Help me know what I don't know...career advice edition
July 30, 2015 10:29 PM Subscribe
What do I need to ask/know before accepting a job at an online company? See inside for more details.
I may be transitioning to an internet/online community job. I found out about this position through a friend/old work connection. I then met with the website creator/owner/manager after I responded to her job posting. The job would include user relations, content management, etc. The website has almost 200,000 subscribers. I've never worked in the internet industry, but I've got enough of a work history that it's a real possibility I may be offered this job. We also really hit it off. I am very excited about this possibility. It's intriguing, different, will allow me to work from home and I may get to generate some content myself which is certainly exciting to me. I'll learn a whole new set of skills, which I think will be pretty marketable. However, I have a family and a kid and do need to have a somewhat consistent life/employment.
So, the question is, will this possibly be a steady job? How do I determine that? Are there questions I should be asking? Is this the sort of thing where I mentally prepare myself that in a year or two I'm going to be looking to move to another online company? I realize you don't know the particulars of this company, but possibly you can help me know what I don't know.
As a note, I also have the possibility of a much more steady, lots of room for advancement, University job. Not as exciting to me and I wouldn't get to keep this wonderful working from home life I've cultivated. I have been in the working world, at the professional level, for well over 10 years, so this transition is pretty important to me.
I may be transitioning to an internet/online community job. I found out about this position through a friend/old work connection. I then met with the website creator/owner/manager after I responded to her job posting. The job would include user relations, content management, etc. The website has almost 200,000 subscribers. I've never worked in the internet industry, but I've got enough of a work history that it's a real possibility I may be offered this job. We also really hit it off. I am very excited about this possibility. It's intriguing, different, will allow me to work from home and I may get to generate some content myself which is certainly exciting to me. I'll learn a whole new set of skills, which I think will be pretty marketable. However, I have a family and a kid and do need to have a somewhat consistent life/employment.
So, the question is, will this possibly be a steady job? How do I determine that? Are there questions I should be asking? Is this the sort of thing where I mentally prepare myself that in a year or two I'm going to be looking to move to another online company? I realize you don't know the particulars of this company, but possibly you can help me know what I don't know.
As a note, I also have the possibility of a much more steady, lots of room for advancement, University job. Not as exciting to me and I wouldn't get to keep this wonderful working from home life I've cultivated. I have been in the working world, at the professional level, for well over 10 years, so this transition is pretty important to me.
Seconding jacquilynne. The company's history may also be important, as could be the creator/owner/manager -- especially if she holds all the reins. Is this something she is likely to stick with, or to sell if things go extraordinarily well/poorly? The site changing hands raises the possibility of layoff exponentially. I'm not sure you can ask that outright, so much as take note of the general environment.
Is this the sort of thing where I mentally prepare myself that in a year or two I'm going to be looking to move to another online company?
Honestly? This isn't a bad mindset to have at ANY company. I know people who maintain it all the time, and people who never worried about job security until it wasn't there anymore. The former do better professionally, because resilience shows.
posted by gnomeloaf at 6:15 AM on July 31, 2015
Is this the sort of thing where I mentally prepare myself that in a year or two I'm going to be looking to move to another online company?
Honestly? This isn't a bad mindset to have at ANY company. I know people who maintain it all the time, and people who never worried about job security until it wasn't there anymore. The former do better professionally, because resilience shows.
posted by gnomeloaf at 6:15 AM on July 31, 2015
One question to ask: do salaries come out of ongoing revenue or investor money? If there's been an investment (VC, angel, Friends & Family, owner herself, etc.) then statistically-speaking it will most likely run out before the company can make money and you will be laid off, but if there is actual recurring revenue then you can expect more stability.
Another aspect to consider is that YOU will be one of the key reasons for whether the company succeeds or not; your stated role may be user relations and content management but realistically your job will be what you make of it. User relations is very close to sales, and likewise content management is very close to SEO/sales - with some hard work and some luck, you could become the rainmaker and share big in the company's success.
posted by rada at 8:00 AM on July 31, 2015 [1 favorite]
Another aspect to consider is that YOU will be one of the key reasons for whether the company succeeds or not; your stated role may be user relations and content management but realistically your job will be what you make of it. User relations is very close to sales, and likewise content management is very close to SEO/sales - with some hard work and some luck, you could become the rainmaker and share big in the company's success.
posted by rada at 8:00 AM on July 31, 2015 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Hi! I do this for a living (and have long before I started here.) Here are my usual questions when evaluating a position:
- Who in the org do I report to? (This is less useful if it's a one-woman shop, more useful if you have, say, a strong marketing/development split. Community on the marketing side tends to have a different focus than community on the dev side.)
- What are the company's goals for this position? (The range of answers may include customer service, retention, acquisition, social media management, content production, QA, full-on web development, etc.) Do these goals align with my skills and desires? (I, personally, loathe the acquisition mindset and avoid marketing-heavy positions - I do retention, content, and customer service, and if that's not what you want from your community team, I am not your hire.)
- How old is the company? What's turnover like, both generally and in this position? What is the business model, and how strong is it?
- How big a community team is the company planning to have? When would they hire more staff? What about community-adjacent roles, like web dev? How stressed is the web team, and how responsive are they going to be to community requests for support for initiatives?
- If it is a very small or one-woman shop - how invested is she in every aspect of the business? How busy is she? Is she going to want to copyedit every statement personally? (Yes, I've been there, and it sucked, both because the CEO was a laughably terrible copywriter and because everything I did had to go through her packed schedule to go out.)
There are probably other things specific to this business - I'm happy to chat over MeMail if you'd like!
posted by restless_nomad at 11:09 AM on July 31, 2015 [2 favorites]
- Who in the org do I report to? (This is less useful if it's a one-woman shop, more useful if you have, say, a strong marketing/development split. Community on the marketing side tends to have a different focus than community on the dev side.)
- What are the company's goals for this position? (The range of answers may include customer service, retention, acquisition, social media management, content production, QA, full-on web development, etc.) Do these goals align with my skills and desires? (I, personally, loathe the acquisition mindset and avoid marketing-heavy positions - I do retention, content, and customer service, and if that's not what you want from your community team, I am not your hire.)
- How old is the company? What's turnover like, both generally and in this position? What is the business model, and how strong is it?
- How big a community team is the company planning to have? When would they hire more staff? What about community-adjacent roles, like web dev? How stressed is the web team, and how responsive are they going to be to community requests for support for initiatives?
- If it is a very small or one-woman shop - how invested is she in every aspect of the business? How busy is she? Is she going to want to copyedit every statement personally? (Yes, I've been there, and it sucked, both because the CEO was a laughably terrible copywriter and because everything I did had to go through her packed schedule to go out.)
There are probably other things specific to this business - I'm happy to chat over MeMail if you'd like!
posted by restless_nomad at 11:09 AM on July 31, 2015 [2 favorites]
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Whether this is one of them is impossible to tell from your posting. 200,000 is a subscriber number that could potentially full time salaries, but it would depend on the revenue model and whether those represent active, regular users or people who signed up one time.
Is there someone doing this job now? What other employees do they have? Does it seem like a company filling a gap in their employee roster or like just some woman with a site who is hiring somebody to help?
Working for a website that's transitioning from a hobby to professionalism isn't necessarily a terrible idea but it might not be as stable as you're hoping for.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:56 AM on July 31, 2015