Warm greetings!
In this very first article (on my blog) I’m gonna be talking a bit about my background and how small “things” resulted in “big” experiments (for me).
After reading this article you’re not gonna be expert at content.
Now.
Let me tell you a story about the beginning. Some fifteen billion years ago, our universe began with the mightiest explosion of all time; the universe expanded, cooled, and darkened. Then, there comes “me”.
So, I’ve always been good at writing probably for me lacking social skills. I was always the “tiger behind the keyboard” – I was better at writing than speaking.
Since the school years I would always keep a diary – I would write about nonsense daily – what grade I got today from the math class and such kind, but of course, as I grew older, my “problems” changed 🤪.
Then the university comes. In the first year, I was taking general English course where we had Reading/Writing and Listening/Speaking courses. The purpose of this course is to prepare students to take the undergraduate courses which are taught in English.
I’d watch minimum two movies in English every day since the first day at university, even though I could barely understand them (without subtitles, that’s important). Plus, I started writing my diary in English. Now, when I read that old stuff I fall laughing. Lots of incorrect use of words, grammar mistakes, long long long sentences just to explain a thought. But at least, I was writing. And, I started to think in English. When I talked to myself, I’d talk in English.
Though I was bad at exams, I was better at English than my classmates.
The “Academic Writing” courses were the only courses I was getting “A” and “A+”. The rest, don’t even ask.
My junior year – that’s the beginning of my “career” 🤪. Since I wasn’t taking money from my family, I needed to make it on my own. At that time, I was doing murals but wasn’t enough for me, the income wasn’t steady and I needed to start my day with Paul’s Americano.
It was 2018 July, I applied to one internee program (general position at an eCommerce project) at one of the famous tech companies in Azerbaijan. I had zero knowledge about eCommerce, I had to Google it before interview, imagine. I was studying International Studies btw; it is not an excuse but anyways.
I was invited to the interview, but the person that was going to interview me didn’t show up. I waited about 15 minutes max, lol, I wasn’t patient. I came back home, wrote an angry email that what an irresponsibility and unprofessional behavior. I was angry, OK? :D. Some minutes later I got call with an excuse and been invited to the interview again for the day tomorrow. I met M.J., My first “boss”.
First day at work: He, M. said you’re gonna be writing blog posts. I had never ever wrote a blog post.
No wait, just remembered. When I was 8th grade at school, I was a big fan of FC Barcelona, I had some ghost articles about Messi and Barcelona on Big.az 🤣 See? I was meant to be THE content girl.
OK, I started to write.
It was summer, and ever I know myself, I hate summer, every day I was coming to work with “Imma quit today” in my mind, every effing morning. This 3 months long intern program was unpaid and I had to walk to work everyday.
mEaNwiLe, as I was writing, I could find lots of mistakes from the previously written articles, suggest my own ideas and getting accepted.
Couple of weeks passed, M. introduced “SEO”. It was the first time I heard “SEO”, he sent me some materials to learn. I learned, I started doing SEO for products and blog posts I was writing.
I was enjoying the learning and doing process.
One day, it was late at night I remember, I texted M. with excitement “our product X is on the first page of Google”. So, I could do it.
Every day I was learning something new from M. in both personal and professional way.
Let me clear a thing out: your first boss is a crucial point for the rest of your life to grow not only professionally but also personally. So, the M. was very understanding; he understood that I was introverted and shy, keeping lots of things myself. He was able to see who I was. I worked there til 2020. The reason I left was that I wasn’t allocating enough time to that project, and I was feeling bad for this. But I never lost contact with M. Time to time we meet and talk about stuff.
In 2019 march, I had already two jobs: freelance artist and blog writer. I needed more. I remember it was “Perspectives on Human Rights&Democracy” class, I was bored, I was surfing on the net, I came across a blog writer vacancy. I applied right away. Been interviewed, had my test writing, bla bla, I got the job. It was a digital agency specialized in website building and design, content production, and SEO services. I learned the SEO deeper, got better at writing. Since in that eCommerce project there was no one to review my writings, I wasn’t improving myself enough. But here, I’d get lots of comments and corrections.
Now, I had 3 jobs.
It’s the beginning of May 2019. I was looking through our university’s student career platform, saw Nextsale’s vacancy. I think it was content writer position. With confidence that I know writing, I applied. I went to the interview at the end of May. A girl from university was there two. I met Orkhan Hajiyev, the former head of growth at Nextsale, he interviewed both of us at the same time.
3-5 days later, Orkhan called and said I “got” the job. It was hot summer and I didn’t want to leave my comfort zone, so I said “I’m sorry, I can’t, it’s not you, it’s me 😀”
SORRY! I HATE SUMMER!!
But I was reading lots of materials, taking online courses on Udemy, watching lots of video tutorials on SEO and digital marketing while working on the two remote job, and resting on the seaside and drinking my hot black tea.
It’s December 2019. I’m home. A gut feeling comes. Someone in my head whispered “email Orkhan”. I wrote “hi, my name is! hi, my name is! hi, my name is Slim Shady!” I said “I’m the girl you interviewed months ago, I want to work with you, if possible.” Just a couple of minutes later, I got a call, it was Orkhan, he said “how did you know that we’re looking for a content writer? Right now I’m creating job posting et cetera, et cetera”. Yeah, kinda confuzzled (confused and puzzled at the same time, it’s a word from Mary and Max which you MUST watch before you’re out of this world).
PS: I never ever get misguided by my gut feeling or how you say, instincts.
So, I became the content writer at Nextsale, then content manager, now I’m head of content at Uvodo – it’s Nextsale team’s next project.
I think I’ll keep what I did at Nextsale, what learned, what worked and what didn’t and more stuff on content in the next articles.
I want to keep you interested, OK? It’s my blog site and I can write whatever and whenever I want.
Takeaway for this piece of masterpiece:
- Finding out what you’re good as a personal characteristics will help you with your career path: I am good at writing – expressing myself with written communication rather than verbal. Plus, I enjoy writing.
If you haven’t “found” yourself, don’t be demotivated. Once someone said (not sure if he was Carl Jung or Alan Watts), it goes something like: if you know what you want, you’ll become it eventually. But if you don’t know, then you have all the time and places to experience, even much more than if you go towards one goal, you get a chance to test yourself in different ways. Thus, it’s OK if you don’t know what you’re good or what you want, but the thing is you need to try.
“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there”. – “Alice in Wonderland”, Lewis Carroll.
- If you want to learn a new skill (any), you should do it with what you love: I love watching movies, writing, and doing art. I started doing what I love in English. Loving the English language solely was not gonna be enough.
- Working in a company doesn’t mean you work only to make money or for the end goals of company. It’s all about you; still, you need to contribute to the company, but you need to put yourself at the center (It’s advice I got from Orkhan). While doing your “duties”, think about in which way you can improve yourself. Look for the opportunities, and take advantage of them. With every task you are doing, think about the ways that will improve your skills. While doing so, you also contribute the company better.
- Enjoy the learning process. And, go with the flow, never try too hard on anything. That’s the Lao Tzu philosophy. Swim with the current, never swim against the river, otherwise, you’ll put so much effort, lose much energy and become exhausted. As he said, “Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” If some day you are not feeling like working, don’t work. Don’t quit, but explain your mood to your the manager, whoever is your supervisor.
- Most importantly, listen to your gut 😀
I’m writing a nice quote by Aleister Crowley and ending this article: “There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt. Love is the law, love under will”
That’s the end, guys. We’ll meet again in the next article.