In the world where things change as fast as Tik Tok trends, it’s important to be nimble in our careers, so that we can adapt to change and, if necessary, create a new career path for ourselves.
Between 2019 and today, Angela Teague has overhauled her career. She did that by completely transforming her job skills, from video producer to social media specialist.
After working in television production for almost two decades, she found herself “stuck.” She wasn’t challenged and she wasn’t growing. Sometimes fate has a funny way of pushing us to the next level, and in Angela’s case, fate dealt her the blow of being a part of a group layoff when her company was purchased by another one in the industry.
Just to show you what Angela’s made of, when this happened, she wrote a blog that got enormous “likes”on LinkedIn. It wasn’t about her anxiety regarding the layoff. Rather, it was about gratitude. She was grateful to her boss who was an incredible mentor, and to her team, who had become like family. She knew how rare it was to feel these things, just talking to other friends about their jobs.
The layoff began a complete career re-start. Here’s how she did it.
She Took Risks. After the layoff, she didn’t frantically try to find a new job, but instead, reflected on her career. It was about that time that Susan was launching her second book. Angela had done some video work for her and posted those on social media, and she thought, why not partner with Susan to do her social media for the book? Susan was happily on board, so Angela began learning the ins and outs of social media, through using it in various ways.
She Studied. After working with Susan, Angela was hired as an independent contractor in marketing for a pet products company. She needed health benefits, but this job was offered, and she took it. It was “general marketing”; she had no title, and no training.
She did a very smart thing. She took advantage of free online courses in content and social media marketing that were offered there. She studied hard, and pushed to be assigned to projects she was interested in. This led to getting moved from general marketing to e-commence and then into digital marketing. She grew her skills and began managing a robust influencer program and grew the company from having zero presence on Tik Tok to over 10,000 followers!
She Looked to Millennials. Since social media trends are mostly influenced by millennials like me, and Gen Z’s, many of the people Angela worked with were younger than thirty. Sometimes she felt out of place, but she stayed focused. She had already taught me so many things when I entered the workforce, so I was happy to offer any guidance I could. Not to mention, she is the sweetest, most encouraging person to work for.
She’d tell you one important thing she learned from us was to create better work/life balance. She noticed that many of us didn’t answer emails outside work hours, so now she takes that time for herself, and gives that courtesy to others. I think she is the perfect example of breaking the stereotypes and barriers between the generations in a workplace today.
She Didn’t Give Up. Angela would be the first to tell you that re-starting her career wasn’t easy. “Honestly, I did not want to fail. Every day I questioned whether I was over my head.” Some days she would call Susan and cry. Then she would get back to work. Her courage kept her going.
Just recently Angela was offered and accepted a fulltime job (with benefits!) as a social media specialist for seven brands at a boating company. She will be working remotely and loves it, because her wonderful dogs are close by. Her journey is an inspiration to me, and I know I’ll seek her guidance as I keep growing in my career.
By Hannah Gils | Freelance Content Creator
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