This is How I Role: My Path To Finding A New Community Role

There’s plenty of content out in the world around resumes, interviewing, what to look for in a new role and company, and pretty much anything else you can think of around the topic of advancing your career. I certainly don’t claim to be an expert on these topics, but what I can do is share my own stories of how I got to where I am today.

Navigating your career is challenging no matter what industry you’re in, but navigating your career in the community management industry is a whole other ballgame. I shouldn’t even call it a ballgame. A ballgame has sunshine, hot dogs, and ice cold beer. This is more like a Halloween corn maze. In the dark. With quicksand in random, unmarked spots. And creepy clowns that jump out at you. Probably spiders, too. 🤡🕷

Ok, ok, maybe it’s not SO bad. It has definitely improved since I started looking at Community Management roles ten years ago. We still have a long way to go though.

You’re A Community Manager…So Like, You Manage An Apartment Complex? 🏢

I just read this great blog post, “What Is a Community Manager?” by Noele Flowers, Community Manager at Teachable. The blog post goes through all of the different types of roles that are dubbed community manager, and even after going through this extensive list, it still doesn’t cover all of the different variations of what companies call a Community Manager.

Even when I’m not actively looking, I stay signed up for all of the job alerts for Community Manager, Director of Community, VP of Community, Head of Community, and Community Strategist just to keep an eye on what all of the job descriptions look like. They are all over the place. This is a problem. Anyone that’s looked for a role in this industry knows it’s a problem, but we are still very, very far away from the problem being solved. That is why extra layers of scrutiny and due diligence are such an important part of a jump to your next community-focused role.

Role-in, Role-in, Role-in Down The River 🛶

Making a jump to your next role is always a mixed bag of emotions. At least for me it has been. It’s exciting, scary, promising, and anxiety-inducing. There is an unbelievable amount of pressure to make the right choice. To be fair, there is never going to be a perfect choice. Even if you are moving onto your dream job, there are always going to be trade-offs, and it’s up to you to go in knowing what you’re looking for and what you’re not willing to sacrifice.

People leave their jobs for a number of different reasons, and we don’t need to get into that (at least right now), but I do have an important piece of advice for you specifically about leaving the role you’re in. Don’t wait until you are ready to leave your current position to start thinking about your next career move. Start thinking RIGHT NOW about what you want to do next. It may not be for another five years. You may not have plans to leave at all. However, if you start thinking now about the type or role you want to be in, the level/title you see yourself, the attributes of the next company you want to join, and your non-negotiables, you’ll be in a much better position when you are ready to make a move. You don’t want to wait until the point that you are absolutely ready to leave to start putting your feelers out. That puts you at risk of going somewhere that doesn’t meet your criteria simply because you are in a rush to leave your current situation, and it doesn’t give you the best chance to move your career forward in a way that helps you meet your career goals.

True community management roles at a great organization are hard to come by — especially the higher you go, level-wise. Being aware of what those roles are and where those types of roles exist will benefit you down the line. Even if it doesn’t seem relevant at the time, researching, learning, and connecting about other positions and companies will end up benefiting you in the long run. Don’t leave yourself up the river without a paddle.

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever gotten was from my CEO when I resigned from a position to go work for another company:

“Make sure that you are running towards something and not away from something else.”

That has always stuck with me. At that time, I was running away from something and not towards something. I ended up turning down that role, but still resigned. However, several months before all of this, I reached out to Erica Kuhl, who was a community hero of mine (and now one of my dearest friends). I wasn’t looking for a role at the time, but I mentioned if anything did come up to let me know. Erica reached out. I ended up accepting an offer for an amazing role at Salesforce just a few days later. This all happened within the same week. Always do what you can to be proactive. Set yourself up to be in a position where you are able run towards something and not away from something else.

Recruiters Are Like a Box Of Chocolates. You Never Know What You’re Going to Get 🍫

That takes us to the story of how I ended up at my current role leading community at Venafi. I want to share this story as an example of the path I took. While this will not be the same path for everyone, it never hurts to know about other peoples’ journeys and examples.

Recruiters reach out to me multiple times a week. Around half are recruiters complimenting my amaaaaazing experience with Salesforce (my technical experience with Salesforce is pretty sad), some are looking for someone to manage their social media accounts (here we go again), some are looking for “Head of Community” that’s listed as a manager level, a small number are for entry level community management roles, and then an even smaller number are the ones that are actually interesting and relevant. I’ve also had a recruiter reach out to me to compliment me on my impressive work at Spotify (I have never worked at Spotify). Opening my LinkedIn Messages is truly always an adventure. It’s like a jack in the box toy where you crank it and the clown randomly pops out at you. I’m sure many of you feel the same way.

When a recruiter or hiring manager reaches out to me with a role that’s actually interesting and relevant, I always respond. Even if I’m not looking, I’m always interested in learning more, and with a great role, I take the time to recommend other amazing community professionals that I think could be a good fit. The most recent one of those recommendations led to one of the greatest community managers I know, Ashley Elder, getting connected to her exciting new role at Qualtrics. They are lucky to have her! Sometimes I’ll point recruiters to connect with the team at CMX if they need additional assistance finding the right person for their role. I have also written back to recruiters to point out that the “community manager” role they are hiring for isn’t a community manager role at all. I take the time to explain to them why, and it almost always gets an appreciative response.

We’re in this together as community professionals, and it benefits all of us when these recruiters find the right people for these roles. When recruiters find experienced community professionals to be at the helm of their companies’ community programs, we gain more and more community success stories to add to our industry collection.

It Doesn’t Just Look Good On Paper 📄

Now, you might be wondering, if you always pass off those recruiters to other community professionals, how did you end up in a new role? Well, as I said above (yes, I’m quoting myself in the same blog post):

Don’t wait until you are ready to leave your current position to start thinking about your next career move. Start thinking RIGHT NOW about what you want to do next.

It was probably about a year before I got a LinkedIn message from Venafi’s recruiter* that I really started considering what I wanted to do next. I loved my current role running the Salesforce Trailblazer Community and programs. Salesforce is an incredible company to work for and I had the best team in the entire world (It will never be beat. Nope. Never. EVER). Are you now saying to yourself, “sounds pretty perfect to me, why would she ever even think about another role?” Well if you’re asking yourself that, I’m going to have to say it again:

Don’t wait until you are ready to leave your current position to start thinking about your next career move. Start thinking RIGHT NOW about what you want to do next.

So when I got that message, I knew Venafi already checked a few of the boxes on my non-negotiables list because I had dedicated time to creating that list about a year earlier. (Some examples: a product I believe in**, no existing community, head of community role that was C-suite or reported to C-suite, under 500 people, B2B). It was absolutely worth a chat.

I spoke with the recruiter and then scheduled some time to have a video call with my now manager, Elizabeth Ireland, our CMO. That M really stood out to me in her title more than anything else. I’m not one to be shy about my opinions, and I have very openly shared my thoughts about community living within a Marketing organization. Generally, I don’t think it’s a good fit. If I could pick ANY placement for community, it would roll straight up to the CEO and be led by the Chief Community Officer. However, since that’s not the case in most companies at this time, I tend to think the better fit is in Product or Customer Success. Why am I sharing this tidbit of info? Well, because while the organizational placement of community is important to me, what I find more important is that community isn’t boxed into a very specific set of goals around marketing — or any other one team. Community needs to have the flexibility to serve the entire business. This comes back to the non-negotiables. While at some companies the organizational structure might be limiting, the right leadership at a company can make all the difference. I found that was the case with Elizabeth at Venafi.

My discussion with Elizabeth was fantastic. I can’t even call it an interview because it was truly a thought-provoking discussion of ideas, information, community, Venafi, customer-focused approaches, and so much more. I found myself wanting to stay on the call after it ended. They currently had no community or community programs, but after seeing their customers connect to one another at their annual Summit, they knew they had to build one. They were realistic about resources. They were realistic about timing. Most importantly, Elizabeth clearly understood the foundational principles of community. She may not have run a community before, but the deeper we delved into the purpose of a community and how to measure its success, the more and more I could see Venafi’s “authentic community intentions.” The idea of building a community at Venafi became very real to me very quickly.

I had interviews with several other wonderful members of the Venafi team including Venafi’s CEO, Jeff Hudson. The community had true and authentic support all the way up to the CEO. It was clear after talking to the members of the team that this company checked all of the boxes.

Because I was still in a great place in my current role, and not rushing to move on, it alleviated a ton of the pressure on these interviews. I not only asked all of the questions I wanted to ask — about the vision for the community, resources, ownership — but I also openly shared my thoughts and feedback about the plans they shared, even when I disagreed. When I say these felt more like discussions than interviews, I mean it.

Some questions I asked that you might consider asking: Have they already decided on a strategy and goals? Do they have a platform selected? How open are they to making changes to those original plans when you come on board? Will community serve just one team or the whole company? Does community have resources and funding outside of just this role? Do these discussions leave you feeling like you will be treated as the community subject matter expert?

For a community role, you have to ask these types of questions and have deeper discussions about community overall. This is especially true if you’re going to a company that the role is new or the community doesn’t already exist. You have to be sure that you understand expectations, goals, and the autonomy you’ll have to not only develop, but also properly execute on your community strategy. You also have to be sure that they really understand what community is, and if they don’t, that they are ready to pass the reins over to you as the expert to define it.

I took a two month break between leaving my role at Salesforce and heading to Venafi. I needed a break, and Venafi was completely understanding. They were willing to wait that two months to make sure the right person joined the team. Another good sign in my book. As community professionals, burnout is real, and it can sneak up on you. I have been one of the worst offenders of work-life balance, which is why this two month break was so important. I will be sharing more about that important topic in an upcoming blog post.

It’s A Big, Green Field 🌲🌳🌾

So what are things like now, five months into the role? Well, I can safely say those first interviews/discussions were very telling. Venafi does have “authentic community intentions.” On one hand, it’s definitely different and often challenging to go from a seven person team to a team of one again. However, there is so much good in this new role. I am the community expert at Venafi. I have the full trust of my manager to build out the best strategy I can using the community experience I’ve accumulated over the years. We move fast, but not at the risk of doing things the wrong way. Leadership understands and supports the pace at which a new community needs to grow. I try new things. I iterate. I’m not afraid to say that I don’t have all of the answers — it’s not viewed as a weakness. I learn new things everyday. I teach new things every day. All of these things combined are a recipe for community professional success.

One of my first weeks at Venafi, Jeff, our CEO, turned to me and said, “If I could be anyone in the company right now, I’d want to be you.”

I asked, “Really, why’s that?”

Jeff responded, “Because you can do anything you want right now. Green field.”

And I intend to take that green field and build something amazing. I’ve got new products to learn, new audiences to understand, and a new community to continue to build.

I feel very lucky to be in this position, but as the famous quote goes: “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.”

TL;DR

• Do not wait until you are ready to leave your current position to start thinking about your next career move. Start thinking RIGHT NOW about what you want to do next.
• Always be researching, learning, and connecting about other roles and other companies. Don’t leave yourself up the river without a paddle.
• Be clear about your non-negotiables.
• If you’re not looking, but presented with a great opportunity, take the time to recommend another amazing community manager from your network.
• Find a company/organization with “authentic community intentions” — make sure you are asking the best questions to get to an accurate understanding of how they see community.

*I dogged on recruiters a bit, but I want to give a shout out to a couple. First, Venafi’s recruiter, April Beard. She is an exceptional recruiter. I definitely pummeled April with questions, comments, and ridiculous scheduling needs throughout the whole process. She was there for it, and she is awesome. I have to also give a shout out to Michelle Delcambre who was my recruiter at Atlassian. She was also an incredible recruiter and a huge part of my career story. She didn’t know me, but she gave me a chance and a helping hand at a time I was struggling to get my foot in the door. That chance changed my life forever. I will be forever grateful to her. She’s Head of People Operations at Stripe now and just generally a badass. Her team is hiring if you’re looking to learn from one of the best.

* Curious about what Venafi does? Me too! I’ve still got a lot to learn. 🤓 Here’s the basics:

“We realized, before anyone, that the rise of connected machines would result in previously unseen threats and vulnerabilities. In other words, new ways for the bad guys to get into networks, and new ways for them to get data out. We recognized that securing the identities of machines needed the same level of attention given to managing and protecting human digital identities. We focused our efforts and expertise on solving this problem.That’s why we developed and continue to be the market leader of a world-class machine identity protection solution — we safeguard more machines than anyone else.”