Content marketing can be a very lucrative career path especially if you enjoy writing and building a presence for businesses.
For this episode, we spoke with three successful Nigerian content marketers.
Name: Stella Inabo
What She Does: B2B SaaS content writer and marketer.
Company: Float
Noteworthy: She is currently a content writer at Float
Name: Tamilore Oladipo
What She Does: Content Writer at Buffer.
Company: Buffer
Noteworthy: She is a Content Writer and Marketer with over 4 years of experience in marketing and content creation. She’s worked with companies across several industries including B2B Saas, Social Media, Health Technology, Productivity, and UX Design.
Name:Faith Uzuegbu
What She Does: Content Marketing Manager at Saas Group
Company: Saas Group
Noteworthy: She is also a Freelance SEO Writer and creates engaging content backed up by unique insights from subject matter experts, fact-checked research, and a solid understanding of your business goals.
Preparing for the interview process
Faith discusses how she prepared for her interview with Animalz. She mentions an important tip is researching the company and its background. Stella mentions reaching out to employees of the company to know more about the company could be helpful as well.
Don’t apply for Jobs as an African, apply as a global citizen.
Tamilore explains that when she was looking to leave her job at animalz, she decided to change her mindset on applying for jobs. Not looking at jobs as a Nigerian but as a person in general.
Finding Remote Work
After Tamilore lost her job and Stella couldn’t get freelance work during the pandemic, they decided to look into remote work and rethink their careers. They give insights on how one can get their first remote content marketing role
Red flags of a bad work environment.
As people of color, the ladies share instances where they’ve been in bad work environments. Racial undertones and why as people of color from developing countries, we should never accept a really low salary based on our location. Stella also shares the minimum pay people should accept. They also share why you should never compromise your mental for a job
Dealing With Rejections
The Ladies share their experiences with rejection while applying for content marketing roles. They talk about the importance of feeling the emotions that come with rejection and how they’ve handled they handle it.
Build strong content writing portfolios.
Tamilore shares that her portfolio from all her freelance work helped her land her job at animalz and that having a strong writing
The importance of upskilling!
The ladies discussed how they took many SEO and content marketing courses. This was a major game-changer when they started applying for remotes.
Where to find Jobs
Content marketing courses
Faith Uzuegbu 0:02
See, then I need to make extra cash. And while I needed to make extra cash, I will talk to a friend who was writing, he introduced me to writing SEO articles. The pay was very terrible. I think it was 500 Naira for 2000 words. So it was just but I mean, 500 Naira was seems reasonable money then. So I took it, I was writing an article per day. And then after school, I just continued using writing as a side hustle for the longest time, I tried to get like a corporate job, you know, this access bank GT, but for some reason wasn’t working. So I kept on freelance, just writing and picking up small side gigs here and there.
I think I had this job where I was writing two articles a week with social media content and all for 20,000. There. And along the lines, I got like a freelance, right SEO rights and rule for a Nigerian organisation. That was like, the money was significantly higher than what I was coming from. So it was reasonable money. And that’s when I started to understand that, okay, companies were actually, I mean, using SEO writing for their business. And that was where I progressed from. I think sometime in 2020, I was already getting frustrated, because I felt like an outsider in the company I was writing from for, they’ll just send a topic, I’ll have to write it. So I didn’t really understand what they were using the content for the results, the content was getting for them, all of those things.
So I got curious, because I wanted to really have a more robust view of how content works in businesses. So I started to research on what companies use use content for. And that was when I stumbled on content marketing as a term. I didn’t know what it meant. So I just kept seeing people’s posts on LinkedIn, I started to research I saw that people were actually having content marketing as a career. In organisations Head of Content, I’d started to understand the career path for content marketing. And it just seemed like most of the organisations that had more established content departments were all India abroad, like, I didn’t see any Nigerian organisation that had content well established. So that was how I started to apply for remote roles. I didn’t really know what I was doing.
When I started, I just sent out my CV, I was applying for everything apply for director of content, I was applying for content intern, I was just trying my CV all over the place. And I got a lot of rejections because, I mean, the CV was not reasonable at that time. And it was not tailored to do like anyone anything, I was just getting rejections sending my CV. And then sometimes I think December 2020, I got like, one of the companies I sent my CV to randomly responded to me. And they said I wasn’t qualified for the role I wanted, but they had an SEO writer Junior role. And then that was how I got my first remote job, even though it was freelance. And we started to upskill from there and landed my row at animals. I talk about upskilling to find the right clients.
So my upskilling process was basically guess when I got the first freelance Shula, the organisation, I got to work with an editor, I got to set out to understand how keywords work, how to choose topics, for writing content. And I started to basically get involved in the industry sign up for newsletters, join Slack channels that were relevant. And because I was really curious, and the organisation I was with was the meeting, I started to teach clients for freelance work so that I’d have the opportunity to practice what they had already learned. Then it was when I started to land clients, it was just like my playground, if I read something in a newsletter, or if I read something in a blog post, I would have the opportunity to try it out for a client. And it was while I was reading all the random stuff about content marketing that I came across an article on the animals blog, and it piqued my interest in the organisation. When I said my application to animals, I wasn’t really, I mean, I thought I was gonna get a response.
I was I just felt like okay, at least let me just try my luck, that kind of thing. But apparently I had more experience than I was giving myself credit for. So, got the interview, got to the interview process, did a lot of research about the organisation and basically it took some time so back and forth, but I landed the role For my interview process, I think one thing that could have helped a lot was researching the organisation. Stella and Tammy, have not met, we’ve not met formally, but maybe if they think but they would have noticed that someone was always checking out their profiles, I was in a lot of background research and people that watch the organisation tried to see the kind of work they were putting out and just trying to understand the qualities that the organisation was looking out for.
And I think that was really helpful because even though I didn’t reach out to anyone directly to say, Oh, I am interviewing animals, and I need your opinion on how this thing works, I think I was able to learn a lot from just learn informally from trying to look at profiles of people who were there, check out their posts, check out the kinds of articles they had on their profile, and just see what the organisation was looking out for. And then I’ll just jump to negotiating or finding the offer or settling, that’s an offer that is good for you. For me, one of the things I really wanted when I was looking for my remote role was the place that I would have the opportunity to learn from other content marketers. And that was what animals represented for me, and which was really why I took the opportunity that I got it.
So in terms of legacy, it’s and I’ll say one, you should always check out the if there is no pay in the job ad, then try to check out the industry average for whatever role you’re applying for that was something I did. And when the animals are like a range on the job ad. I would also say apart from the money apart from making sure that you get in the best offer monetarily, you should also look at other perks that come with the role. And apart from the pecs, also look at the opportunities with the role. And it’s possible that I role might not pay you so much or might not be paying the opera tear of the industry standard, but maybe provide an opportunity for you to learn, then you can use to upskill in the future. I think that’s all for my presentation. Just hand over to Tammy for has. Thank you.
Tamilore Oladipo 7:15
Hello everyone. My name is Tamilore Oladipo. And I am a content writer at Buffer, which is a social media management app. So I am a woman in tech, officially as of February 22, as to how I got started in content marketing. I, like many people, I lost my job during the pandemic, I was working as a creative Junior creative strategist at Post Nigeria, which some of you may know. I very much didn’t like under know about content, marketing or anything. So in two years, a lot has changed or about nearly two years now. And I lost my job in April of 2020. And it was a weird period for me because I had never been without something to do. So I was either like in school or doing internships or things like that.
So that was like time for me to reset necessary now that I look back on it. But you couldn’t have told me anything back then I was miserable. For like a home was obviously, the pandemic and everything, there was nothing else to do. So I kind of had to use that time to rethink what I wanted to do with my career. Um, a couple of job offers that I had at that time had fallen to. So there was really nothing happening for me. And I had to sit back and say, Okay, what can I do? Like immediately that doesn’t require too much of like, it doesn’t have such a higher barrier to entry, because people were recommending things like we’re including, and like, my brain isn’t wired that we have not a design person. I’m not a math person. Putting makes me feel miserable. So that that was an option for me. And the next best thing was content marketing, because I’ve always had an interest in writing.
It’s just always been part of my work or what I was doing in school or whatever. I’m just like personal interest. So content marketing came up. And I just jumped right in. I was discovering remote work at that time as well. And just like the possibilities with remote work, I had gotten a couple of freelance gigs, not of my own efforts. I really don’t know why those people reached out but seeing that happen, and then hearing the stories of like foreigners, because it wasn’t super it wasn’t like at that time in that April May. It wasn’t yet super popular to do remote work. There were a lot of concerns from people around me my prayer I have a family members and friends. But I was very much into it. So it was like there was nothing else there was no other option for me. And content marketing was the role that I chose was the paths that I chose in the space. So I did freelance gigs, with not too much success, like after those first couple of after the first couple of weeks, I did.
It was almost like, Okay, this is like the minor leagues, right? What do I need to know? to upskill? I guess is the best way to put it. What do I need to offer to people to get them to okay, this person can actually do this thing. So many job applications, many rejections, I can’t count them, I don’t want to count them.
Don’s think about that three months period before my first proper dig, where it was almost like, Okay, I know how to do this thing. Like, it can’t be that hard. Why does no one seem to want to give me a chance. That was when I really got to understand the value of having your portfolio. So I was working on like personal writing projects, nothing serious.
Like I was just writing whatever I had an interest in, and putting it together in equals folio just to show someone that this is how I write, like, it’s not like I write at all, I just need like a place to learn skills and stuff. So after a job interview that didn’t pan out, the recruiter recommended me for a freelance job that kind of kicked off my content marketing journey properly. So it was with this company called Kago. And it was health technology company. And they didn’t have any content people, any SEO people. So I kind of had to, like get my feet. And then my whole body weights, I’m learning on pages, you just like really doing the most, like so many crash courses in writing for that industry, the specifics, self editing, things like that. And it was that was in September of 2020.
So September, October, and November, which was when I applied to Well, I applied in October and got the job in November, I animals. And that was really when the content really, really took off for me. And I always like to say that no sales technology people, they helped me build my portfolio, it was almost like I use them for like to learn how to do the basic stuff that got me my job, or animals and animals was kind of the place where I really, really learned the skills. That’s where I built like content, my content, writing and research on PSU everything. It was very hard in those first few months because they have a very specific process.
I had never had an editor before. I had never written that volume of content before. So those first couple of months, I was kind of wavering like, Uh, can I actually do this, but it turned out that I could because I spent a year and four months there.
It was very valuable experience for me, I learned a lot of but towards the end of my time there about Tober 2021 I before that, I was starting to feel like it was time to move on goods in October I started applying a bit more seriously. And I was looking specifically for so animals paid pretty well. Like if you live in Nigeria and you’re earning an annual salary you are like set it’s it’s a really good salary. But I wasn’t looking to be in Nigeria and working in content, I was looking to just be a person working in contents.
When you limit yourself using like your location, your whatever skills it is, I think you do things that you can offer. It’s it kind of creates this mindset where you’re like, maybe I should just go for, you know, the I should only like pitch pricing. That’s I think I should it’s valuable for me, but like my time animals, meeting people, they’re connecting with other folks in content over the course of last year and very, very early this year, showing me that there is really no limit to how much you can earn in as a content like marketing manager. Companies are paying people like six seven figures to to manage their content from freelancers, internal folks.
And that kind of like helped me shift my mindset and say, Okay, what is the least salary that I can take from a company moving on. And then what is the highest salary they wanted for myself. And using that kind of helped me streamline what jobs I was applying for. I was specify, I was looking for very specific things, obviously, remote work. Companies that really prioritise your mental health and like taking breaks, just like having the Chad’s giving you space to breathe once in a while, because content is really not that serious.
If an article does not get published, nobody’s going to, it’s not like being in medicine, where if you don’t know how to sew somebody’s body back together, they may die or whatever, like, it’s not that deep. So I was really looking for a place that prioritise content, and would give me space to come up with my own ideas, and share them and execute them. But also, like, didn’t take it too seriously to the point that you almost feel like, this is your whole life. I didn’t want that out of my next school. And when I found all those things, a buffer.
Buffer is like really well known most workspace as a company, that kind of pioneers, a lot of things that are unconventional, so they’ve been fully remote since day one, they have a four day workweek, like minimum time off is 21 days, people get sabbaticals after six years. And then all the other tech perks that come with working at a company like that. So it was kind of a perfect fit for me. I interviewed with many companies in that, from October to end the end of January 2022, when I signed my contracts with offering interviewed with probably hundreds, if not hundreds, I applied to maybe hundreds of companies interviewed with 10s of them. But buffer was kind of the one that just kept on working out.
Every time I would pass like a stage I was like they can’t possibly move in the next stage. But they did. And now it’s it’s kind of like the perfect fit. Like there was really no other option for me at this point in my career. Obviously, they pay really well. And one thing that like when it comes to finding high paying jobs, transparency is becoming more and more popular.
So you may want to, like reprioritize, finding companies that don’t hide those things like they don’t make it like so difficult to find out what you could potentially repeat that company that’s become some people are weird money, especially when you’re first looking for your first role in content or in any industry. But I think it’s super important to have standards, have things that have things that you will not go have.
Write out what you want out of your like dream job, and don’t compromise those standards or don’t compromise on them too much. Depends on where you are your career. I will be the first tell you that in those early days, I would have taken anything. So yeah, that’s kind of my journey so far. I don’t know if I guess I can move on.
Chima Mmeje 18:52
Yeah, yeah. You’re next.
Stella Inabo 18:55
I turn it off again. Okay, so I came here with the whole presentation. Wonderful. Okay. I had to make some changes. So I hope like all the slides. Okay. Chima, you have Yes, I
Chima Mmeje 19:12
have. I have I have. I have.
Stella Inabo 19:14
Okay. Okay. Okay, that I see cars. Yes, I did see my slides. Let me just turn this off. So presenting. Sorry. Okay, so I’m Stella. Stella Naboo. I’m a content writer at fluids. Fluids is a software company in the US and as they’re working there couple of months ago, maybe like four or five months. So this is my journey. When I started out as just writing like, I was writing anything. Articles, social media copy I didn’t even know The students were in category just like give me money. And I’ll write what you want.
So the first gig I landed, I think that was the second one, actually. But I always remember it’s because of how we paid it was one euro per word. So if I write 1000 words, I’ll get 1000 there. And then the turnaround time was like, you could get a job in the morning, and then you’re supposed to send it in, in the afternoon. And sometimes you don’t even get paid. So it was, it was really bad. But I learned a lot from that wouldn’t recommend it for anyone. And so I’m freelancing with an agency in Malaysia. And this wasn’t like, I didn’t even know that was what was called like, freelance rights, and I was just writing for them. And then they stopped giving me work when COVID started stopped answering my emails, I was like, Oh, my God, okay. I need to make money. Because I NYC was about to end. And I know the Nigerian drug markets. There’s no way I’m getting a job with my degree.
So and now started to read about freelance writing. And I came across the course, I think, by Jacob McMillan, and it was about $50 them. So I use my money I remember like feeling so down, don’t spend so much. But he’s my money paid for it. Because I joined his group, I started to learn about cold pitching, reaching out to people. And everything, then long got my first two b2b SaaS clients and the pitch so well, I was like, Okay, this is the job for me.
Then I was during the time I was working with these companies that I started like learning about content marketing, and started taking courses from HubSpot anywhere I could find I was consistently reading and just like trying to understand how this industry worked and the things I needed to do. And then at some point, I realised that yes, I was writing, I was doing okay, but I didn’t have I was very detached from what I was writing, like, as a freelancer, sometimes, especially when you work with clients that don’t really think it’s important to share things about the product or their strategy with you.
You’re just like writing one off pieces. And I didn’t feel like I was growing. So I had come across contents, my animals before I spent a lot of time on their blog. So when I saw that they were hiring, and they had hired a Nigerian, that, Tommy, I was like, Okay, this, there’s a chance that I could work here. So I said to my application, which does insomniacs does some questions, and I put in a water animals for here plus animals like, so good. Because I learned from my editors, I learned to collaborate with other people was uninteresting and amazing, right. And then I decided that I would want to learn content strategy. And I really, I didn’t really get that opportunity while I was unmount. So I moved on to a an in house rule at flute getting into flutes was I would say it’s a miracle. And just stay with me here. Here’s the thing. So I interviewed for this role, after like getting a whole lot of rejections. And they actually rejected me.
So, but then after, they sent me an email telling me that also say it’s good. And at that time deeds, because this person is more qualified, the Director of Marketing reached out to me we had talked previously, and we had had a conversation. Before the I got the rejection letter. He was like, You know what, I think there’s no rule for you right now. But I’m going to create a rule for you, and then send you an offer letter before the end of I mean, by the start of next week, and Sunday night, I got an email from her and she was offering me a content writer role at fluids, and my god, the salary was so good. And also there were other perk sets at the company, too. So it’s I’ve moved on into in house rule. So while I was looking for a job, it’s it’s I went through like a lot and it’s like standard when you’re job hunting.
But like when you are job hunting from a country that is still there, from a developing nation or from a different person of colour outside us and everything. It’s the odds are stacked against us. I got a lot of rejections that were based on my location. And then sometimes I get off and they’re like, Oh, you live in Nigeria. So well. We think this should be your salary. I know I live in Nigeria, but like, I’m still doing the same work as someone else.
Why do you want to pay me lower? Then do a lot of questions about my results and experience that zombie People don’t believe you can look the way we do and be good at what you do some people even question like, Oh, you are my English like, oh, you speak really well, and was just really weird. But the good thing about those things were that those anytime someone did something like that, it will just be like a red flag for me like, okay, maybe this company is not the best fit for you. Yeah, I was gonna study a lot. So building the skills, building my skills, rather.
So I, when I started out writing, I was just writing like SEO, I didn’t even know that was important. But as time went on, I started to see lots of Emphasis within the content marketing community about SEO. So I started reading about the two courses. And then I was, I was a bit more vocal back in a few years ago. So I was sharing like, oh, this what I learned today, or this is something they trade. So that helped me meet other freelancers gives them to communities. And then like, sometimes people are even looking for jobs. And they’re like, so sharing like job offers and someone who like tag me, because you know, that’s the lives trying to do this, or she’s learning about this, or she has done this. Then I started noticing like trends like in content marketing, people are interested in SEO and content strategy.
I’m sorry, copywriting. So rather content writing without special SEO knowledge and content strategy, knowledge was not enough. So I was like, You know what, I don’t want to just be a content writer. I want to learn content strategy. So I boycotts from Chi master reading, as I’m building those skills and talking about this things during interviews, or like with people helped open doors for me, and I, and then I was always on look for courses, and just trying to spend money on educating myself and making myself grow better. So I’m finding jobs, or rather, let me just talk about like my job job hunting process. So when I started at first, it was just like, just apply, go to LinkedIn, look for work there. Anywhere you find just send application, I was getting a lot of rejections.
So one thing I started doing was I started taking note of like, details about the job offer, is it remote in the US or remote, all around the world. So I started searching like remote specific job boards, and making sure that it was remote like open to everyone all over the world. Then another thing that helped me while I was looking for a job was asking about compensation early in the process phase also mentioned, it’s very important, you know, how much I get into that you don’t put yourself to everything, because he might even write a test and everything and then do not come and say, Oh, we’re going to pay this amount, and it’s not worth anything, it doesn’t make any sense. So it’s best not to put yourself through the situation, or spend or waste time on working on stuff that
well, you’re not going to get any reward for then another thing that helped me like find companies that would hire me that will be open to hiring me or places that I really want to work in was checking Glassdoor reviews, I was trying to see, okay, Are they fair about how the people’s work, please good things like that. And they also, if you’re looking for a remote job, he helps to go to the team page and check what’s like the composition of that same ad, mostly white people living in America or UK or Canada, if you see things like that, it’s very high chance that they will not want to hire. So it’s much better just to focus your efforts somewhere else, then you can also reach out of people who used to work there, people are working, I’m like, Okay, how is working here? Like? Do they support remote work? Do they pay you well, things like that people? Not everyone was willing to jump to talk further. But some people will. And then also I think either here but you should look out for companies that have like diversity and efforts like they’re looking to hire people outside their country. So I’m talking about how I got into flute or like, finding the right job for me.
Well, I think I jumped when I think interview, okay, I’ll get to that. Let me just look at like, how I found the job. That was good for me. Okay, so when I started working at the agency, I learned a lot. There was just a lot of things to learn, and collaborating people was good and I learned from it into as well. But the thing about working on agency is that if you’re not used to pushing content out at a very fast pace, it could wear you out I’m gonna wear you out. So at some point I realised that I would need to slow the pace down. And also just find the place that maybe I get paid more for writing less. So I now started to look for work.
And I’m Tommy kind of inspired me because she was my onboarding where the animals would have, like so many conversations. And then she was just like talking about how she had dreams and the things that she wanted to. So when she left and mouse as they’re applying for jobs, so I checked for places that had like good salary, support Harimoto. And then there were opportunities for growth, I also checked for companies that took care of their staff mental health, and supported people who looked different, and were from different places. And that’s how I found the job at flips. The one thing I love about this job was that is that they’re constantly on my site. And it’s very important to find a place like this so that you don’t feel like the other person. For example, when I joined the company, part of the cyber security training is to watch a video on individual meeting like a reference to a Nigerian prince, and I’m Nigerian, and being in the company.
And just knowing that there’s this notion that you might be fraudster, it made me feel very uncomfortable. So I immediately tweets about it. And my manager, and the head of security reached out to me on the apologised and said, Do try and make changes about that. And then just having that support, just knowing that people actually cared about how I felt was, it made a huge difference on me and made me feel like, okay, this job is actually really great. And we have like, a lot of breaks this support for you when you’re not feeling fine, and things like that. Okay, so it’s in the interview process.
When you finally land an interview, I think it’s very important to pay attention to details go. I when I was interviewing for jobs, I would go spend like 30 minutes before the interview, and just trying to learn about the company so that I understood their product. And obviously, you know, everything. So I tried to ask lots of questions. And questions are not just about compensation, was about what it was like to work there. And I also wanted to understand like, is this a place that I could grow, and my developers and marketing team, because I understand that I’m still like, early in my marketing career, so I don’t want to be like a one person marketing team.
So it’s asking a lot of questions or who is reviewing my work? Who is managing me and different things like that, because if you want to grow, you need to have a very good man. Manager, I was in a lot of slack groups that featured removed marketing jobs. So not only would they find jobs there could also ask questions like, Okay, if you are hiring for this role, what would you look out for and things like that, and then sometimes it gets really tired. And so it gets really tiring. And you you just feel exhausted. So it’s okay for you to like, reach out for help. And I had the support group, I had friends. And I could just tell, during that time, I just said, I’m tired. I do want to, like, look for a job and module like knows that I keep going. And that really helps me. So yeah, that is the let me just does the end of the presentation. I am looking forward to your questions.
Chima Mmeje 33:34
All right. Yes, this was this was really good. So I’m going to, I want to play devil’s advocate and ask the questions that you guys did not want to answer, which I can understand. Let me put on my Sirius glasses. First of all, please turn on your camera. You guys want to know your camera? And unmute yourself? Yes. All right, I’m going to start from the top and make my way down to the bottom. Now let’s talk about choosing where to apply. Because I think that’s something that can really help to cut through the noise. And I think that’s something people struggle with people know the obvious. washers have indeed and Glassdoor is that like others like the only two places? Were looking for remote contact rows? So coming? I can see you nodding your head know where should you be looking for rows?
Tamilore Oladipo 34:25
Definitely not indeed and Glassdoor those places make it so stressful to look for. Content jobs, I think specialised newsletters slack groups like So I mentioned the newsletters one has been so valuable for me I saw the buffer when a newsletter and applied like on the sports. I was about to go out. I’ll never
Chima Mmeje 34:49
use that as I’m
Tamilore Oladipo 34:51
very much. What Hello remotes and I’m Carlos I will look for it well hello remotes what contents writing jobs which is just called content writing jobs.
Chima Mmeje 35:14
If you just asked me chatting, I’ll just like put those in the chat so that one can see can see it so just put those in the chat that was very helpful. Yes because I I feel like indeed is full of scammers if I’m being honest
Stella Inabo 35:34
I’m actually I found my job. That’s the job but fluids or calluses newsletter?
Chima Mmeje 35:44
Yes, because, yes,
Stella Inabo 35:46
let me join
Chima Mmeje 35:49
saturated places. So of the places that have less competition. Yes, please. So he put out in the chat section. Everybody else can jump on me.
Stella Inabo 36:01
Yeah, I’m looking for a job board right now. Yeah. Oh, sure. Yeah, he has a job board.
Chima Mmeje 36:09
Yeah, got a really cool
Stella Inabo 36:10
company called otter. So it’s like, yeah, yeah, yeah. The sauce jobs for using AI. So you just put him like requirements, stuff about you. And then you can find jobs, and then they send you alerts every time a job is posted. So I’ll share auto sales homepage right now. And then I’m still looking for the journey. To avoid tasting sorry, just to
Chima Mmeje 36:45
be sure to check and make sure that I said to host our panellists so everyone can see it. Okay.
Tamilore Oladipo 36:52
Yes. The second one I shared is it doesn’t really have many jobs on it right now. But it’s the job board of Tracy like curated by Tracy Wallace, who is like super good at content. So I like looking forward to what she populates with basically, this method just helps as Jemma said cut through the noise. These people have gotten the research they’re aware of what these companies are like so chances are they’re not sharing gigs or companies that are going to undercut people Yes.
Chima Mmeje 37:29
Thank you so much.
Stella Inabo 37:31
And also within slack groups, just good so
Chima Mmeje 37:36
specific with like Slack groups, I know, you have a really good slack bot and marketing woman, I think spelled M MKTG. Who market to man has like really good, really, really good slap job because it’s posted directly by hiring managers, which means that you talk to the hiring managers directly about the role. So that is so awesome. Okay, this is the name of the stack group marketing event. Really, really awesome slack group there.
Yes, I know many tickets you I think, if you have any content or SEO, you should be there because they have a job session and again, it is posted by the hiring managers directly. So you know, we are not like going through some long process Yes, speaking directly to the person who is fit for the role. And that gives you like an in on the spots there. Okay, yes, please, if you have any other slack groups that you think people should join panellists please put that on the chats thank you so much. Okay, next question. While that’s going on, let’s talk about rejection. I like to say
I like that but seriously, I’m a big fan of the good the bad and the ugly because I’m not gonna lie I just assumed that you guys just like applied for roles and just got them one time I had no idea any of you had
like squeeze
Tamilore Oladipo 39:15
in the stories
Chima Mmeje 39:18
though why it is so important to talk about rejection. So there are three aspects to rejection I think that people need to learn because rejection can really fuck with your mental health I’m sorry I used to I was but yes, we were never really went in house because I’m not very good with dealing with rejection my my headspace can’t handle that. So you guys, I just want you to
Tamilore Oladipo 39:42
I’m sorry. People are saying they can’t see anything in the chats. I think we are
Stella Inabo 39:47
posting it to
Chima Mmeje 39:49
each other to share with you and after so you guys please don’t worry about that. All of this when we post videos, everything that we’re sharing in chat will post them so don’t worry about if you can’t see them or not. It’s yeah. So rejection wise, I want to talk about three things. Prepping yourself for that headspace to receive rejection. I think it’s so important to me to be able to answer that question
for you fit to answer this question, also apply for jobs. How do you feel? I want to really go into that? How does how do how does rejection makes you feel? And how do you find the strength to apply again? No, you you’ve been rejected. Stella, you talked about applying for roles, and I really liked the way you pinpointed issues. That’s the reasons why I kept getting rejected. Being black being Nigerian, someone actually saying, Oh, you can speak English, all that stuff. There’s also like red flags to watch for. It’s not just rejection. It’s also rare claps I want you to also to talk about that. To look for when you grow. So Tammy, you’re one of my other half my brain is met. So Tammy, I forgot to the question. I said they’re going to answer.
Tamilore Oladipo 41:10
I think it was like getting into the headspace knowing that.
Chima Mmeje 41:15
Yes, yes. And fate is talking about how it makes you feel. And then Stella is talking about to look for. Alright, Tommy, kick us off.
Tamilore Oladipo 41:32
So I think context is important. For for the headspace topic. I was not like I had never been rejected before. 2024 jobs. So every internship that I wanted, I go to every lots of works are working at UVA, like I was literally about to sign an offer was up, I had applied because someone said I should apply. I wasn’t like, why is my business with the bank, but they had a media media thing. They were like, Oh, Tom, will you be great for this role? And I was like, Okay, sure. So that’s just like to give you an idea of I was very confident about job applications. I was not like, I don’t know what rejection feels like, No, really. I applied to more University, and I go to, so I never asked so. And then twice as well as he calls and somebody says, Oh, yeah, I should check out remote work, you know, thank you for good content marketing, because you know, how to write and stuff. And then I started applying for jobs. And the thing is, I actually didn’t start out with rejections.
I actually did get callbacks. So there are people who would say, oh, yeah, this looks your experience looks interesting. And then the story of Oh, yeah, Nigeria, or no, unfortunately, you cannot. And then that was when that was my first taste of Nigeria being like a serious blockage before it was just things with money that could be overcome with a few loans here and there. And then here, it was, just by virtue of being here. So it wasn’t that they weren’t even hiring. globally. It was that was Nigeria. And that was a problem. I don’t know if there was any races on that turns I don’t like to think about. So that’s probably where, but I again, don’t think too much about that.
So yeah, that was my first experience with rejection in 2020. And it was very hard. So to protect myself 2021 After I got my job, or animals was kind of like, I spent so long learning that I wasn’t thinking about job applications anymore. So it was kind of like all that stuff faded away. And when I was ready to start thinking of starting to apply again, I kind of remembered that feeling, how bad it made me feel. So I I like steeled myself, just like every time I would send out an application because this time I had a bit more of an like I had more options I was applying to for in house rules. So I was very, very specific.
What I wanted out of my next rule, like I was not taking any there was no need for me to rush to go anywhere. So I wasn’t under any pressure. And then the worst rejection I’ve ever had Asana, the company Asana. They reached out to me like two days after I played, and they were like, because I had seen that. Oh, they were trying not to miss work stuff. So I expected obviously, firstly, that it was open to everyone, but it wasn’t. So I hopped on a call with the recruiter. She was like oh you expect It is great, you will actually be a great fit for the show.
Yeah, exactly what we’re looking for. But you don’t live in every country. And this happened multiple times, it got to the point where like, they would send an email saying that if you are ever in the US, but if you ever find yourself in the region, in this region, the UK, the EU, to so many places, and it stopped being about my lack of skills and experience, because by that time, I had built the skills, built the experience, built a portfolio, that was why I was so confident. So I just started telling myself tender, and just companies they’re not. They’re not, there’s not the end of the world.
That’s the end of the world. And I also started being very, very selective about what I was applying for. I have like a spreadsheet. I had a notion tracker. I had all the things. Thankfully, I the buffer process took a very long time. Actually, I played in October, and they got back to me in November. So November, December, January, I didn’t start until February. So it took about four months for me to start over. So technically, if I had just applied to buffer and gone through the process without focusing on anything else, I would have been fine, historically, but because I was applying for that things.
It’s messed my head. But yes, stealing yourself to rejection is so important as a Nigerian, you don’t realise how much you’re just yeah, here. That’s the problem. That’s the problem. It’s not the fact that you do have skills, it’s not the fact that they cannot even pay you. It’s not that because it’s payments. So many companies are like making it easier to pay people than much work. Yeah, so it’s not about that it is the fact that you are here, literally just been in Nigeria is a blockage. So prepare yourself before you start applying before anybody tells you to tell yourself that okay, I’m Nigerian, and I’m in Nigeria. Okay. No, I’m Nigerian, but I’m in Nigeria. So that is a negative. Against you already. Have that in mind as you are playing, I’m praying to God. For that someone you will overlook that.
Chima Mmeje 47:27
Yes. Yeah, I think it doesn’t just affect Nigeria, as this affects black people, Brasky people, because I’ve had the same thing for people who live in India, in Kenya, for people who, anybody who lives outside Europe or America, even in Colombia, in Mexico, as long as you’re not living in a country dominated by white people, you’re going to face this issue. So it’s not just me, that’s just Nigeria, as Africans, there is no African that has not faced this issue, because I remember we had the FCC meetup in Nairobi, and everybody was basically saying the same thing. The same thing with location, the same thing would be in Africa, and it’s interesting colour. So yes, it’s applies to everyone else. Alright. It’s okay. I have a very heavy question. So
Faith Uzuegbu 48:15
rejection makes me feel and how do I bounce back? Yeah, I think like Tammy did for context. Like, when I was trying to upskill, I was pitching freelance clients, and applying for in for full time roles. So I wasn’t really having a full experience of rejection. I mean, freelance clients. When a respondent a particular incident, I want to References, there was a role I found out, I don’t know top of the funnel, Slack channel, the post that they wrote for content marketing manager, I reached out to the person who posted it, I got an interview. I did the first interview, got feedback, I moved to the next stage, I did it, it was all good.
I was almost 100 person sets and that I was going to get the role. Because I mean, for my last interview, I was being asked to I like to travel to I’d have many countries have I travelled and the company was really into travelling and stuff. And I was really excited if I was prepping for my travels. And they said, it was so excited about my experience my work. I was 100% Sure I would get if I was just waiting to see the orphaned data. And then I did said I was supposed to do one final task. I did the final task. I turned in my work. And then on Monday morning, I felt so so funny because I just woke up from sleep and I picked up my phone, and I saw the email.
Now what was even more painful. It wasn’t really that I was rejected. It was a reason for the rejection. They literally said that there was no timeframe for the task that I took. through language, my task, and they had given me the offer to someone else. Like it was I read email, and it didn’t click as. And I had to check again. And I saw that they were actually for real that the reason what we rejected was, they said, Oh, that my work was really good, but they just made an offer to someone else. Just before my work came in, like, it didn’t make sense what it was. So I started to cry. I never cried that hard in my life.
I was literally really, because I just woke up and said, Well, why would you ruin my day like this, I was willing. And after weaning, I called my sister. And I mean, when I thought I had the tears, odour control, I called my sister. And as she saw that, I sent a screenshot of the email, and she saw it. And she just said, my name, I just continue doing that it was so painful, because I was really prepping for if I my head already had my LinkedIn announcement for the role, like, pleased to announce that app admits in it. If I were the number of people I was going to take and tag, so it was devastating.
And I even told myself that I wasn’t going to apply for any role, again. And that was when I double down on freelancing, thinking that okay, freelancing would give me some comfort. But that was, it was even worse, because it was a lot of ghosting. And people are responding. So it was really frustrated. At that point, I told my sister that I wasn’t going to apply for a job again, I was done with the content thing, I was going to quit, it was so bad that I went into my calendar, and I put a date to quit content marketing, and get a job with access bank or UVA, those are those emotions, I can get the job access. But I mean, I have a good result.
I just applied for their graduate trainee programme and all. And I was ready to quit it. But I think there’s somehow because of when writing is just something I really wanted to do. So most of them, I really just stay my quiet. Am I like, are you really sure you can work in the bank accounts when we wake up before nine o’clock, they will sack you after one week. Your only option is this content thing. So you have to make it work one way or the other. And an interesting story. I didn’t I didn’t. It’s not something I always mentioned when I applied to animals, and I got to the final stage.
I got a rejection from them. I mean, it was some if I think that that was one that broke me. And really the funny thing was, I mean, because animals recruits on a rolling basis. So I saw that the rule was to openers, like I got angry, I texted my sister like these animals I don’t understand what this company is like I’m done. I’m not doing the game ever should leave me alone kind of thing. And I still just found myself applying for the roles. And at certain point I just started to prep myself for the rejection. Like okay, you applied to athletes, they’ll reject you and tell you why they rejected you that became my motivation for applying if I apply if they reject me to shatter me why I was rejected, and I started to see it after so many rejections are saying that I wasn’t a genius.
I thought I was I started to see each application as a learning process. It wasn’t just about okay, I may not learn to roll but I may get feedback that can help me fine tune my application, how I send my CV, the things that highlights my CV and I think just shifting from that, going after the job to seeing it as a learning process that it’s helped me to just contextualise it like my sister always was the worst that can happen they reject to you apply for another word. And that just became my mantra, okay, send your application pitch the claim. They said you know what, we cannot work with you to move somebody else. That’s somebody work with you.
That became the way I started to approach the whole pitching or job hunting processor. In Oh, I would say, first of all, if you get rejected, allow yourself to feel there’s no need to lie. It’s not hard to win. If you have to feel the emotions cry if you want to cry, take a week, if you need to take me leads, get angry effects. Costs at the company. You don’t send them don’t cause them in price. But we can’t get somebody to say Yeah, especially so it’s hard. You put in work to the application.
They said no. And if it’s a company you’re really excited about you’ll be paid. take time off. Time heals everything over time. There will always be better roles. I read your applications I sent that I really thought that I would this company was perfect. And they said no. And then the next week I saw a job that was even more exciting that one I was hitting my head on the wall for so they’re always better for you. So but allow yourself to feel don’t lie. If you hurt it hurts, cry, scream, do whatever. Once you let it out, you’ll be able to be more rational about moving forward. So,
Chima Mmeje 55:00
if I feel like I need to clap for you for that, that you created, that was incredible. It’s actually a huge fan of feeling the emotions actually those big emotions, I feel like it wants to swallow you hold. I mean, you try to fit in it, because LinkedIn or Twitter, or this stupid tech girls, they will make you like, oh, pick yourself up and get going do this. And I received 3000 rejection email, I got my big who can handle 3000 rejections so it is a lot this advice of feeling it because it means they are not just shoving it somewhere else. Yeah, yeah, feeling the emotion. And that’s I really wanted to talk about rejection, because it’s a huge part of applying for roles and getting your dream job that people don’t talk about. So, thank you so much for being vulnerable and sharing that I still have red flags to avoid.
Stella Inabo 55:53
Um, yeah, number one has to do with money. Um, I run away from every company.
Chima Mmeje 55:59
Okay, now, Molly, tell us the minimum wage we should be looking at. Okay, wow, okay, minimum wage that if you did it online at less than just walk away? Okay. Um,
Stella Inabo 56:16
I’d say, hey, but you might not see subjective news
Chima Mmeje 56:22
that I posted, he says a wage that nobody should be upsetting. There is a way that nobody should be taking. Whether it’s American company or not, I don’t care the company is based there is a way if you have value, your skill even we’re just starting out there is a word you shouldn’t assets that are what is that you go for you? Which
Stella Inabo 56:41
put me on the spot? I’ll say anything. Hey, anything like
Chima Mmeje 56:46
below? 30k? That’s good. Yeah.
Stella Inabo 56:50
Yeah, anything below 30k? It’s, it’s no, it’s low. But this, this
Chima Mmeje 57:00
that’s because you have to look at it that you’re not like I like what Tammy said about does not seen as someone who is in Nigeria, but see yourself as someone who is a global talent. Any a rich commission rate is what they are paying their local employees in that. So you have to ask yourself, what would be a people that will make an American two back and say, Oh, my God, this is disgusting. This is this is a salted? Yes, that is what I always use in my own head. So I like that that’s the case. That’s like, maybe two pipe or something? No, it’s cool. Yeah. So anybody who’s listening, if you’re just starting out, and this is for if you’re just starting out, and it’s less than 30k. I’m sorry. Yeah, it’s,
Stella Inabo 57:44
um, and then like, if you see companies that are like, Oh, you live in this place. So you know, your standard of living, not that high. It doesn’t cost a lot of money. I don’t think you should work there. So the thing is that maybe yes, if you live in your local, so if you’re living in your country, and you convert armature and into your local currency, is going to be a lot of money. But think of it in these terms, motivation. If I know that I’m doing the same amount of work, and I’m getting paid maybe 2k a month, and someone else getting paid, it came in Monster because we live somewhere. I’m sorry, but I will not feel like turning up to work the next day, and things like that. It just grinds you down, just knowing that people don’t appreciate the work you’re putting in because no matter where you live, the job they are doing is bringing this company’s money. So why are they not paying you another to listen to me? So I’m getting all this?
Chima Mmeje 58:38
Yeah, but then
Stella Inabo 58:41
these companies, there are only few of them that maybe they bring their products to your country, they will reduce the price for your market. When you are coming to sell things. My Caggiano saying, Oh, well, you people I in Africa by Nigeria. So you people have this rates? Why is it as I’m leaving this country, you want to know reduce my rates, it doesn’t like it doesn’t make any sense to me. So anybody that is like location based pay, I’d say you shouldn’t work there. Because you will probably be ordered disparities and how they treat you and you treat people in other regions of the world.
Another thing to look out for during the interview process if like they’re very disorganised because I don’t as much as you want a job you want to work in a place which structure as for startups, shadows ones, they don’t really have structure but if you notice that there’s a lot of disorganisation, maybe they keep shifting dates, or they tell you that oh, you meet with this person you’re trans contact person and personnel strange then, like different just notice that the whole thing is not going so well. I feel like he’s just take a step back and ask yourself if this is the type of company he wants working, because I had an experience like now setting up these places looking.
I’ll probably go in there and also fail Not so I walked away from the den. If you noticed that during the interview, when you ask questions about, like, their company culture, if there’s like, oh, maybe the person can provide you a lot of details or details you’re providing, which is giving you this type of Amazon type of unlimited explain that, like, we must, we will suck the life out of you and maybe not paid out. Well, the pay engineers and Amazon well, both the ground workers in factories don’t pay them well. So if he’s giving that type of vibe, please walk away. Because as much as we focus on getting jobs, this the job you’re getting cannot suck the joy out of your life, you don’t want that.
So you need to know that the place they are going to work in devalue your time, the value of mental health, the value, you as a human being in general, see you as a commodity. I think another red flag is when notes is made danger. The person intervenes, may be condescending about where you stay. One comments can just set me off, I won’t actually like start shouting at you and call. But if I see you should see me in a way that makes me feel uncomfortable makes me feel inferior. How I walk away, I want to know that these people, my colleagues, like we’re on the same level, no matter where I live. So anybody that says something rude or fancy your country and so she will make a comment about how well you can speak English. Please do not. Yeah, I don’t think you should work with such people. Okay, I
Chima Mmeje 1:01:39
know. Yeah, it does. Really, really, really good tips. I think, I think the most important date and I can hear the questions on people’s mind. Why is mental health important? Like? I know it sounds like vague perks. Victus worrying about where thinking of money and how to survive and how to end but trust me, I am, I have that experience in my head from where I worked before. Secondly, in our job I ever did in content, it was a nightmare, a fucking bloody nightmare. It is important and you know what, you have to believe that you’re worthy of rows that supports will I call it the things that you think are on the fringe as much as you think the things you think are important, like money because everything is equally important. And it is all these things that make for a great working space and environment where you’re actually happy? Okay, I’m just gonna leave this at that. And then okay, Tommy,
Tamilore Oladipo 1:02:41
you can’t produce content. Creativity relies on information. With environments, you cannot produce quality content, you cannot do a good job. If you are stressed, it is literally impossible. There is nobody found who can produce good content under duress or their best work under duress. If you feel everyday, like waking up and doing your job, even if you just didn’t add contact openings, like you already fill in your palms are sweaty. I think that is hilarious what is not what to do, because by the time you leave that company, you will have well human beings we may be Niger as who I used to, like horrible conditions asked of bots, we are human beings. First and foremost, human beings are not built for such stressful environments, the long work hours the feeling that at any moment somebody can use the metaphorical sword does just drop into your head and you do not want to work environments like that. Trust me. Not not not great.
Chima Mmeje 1:03:46
Sorry. Yeah.
Stella Inabo 1:03:48
Well, related to that point. You shouldn’t avoid places that have unrealistic work, expectations like that. And you must do maybe three blog posts every day or something like that. Some people actually don’t know how content works. So they think like we just sit down we take things from Wikipedia and put them together and a blog post is born so people do not avoid displays and avoid stress because you will be overworked you will never get it
Chima Mmeje 1:04:23
they’ll never do probably
Stella Inabo 1:04:24
will not pay you well, because it’s always the people with money that will stress you less than the people that do so yeah, avoid places with unclear job description and job description. Nigel be seen some weird or realistic expectation. Yeah, those are red flags.
Chima Mmeje 1:04:40
Okay, so I’m good. Go through the questions from top to toe. When is the freelance metre podium? Officially there’s a freelance meetup going on in Lagos next year officially that’s going to be like our, the one that the FCC is going to deny that I will come to Lagos for that next year. Probably June, July, summer next year. Definitely there’s a few last bit of nextable. Right now it’s just a small meetup. Location is most likely going to be caged up. I’m going to make it post today. They put up a form everybody wants to attend. It’s going to be a Monday. Monday. Yes, they started on Monday.
So if you’re in Lagos, and you can make your way to Kenya, yes, something, just something small, you are going to buy your own drinks, because we’re not sponsoring that is just a space for everyone to like, meet up. Say, Oh, yeah. Oh, yes. You like content? Oh, you do design you do this just meet up with other freelancers. And just like have a good time exchange contact network, and ask any questions you might have, because she’s a big deal in the UK in SEO world. So that’s, that’s that about that? Okay, what kind of recruiters should content marketers be looking for when job hunting? That’s it? Okay, why don’t we just had a question that is going that is that is that definitely question I want us to answer. Our content writers also content marketers.
Personally, I would say no, no, I think there’s a lot to my content marketing. And here’s why I don’t use this term for myself, content marketer. I think there is there’s a full circle to content marketing that a lot of people don’t get. And it’s more than just content writing. There is the before of contents, which is the brain, which is the organisation which is choosing the keywords, figuring out how he’s going to how he’s going to stay in the cluster, distributing the contents. And what happens beyond even the contents, repurposing other stuff. That’s a content marketers job tracking results, giving feedback to the client and saying, This is what we have done. What about sales, I don’t think people understand that content can have direct impact on sales.
That’s the marketers job a writer just writes or sorry, I don’t say just write it write that. The writers job, ideally start and enrich creating content, the marketer is the one who does the rest of that full circle. So the content writer can be a content marketer, if they’re doing all these other things, but not if you’re just starting and ending with just writing content. No, you are not a content marketer if you just write content. Okay, I’ll leave for the rest of the people in the panels. The other panellists to give the idea I know that you market animals, you will call yourself content marketers is not something I’ve ever agreed with ever.
Stella Inabo 1:07:29
But Chima, like I’m most we do the some not all of us, depending on your level, like strategy. Do we optimization?
Chima Mmeje 1:07:39
Yeah. Yes, if you do that, then a content marketer, but if you’re just writing content, like all you do is you get debris from somebody and you execute that. I’m sorry, you’re a content marketer. Next question, what training courses would you recommend? Okay. Okay. One moment, tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu choo choo choo I realised why they were not seen it it was posting to just coast and finally so just among was what we should have done was put it on everyone so for that okay. Type as I’m typing this answer, I hope everybody can see their samples no double quotes double quotes. I was chat I just put everything there again. This is still going to go out when we post it. So don’t worry about that. Okay, let me to answer that question. She said what is she What is she accident? Causes? Alright, Stella mentioned um, what’s his name?
Stella Inabo 1:08:47
Jacob.
Chima Mmeje 1:08:50
Yes, I think Jacob teaches you about school pitching and all of that.
Stella Inabo 1:08:54
Yeah, so that’s more like freelance that’s filled with great
Chima Mmeje 1:08:59
contents. I think this woman who is British she’s she’s also Spanish forgotten her names. Oh my god, I forgotten her name, but she has a really good content as your content I think was like really, really good. She gave like 30 spots or so to the coalition. I’m going to try and find her name. I hope I’ll find a name I’ll put it hopefully if I find a name I’ll put it in the post whoever put me well, when you publish it she has a really good cause.
The problem is a lot of the courses are not stuff that most people can afford. I’m gonna be honest they can afford so. Anything we mentioned here all the really good courses cost at least 500 to 1002 I know about Facebook, you see like 2k 3k I’m not kidding. Take your courses day. There are 10k courses. So if you’re looking for free courses for content writing, quietly Oh content. Oh, okay. Switching from content to marketing. Oh, because it’s content marketing. Oh, yeah, I took hotspots content, inbound marketing costs.
That was because I took what I learned from that course. It is more than what many partition you paid courses, that email marketing costs. So please start with start there corksport inbound marketing costs, then you can take hotspots, content marketing costs. Those are like two really good free courses, then grand converts has a cost. I think it’s like 202 in something. And Google converts, those guys really get content marketing, like I love their blog along the way, right. So check out grand converter is affordable. I will recommend my course right now, my course is not affordable for anybody, but I’m bringing the price down to 125.
Working on moving it to a learning platform. So it should be affordable for everyone else that will have that will happen at the end of this month or next month. But from next month, I think you should mark for them for everybody to be able to buy my course at 125. I get a lot of messages from people say you have a payment plan. How do I pay small, small and I’m like, Okay, let’s make this affordable. So for next month, we want to inspire Tammy puts into courses here. Really great. I love this good. She’s like one of the best marketers on ads, but her cost is 1000 books. So I don’t know how many people can afford that.
Again, it’s money is the money. Yeah, it’s 1000 bucks she gave so she gave two spots to the coalition. We gave it to two people and they were just raving about because they were so happy. So thankful for all the land for me. It’s if you can, I would advise a Madagascar seriously, I would have asked Amanda Clarke boys 1000 books and I don’t know if we can afford that.
Stella Inabo 1:11:40
Okay. I just shared for about $100. I’ve been following this.
Chima Mmeje 1:11:45
Yes. Put it in that in that ponder that question. You can just type your answer on the boost question and just put a face you want to come into question, right?
Faith Uzuegbu 1:11:55
I wanted to say something like if you are you don’t have the cash? Yes. Take advantage of free courses and try to get an opportunity to learn get hands on knowledge. Yes. To put the knowledge into practice. Classes are nice. You can learn
Chima Mmeje 1:12:10
on the asset Stella? Sorry. OK, great.
Faith Uzuegbu 1:12:13
Classes are nice. And you can get a lot of value from courses. But I mean, if you can’t afford those really pricey and interesting courses, take advantage of the free ones. And then try to get hands on an experiment and break things. And you would get more practical knowledge I can speak to when do your interviews.
Stella Inabo 1:12:33
Sem rush acquired back Backlinko and the main brand Dean’s course free. So that’s
Chima Mmeje 1:12:40
a good one. Good one. Good one. Good one. Good one. That’s a very good one. Brandon is like very knowledgeable writing content around. That guy has cracked the code. Yes. Okay. Let me see. I want to ask I want to really like targets. Really good question. I’m going to take two more questions. And we’re done. Sammy, how do you approach applying for jobs after that animals? Did you apply directly? Or did you network a lot? How if you network the lots? How did you approach networking? Tammy? Do you really network online. Beyond
Tamilore Oladipo 1:13:17
at CCC, I recommend anyone building connections before it’s so invaluable
Chima Mmeje 1:13:23
that you see your day like
Tamilore Oladipo 1:13:27
I don’t like stress. I don’t stress is stress is my number one enemy. So anything that seems like it’s gonna stress me out to avoid this, which is why I don’t do like salary negotiation, I just added two jobs a period that you will like, I kind of wish Same with the way so if you’re like me, if you’re an introvert or anything like that, what I recommend is finding the spaces where people are really talking. So slack groups. I know we’ve talked about this, but I will always like push for you to join specialised communities find communities where people are really really having valuable conversations. Once in a while, send a message.
But it’s not necessary. Sometimes learning to just by being in that space is more than you know so much just by looking at people because somebody you ask a question that you’ve been thinking about but you haven’t been able to articulate and then you find your answer. So that’s that’s like networking, but networking, but it’s like networking by standing next to a group of people who are talking about
Chima Mmeje 1:14:37
it your mileage
Tamilore Oladipo 1:14:41
if you’re an introvert like me, best approach. How did I approach applying for jobs after I left I didn’t even know I was applying while I was animals. Nobody
Get you a we don’t we? Don’t. We are not Americans. We are not abroad people, people cannot afford it. You can’t afford. I could not afford to do my job on animals. And it wouldn’t have helped me anyway, it wasn’t remote job applications, like, chances are you can space out your interviews, not like you’re leaving your house, when you should I need to be interesting. Bylaws or whatever. So I don’t recommend leaving your job. Yeah. How did I approach it’s like the actual method.
I was very, very, didn’t do a lot of research. Apart from the newsletters, I would go and look at the type of content each company that I was applying to was publishing already. Because I didn’t want to go to a place where I have to, I wasn’t looking to do all the work, right? I’m very lazy. By nature, I don’t. I feel like I need to keep hammering on that buffer was buffer has like a massive contents library already. So what I was going to be doing there was experimenting, coming up with new content ideas, working with the different formats. I don’t work with social as a social media manager.
That’s not part of my role. But I contributed to have contributed to podcast scripts, I’ve started whole new series that never existed on the book, and that stuff is encouraged. So that was what I was looking for out of my next really chance to not do formulaic work. Now I see, like the value of having someone already, like the brief is already ready the keyword, somebody has done all the research for you. Now I have to do myself, which is why I’m not exactly a content writer, even though that’s what my title is, I’m more of like a full or fully branded content marketing manager because I handle end to end everything from ideation to strategy to publishing, writing everything.
But it’s worth it for me for your work week. So that tells you already that the distress is at least I can continue to then for this. And after that would be no more work for me, for example. So I was looking out for things like this. And I see here is LinkedIn premium worth is for job searching, I don’t think so. I have LinkedIn premium, because it helps me see who has looked at my profile, which can be important if I’m applying for a job. And I’ll see if the recruiter at that company has viewed my profile. So that happened a couple of times, I would see that people from that company, were looking at my profile after I had sent him application so that let me know that publication was being viewed or at least there was enough interest for them to click on my LinkedIn. But beyond that hasn’t really done anything for me. So it’s now it’s now where you should unless you have the spare cash. I don’t think the priority we have.
Chima Mmeje 1:17:57
So let me just preface this question. How did you build rapport with the data of McKesson to the extent that you will that they have a role for you, they created something for you.
She says a miracle, so your answer is a miracle.
Stella Inabo 1:18:21
I was like serious. I just went there normal person I talked. I think she said she liked my honesty. So me I was very open. And I’m very socially awkward. So like, as I was talking from Lindsay on time. So this, I think she just saw that I was very compressing. And then I was just telling her this are my expectations and my challenges. And I had worked within that space before. So I think maybe the impossible I don’t know how it happened. I’m not going to lie. It’s just that we had one conversation. And then she really felt like I would fit into the company ads. And then she created rules. I could do that. On the show, but I guess I was just myself trolls the conversation. And that helps. Yeah,
Chima Mmeje 1:19:13
who answers is a miracle and be yourself? Those are your answers. Final question. This is okay. I think this is very interesting. When you’re going full time and working remotely, how do employers track your progress? I had a little experience it’s called track where they track every project at work. I don’t think do they do that? They don’t do that when you work remotely that that’s definitely okay. If you have an employer who is doing that you have another red flag. That is if I don’t answer that question, that’s a red flag. No reasonable company is going to be using a software to be tracking your screen time to check I saw my to my yesterday on LinkedIn.
So I was on Twitter, who made a post talking about how she tracks an employee’s screen time and I’m like everybody was becoming like this one is crazy because nobody does that just tell you how you say that was no reasonable employer tracks screen time. You get put deliverables and they deliver within the set time. That is it, how they how they decide to spend their time. Within that period. It’s nobody’s business. So I hope that answers that question. Okay, that’s is one of the taking any more questions? Tammy, Stella fades. Thank you so much for this session. I’m so sorry. run over by two in five minutes. Forgive me for that. I hope you had fun with this with this session. I really hope you enjoyed your time here. Alright, if you guys have any more questions for Tammy, please shoot it over on Twitter. Tell me what’s your Twitter handle? Tell me all that.
Tamilore Oladipo 1:20:45
Very basic. Just you know my name.
Chima Mmeje 1:20:49
Can you put that can you put that in the chat and make sure it goes to everyone just put it in the chat box? Make sure you’re clicking on everyone does? Yeah. When you don’t have everyone? Yeah. Okay, that’s it. And then I will read I will post it for you to everyone. So still up putting your chat your Twitter handle fades, please put your Twitter handle and I will post it to everyone. Yes. I carry them a copy that. Everyone.
Tamilore Oladipo 1:21:22
Send your questions to me. I’m not the best. That’s like responding. I’m trying to limit my time because I spent so much time on social media so much time. We’ll send it and when I see it’s
Chima Mmeje 1:21:35
yes, yes, please. So if you have any questions for any of them, please just send it to them on social media. And they will answer you
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