Four Months In - A Selfless Plug
I’ve been fortunate enough to have worked at some amazing boutique agencies as well as in-house at some wonderful organizations and built some outstanding digital products. It wasn’t until I saw looking for a new full time position that I got a chance to really reflect on everything I've done.
I’ve seen my work for Affinity Health on billboards in NYC and stumbled across products I’ve worked on in the wild.
I talked to Fidelity about social media well before it was a thing and worked with the Chief Digital Officer at YouGov to introduce the Profiles and Quizzes products.
I’ve gotten a call from AdAge saying that the messaging in one of my ads had led to the highest engagement rate they’d ever seen and they wanted to do a case study on it (MediScripts).
I’ve helped more startup founders than I can name set their initial Product strategy at Tanooki Labs and helped define the UX for led Product Design for Plentiful’s product to help the food insecure find resources.
But as I’m looking for my next full time role, I’m reminded of the difficulty of transitioning from an agency to an in-house position. How do you take the broad swath of knowledge gained from working across industries and compete in a market where people have spent their entire careers in one industry or function? How do you compete when you earned your Masters before HCI was a thing? (For the record my MA in Culture and Communications focusing on Computer Mediated Communications was as close as a precursor as one could get in 2007.)
Here are a few things that people have recommended that have really moved the needle for me.
Show your work. Take the time to revisit old case studies and update them, make them interactive. While you may not be able to cite specific business impacts (a common issue in agencies, especially when you’re focused on 0-1 products) being able to show how you think and the process through which your decisions arrive is helpful.
Talk to everyone. You never know who knows someone that knows someone. Even if you’re terrible at maintaining connections after you’ve stopped working with folks (looks in the mirror) I promise you’ll be surprised about who gets back to you and the wonderful things they’ll remind you about. It will benefit you beyond the immediate ego boost, I’ve met some honestly wonderful people in the last few months through connections.
Focus on today. The world is a mess at the moment. There’s really no telling what might be in two weeks, let alone two years. Focus on the tasks to do today, whether it’s updating a case study, hitting a target number of applications or networking requests. Just keep moving forward.
Continue to work on skills. Freelance, consult, work on personal projects - anything to make sure your knives stay sharp. I’ve been working on UX and Product Strategy with Axle Repair and it’s opened my eyes to the EV sector in a whole new way. I’ve also been working on my personal project Buildsheet - an app for tracking service and modifications on classic cars. A Carfax for classics. Whatever your passion is, dive into it with a scrappy mindset and you’ll rediscover passions and learn new skills while you’re at it.
As we head into February I’m still looking for that perfect Product role, but expanding my search to include Product Marketing and Creative roles as well. I have experience in the automotive, non-profit, finance, and education fields, but my years of agency experience mean that I’m able to pick up new industries quickly.
I’m also expanding my consulting through Scholz Family Productions. Over the years I’ve done everything from negotiating large media buys to planning the UX for small startups and done branding and brand strategy for everything in between. That’s not to mention the years of marketing strategy and execution. Hell, I even produce a decent podcast!
If you’re interested in talking about either please let me know! If you know someone that might be interested let them know!
At the end of the day I’ve been constantly amazed at the love and support of the community I’ve built up around myself. You are all the best.