asked on Twitter<\/a>: “Have you ever been to an SEO conference? If so, tell me about your favorite presentation you saw. What was it about? And what did you like about it?”<\/p>\nMy answer: “There have been many. The ones I enjoy the most are the ones that make me think about things differently that I can apply to the work I do.”<\/p>\n
I meant that sincerely. There have been far too many people to list out in tweets whose conference presentations have helped me do my work better.<\/p>\n
Lastly, set up your own website if you’re doing SEO or website development work. It’s amazing what you can learn just playing around with a website that doesn’t carry as much risk as playing around with a client’s website. All you need to do is invest a couple of hundred dollars a year. Another way to have a website is to volunteer to help out a charity you support. They will appreciate the assistance, and you get a platform on which you can hone your skills.<\/p>\n
Tip 3: Always be ready for your next job<\/h2>\n
Looking for a job can feel like a full-time job itself, and you never know when you will need to look for a job. Having an up-to-date resume at the ready will help you if that time ever comes. <\/p>\n
Avoid using fancy templates for your resumes. Many automated recruiting systems use a parsing system to pull the resume into their applicant management system. Some fancy formatting will completely throw off the importing of the data. It’s OK to have a nicely-formatted version to email, but if asked to upload a copy, use a plain format.<\/p>\n
Read the full job description before you apply for a job. Never rely on the job title alone to guide you. Otherwise, you will waste the recruiting manager’s time and your own. <\/p>\n
At some agencies, SEO people are called “analysts.” I can’t tell you how many resumes I would get from people who specialized in data analytics because of the job title, regardless of how carefully I worded the job description in the posting to make it clear it was an SEO job. I finally told our recruiter to do a text search on any resumes. If neither “SEO” nor “search engine optimization” were found, then I didn’t want the person forwarded to me for consideration.<\/p>\n
Tip 4: Find a job that fulfills you<\/h2>\n
It’s incredible how many people work jobs they hate just because they need a paycheck. I understand that sometimes it’s necessary to do so, but if you hate your job, you have the freedom to go and find something else. <\/p>\n
I know many people who have completely reinvented themselves and moved from one career to another. It’s OK to do that. You need to find a job that pays the bills and<\/em> makes you want to get up in the morning and not dread Mondays. <\/p>\nWhile we all can’t make money working on our hobbies, it’s always possible to apply something you enjoy doing to a job that can earn you a living. Part of this formula, I believe, is learning to work on your strengths. While it’s good to identify weak areas in your work and improve upon those, always working in a job where you struggle is bad for your long-term mental health.<\/p>\n
Being fulfilled at work is being part of a team with a great culture. You’ve probably read or heard about “The Great Resignation.” Sesil Pir opined in a recent Forbes article that what’s happening is something she termed “The Great Awakening.” People are awakening to the realization that they don’t have to work in a crappy, dead-end job for companies that don’t value them. <\/p>\n
While progressions of salary and titles are great, they shouldn’t be the focus of your career. Yes, you should be compensated for the value you bring to an organization, but money and titles aren’t everything. <\/p>\n
In the end, it’s wonderful to be able to look at yourself in the mirror and know that you’re doing great work that is helpful and fulfilling.<\/p>\n
Summary: Make yourself indispensable<\/h2>\n
If you haven’t heard this saying yet, remember it: hope isn’t a strategy. Now is the perfect time to take your career destiny into your own hands. You want to make yourself, as Seth Godin expressed it in his book of a similar title, “indispensable.”<\/p>\n
\nContributing authors are invited to create content for Search Engine Land and are chosen for their expertise and contribution to the search community. Our contributors work under the oversight of the editorial staff<\/a> and contributions are checked for quality and relevance to our readers. The opinions they express are their own.<\/em><\/p>\n
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