was proud I took the bold step to start the class. It was a physical class in the School I had just graduated from.
And I have to tell you, being in the School environment made me feel like I had not graduated. It was that awkward.
“Nobody should come and be thinking I have a carry-over ooo”
I explain myself to anyone I run into that knows me within the four walls of the University to avoid this thought
Now let me mumble some words in Chinese language for you to know I’m not ‘capping’
你好 (Hello)
谢谢你的阅读 我故事 (Thanks for reading my story)
我爱你! (I love you!)
I learnt a lot in less than 5 months even though covid didn’t let me finish.
Fast forward to early 2020, I got a gig to be a Personal Assistant to a top Nigerian celebrity Manager, I was expected to write and release articles about the celebrity, the management, industry and be among the frontline personnels that will set up her concerts.
Was I happy about this, YES!
Did I take the job, No!
Why? Won’t say!
No vex!
As I stated earlier, the hustle didn’t end. I got another job, a sales and marketing job where I was to move around selling a digital product to new users.
I had done something similar to this when I was in school, at that time I was one of Access Bank campus ambassadors for a short period of time, our target was to create accounts for a particular number of students, so yeah, I knew what I was expected to do with this sales and marketing job I got.
In case you are reading this and probably saying in your head
“Haha
You’ve done a lot ooo”
Well, I’m not sure I have. I have only garnered experiences from different life events.
And in case you didn't think that way, it's fine,
let's move on.
Job hunting is a phase 85% of graduate pass-through
Even with all these occurrences, I didn’t stop attending tech workshops, corporate events and other meaningful social gatherings, I was basically trying not to stay idle.
Then Covid happened and like everyone else, I was forced to stay at home.
I will always say, the pandemic made me reflect, have a plan and take up a new skill, digital marketing.
Digital marketing slowly became my career focus, I was 100% interested in it. I started some free courses on Shaw Academy at first, then went further to Coursera to get more knowledge on marketing analytics and Google Ad Manager usage.
I stayed indoors digesting every content that came my way and continued applying for jobs.
The same way 2020 was a major hit for Tech companies in Africa, with either product launch, newly founded start-up or seed-funding generation, it was also the year I inveterated tech completely.
Not a marketing job again,
Later that year, I got a job!
“I guess this whole learning stuff paid off after all.”
This should be your thought.
For this job, I applied for the front desk role, only for me to go for the interview, and hear questions that were not related to anything front desk. I was asked to talk about my marketing experiences so far and defend what was typed on my resume.
In my head, I was like “Not a marketing job again,
I can’t go back to walking under Lagos hot sun oo,
These people should pity me abeg”
On that spot, I didn’t know if I should talk about my previous marketing experiences or my newly learnt skill in digital marketing. I preferred talking about my skill but without any experience will I be qualified?
A flash of the people waiting outside to be interviewed came to my mind.
"Ibukun, it's only right for you to seize the moment."
I muttered.
I ended up talking about both the skill and the experience but said so much about digital marketing and how I can come in with that. This is a course I’ve been learning for months, so you can imagine how enthusiastic I would have been.
But guess what…
This is the part where you say 'what'
I got the job!
It was a startup that was still bootstrapping and everyone on the team was new, that way, it was easy to try out different strategies and finally practice what I had learnt so far.
I felt fulfilled, and happy that 'my first official job is here' as I would always say.
I worked on all the copies, managed the company’s website, did campaigns, evaluated the metrics and did much more without having a direct team lead. It became my responsibility to supervise my work myself and encourage myself if need be.
It was like this for about four months, kept moving at my own pace till NYSC called.
And who am I not to obey?
If you read it to this point, this add-on is for you.
A guy I should call my boyfriend but wouldn't call that, made me interested in digital marketing then, and followed my progress through but not till now.
THANKS FOR READING!
I'll share these in the next episode, you can hit the follow button for notifications when it drops.