"To build a career you enjoy lead with passion and consistency while documenting your journey." - Nadya
I have dedicated the past eight years of my life to build my career in marketing and communication.
Today, thanks to the work I put in over those years I am the owner of my own content creation and marketing consulting business.
Here are three top tips I share with women looking to take their career to the next level.
1. Do what moves you
From the day I picked up a newspaper as a little girl and pretended to read it to the moment I hit the publish button on this blog–there's an unexplainable pull that's led me to seek out the right opportunities, intern at non-profit organizations, and pursue specific jobs.
I had no idea where any of it would lead, but I can tell you it never felt wrong. Regardless of pay, title, location (within reason), or other people's opinions, I've remained consistent with applying for and signing up to contribute to ventures, projects and initiatives only if I genuinely felt that I could exert my passions. And even if the opportunities were unpaid. When you lead with what moves you, not only will you have fun in the process of building your career, it'll also pay off in the long run in big ways.
2. Consistency is everything
As the saying goes, people may not remember what you said or did but they will remember how you made them feel.
'Til this very day, I trust that I can call on the people I met early in my career any time I feel stuck, frustrated or lost. The key? I've remained consistent by identifying and upholding core values as a professional.
Some of which include using what I know and have learned to provide value to others. This doesn't mean saying yes to every single favor that is asked of you. Instead position yourself as a go-to person to those in your circle in one or two specific areas that you either know you're good at or want to work on improving.
For example: I enjoy writing and reading so people know to come to me when they have a writing assignment or project that involves a lot of writing. Reading and revising other people's work helps me strengthen my editing skills.
Being consistent with offering and providing help to others who struggle with writing has also helped me land copywriting projects as a freelancer.
3. Document all your wins, big and small
The timeline you see above summarizes eight years of growth in the online marketing and communications field.
This timeline shows some of my achievements but what you don't see are all the small wins that together make up who I have become throughout the journey.
From my college days co-producing a student news channel to my first paid job and the launch of my first business–I have over one hundred files saved on a Google Drive folder of all the work I've done.
Documenting all the wins, both big and small is important for two reasons:
1. You never know when opportunity will come knocking and you'll need to show work you've done in the field to position yourself as a trusted and experienced professional.
Having photos, videos, or samples of your work makes a stronger case for you and helps paint the full picture.
2. Looking back on where you have been validates your hard work. I have learned to trust the process, embrace the struggles and keep going because I'm able to connect the dots and see how one closed door led to other opportunities that were a better fit for me at the time.
Need help documenting your process using Google Drive or Dropbox?
I'm happy to help! Drop me a comment or send me an email at info@nadyaramos.com.