Anonymous career options?
November 20, 2024 8:03 AM Subscribe
I’ve recently been told by different people that for careers as diverse and seemingly not… self-promotey as ESL teacher and dietitian, in order to be competitive and succeed you need an “online presence” and a “personal brand “. Please tell me this isn’t true.
I’m a very private person. I don’t like to use social media, I don’t like self promotion, and I don’t want an online presence. I just want to show up to work and go home at the end of the day. Is that life still possible?
I’m a very private person. I don’t like to use social media, I don’t like self promotion, and I don’t want an online presence. I just want to show up to work and go home at the end of the day. Is that life still possible?
I just want to show up to work and go home at the end of the day. Is that life still possible?
That’s certainly still possible, in most jobs in fact. But, I think the examples you posted tend to require more self promotion to drum up business and new opportunities. Generally, being any kind of self employed will require more of this, compared to a more typical work-for-a-boss kind of job.
posted by june_dodecahedron at 8:15 AM on November 20 [8 favorites]
That’s certainly still possible, in most jobs in fact. But, I think the examples you posted tend to require more self promotion to drum up business and new opportunities. Generally, being any kind of self employed will require more of this, compared to a more typical work-for-a-boss kind of job.
posted by june_dodecahedron at 8:15 AM on November 20 [8 favorites]
I don't think that's as true as the people who told you this thinks. I recommend you be findable on LinkedIn but I don't think you need to be especially active to be a teacher or dietician, though for the latter you may have to find some way to network for referrals if you're not part of a healthcare system that's assigning patients to you.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:20 AM on November 20 [2 favorites]
posted by Lyn Never at 8:20 AM on November 20 [2 favorites]
I made a modest living for some years as a home-visit PC fixit guy, and the only form of advertising I used was handing out half a dozen business cards to customers I'd enjoyed working for, on the theory that pleasant people are more likely to refer me to other pleasant people. Within a few months I was getting a nice steady stream of work and only ever got two customers I didn't choose to hand out cards to afterwards. I can't see why the same approach wouldn't still be viable for other personal services work.
posted by flabdablet at 8:25 AM on November 20 [11 favorites]
posted by flabdablet at 8:25 AM on November 20 [11 favorites]
careers as diverse ... as ESL teacher and dietitian
I don't see why an online social media presence would be needed if you want to do these jobs for an organization, e.g. being a dietician at a hospital or an ESL teacher at a school shouldn't require that you have a social media presence.
The answer will be different if you want to do these jobs as an independent practitioner, getting your own clients, managing your business, advertising your services, etc. For that situation, it could be very valuable to have a social media presence.
Can you clarify what kind of work situation you have in mind?
posted by Winnie the Proust at 8:35 AM on November 20 [19 favorites]
I don't see why an online social media presence would be needed if you want to do these jobs for an organization, e.g. being a dietician at a hospital or an ESL teacher at a school shouldn't require that you have a social media presence.
The answer will be different if you want to do these jobs as an independent practitioner, getting your own clients, managing your business, advertising your services, etc. For that situation, it could be very valuable to have a social media presence.
Can you clarify what kind of work situation you have in mind?
posted by Winnie the Proust at 8:35 AM on November 20 [19 favorites]
Hmm, this doesn't seem accurate. I don't think you'd need any sort of social media presence to get into a career as an ESL teacher or dietician, and I'd be skeptical of any role that required you to drum up your own business primarily (or even significantly) through your own social accounts.
One data point - I have a job that *could* benefit from me being more self-promotional, but I'm qualified enough that I don't have to be. I have very little social media or any digital footprint, and haven't had trouble finding or keeping employment.
If you do get a role where social media is useful, it can be entirely professional, and you can stay private - there's no requirement you share your real self.
posted by RajahKing at 8:56 AM on November 20 [3 favorites]
One data point - I have a job that *could* benefit from me being more self-promotional, but I'm qualified enough that I don't have to be. I have very little social media or any digital footprint, and haven't had trouble finding or keeping employment.
If you do get a role where social media is useful, it can be entirely professional, and you can stay private - there's no requirement you share your real self.
posted by RajahKing at 8:56 AM on November 20 [3 favorites]
I think this would wholly depend on whether you are a freelancer or not.
All the dieticians I know work for hospitals or other large companies so there is absolutely no need to do advertising or social media outreach. If you are interested in being self-employed one of the trade offs is that you have to find ways to drum up your own business.
posted by forkisbetter at 9:06 AM on November 20 [5 favorites]
All the dieticians I know work for hospitals or other large companies so there is absolutely no need to do advertising or social media outreach. If you are interested in being self-employed one of the trade offs is that you have to find ways to drum up your own business.
posted by forkisbetter at 9:06 AM on November 20 [5 favorites]
wheatlets: I’m a very private person. I don’t like to use social media, I don’t like self promotion, and I don’t want an online presence. I just want to show up to work and go home at the end of the day. Is that life still possible?
Yes, definitely.
posted by capricorn at 9:24 AM on November 20 [2 favorites]
Yes, definitely.
posted by capricorn at 9:24 AM on November 20 [2 favorites]
I think this is an indication that often people see their own method as the most viable. It worked for them so it must work for you as well! But as everyone has said, working for an organization will often mean you can spend your time on the actual work and not finding the work.
posted by soelo at 9:25 AM on November 20 [3 favorites]
posted by soelo at 9:25 AM on November 20 [3 favorites]
My 2 cents, using ESL as an example because that's where I happen to have personal experience: if what you want is a full-time job with benefits, you have to make sure that those jobs actually exist in your field. I wanted to teach ESL to adults (college age or older) and it turns out that there are fewer FT jobs doing that in the US than there are FT librarian positions (and librarians will tell you how terrible their job market is). It's almost all part-time, adjunct, contract work. So one alternative is taking on private individual clients and/or corporate classes, meaning you are now running a business and have to do some kind of networking/publicity/outreach.
If you do research about careers with this question in mind, make sure you're mostly talking to people who've entered the job market in the last 5-10 years, and not 15+ years ago. Unless they do hiring, they may not understand the current situation at all. Things have changed for the worse in a lot of fields.
(But yes, full-time no-self-promo jobs still exist!)
posted by wintersweet at 9:31 AM on November 20 [11 favorites]
If you do research about careers with this question in mind, make sure you're mostly talking to people who've entered the job market in the last 5-10 years, and not 15+ years ago. Unless they do hiring, they may not understand the current situation at all. Things have changed for the worse in a lot of fields.
(But yes, full-time no-self-promo jobs still exist!)
posted by wintersweet at 9:31 AM on November 20 [11 favorites]
I’ve done work in “industrial politics” where being largely anonymous was specifically part of the job. This was in things like technical standards development, government policy, and the like where I was paid to be a sufficiently good expert as to be involved with the standards committee, but not famous or noteworthy to any outsider, and clearly too much of a nerd to be a lobbyist.
…my job being, of course, to help steer matters in a direction my employer viewed as beneficial to them. Plenty of people were trying to do the same thing for their own employers, but those of us who were shy of the spotlight were massively more successful at it.
You won’t find my name on any standard, even though I drove six of them and influenced another eight.
posted by aramaic at 10:16 AM on November 20 [7 favorites]
…my job being, of course, to help steer matters in a direction my employer viewed as beneficial to them. Plenty of people were trying to do the same thing for their own employers, but those of us who were shy of the spotlight were massively more successful at it.
You won’t find my name on any standard, even though I drove six of them and influenced another eight.
posted by aramaic at 10:16 AM on November 20 [7 favorites]
Like everyone said, if you're planning to be an employee then probably not (although maybe some fields are more LinkedIn-oriented than others when it comes to hiring).
If you're planning on having your own private clients, then it really depends who your target audience is and how you plan to get them to hear about you. These days, annoyingly, it can be much harder to get clients by just posting your info on a bulletin board or craigslist-type online place, or putting an ad on a newspaper. On the other hand, you might be able to get a start just by putting up some messages on neighborhood discussion boards and so on, without developing a full-fledged "brand" or "presence" or what have you.
I will say, whatever method you use, you have to take into account that getting clients can be a very passive business (in the frustrating sense). You'll be in a position where you're hoping that people come to you. Having ways to actively raise the probability of that happening can be helpful both in terms of actually getting more business, and feeling less in control of your income.
posted by trig at 11:06 AM on November 20
If you're planning on having your own private clients, then it really depends who your target audience is and how you plan to get them to hear about you. These days, annoyingly, it can be much harder to get clients by just posting your info on a bulletin board or craigslist-type online place, or putting an ad on a newspaper. On the other hand, you might be able to get a start just by putting up some messages on neighborhood discussion boards and so on, without developing a full-fledged "brand" or "presence" or what have you.
I will say, whatever method you use, you have to take into account that getting clients can be a very passive business (in the frustrating sense). You'll be in a position where you're hoping that people come to you. Having ways to actively raise the probability of that happening can be helpful both in terms of actually getting more business, and feeling less in control of your income.
posted by trig at 11:06 AM on November 20
... umm, make that "more in control"
posted by trig at 1:16 PM on November 20 [1 favorite]
posted by trig at 1:16 PM on November 20 [1 favorite]
Sometimes when people say you need a "personal brand" to find a job, they just mean some sort of specialization or focus and an ability to articulate it. "I'm a [teapot painter], give me any [teapot painting] job" is usually not as good as "I'm a teapot painter with a passion for accessible color schemes who is looking to deepen my practice in teapots for older adults" or whatever.
posted by umwelt at 2:27 PM on November 20
posted by umwelt at 2:27 PM on November 20
What was the age of the person who told you this? Others have covered the answer in the proper amount of substance, but as a Certified Old, I would be willing to bet that the person who gave you that advice is probably young-ish, and almost certainly grew up/came of employment age in the whole "rise and grind" hustle-culture mentality/mindset where you need to promote yourself 24/7 no matter what. Guess what? You mostly don't. But sometimes you do!
As people say, the more self-employed you are, the more you might need to engage in all that stuff. But if you are an employee of a company, or if you don't want to "be competitive" and chase every available dollar at every available opportunity, and just want a work-life balance that doesn't make you overstressed and exhausted all the time? You really don't.
posted by pdb at 2:28 PM on November 20 [1 favorite]
As people say, the more self-employed you are, the more you might need to engage in all that stuff. But if you are an employee of a company, or if you don't want to "be competitive" and chase every available dollar at every available opportunity, and just want a work-life balance that doesn't make you overstressed and exhausted all the time? You really don't.
posted by pdb at 2:28 PM on November 20 [1 favorite]
It's useful to have a LinkedIn profile, if anything as a shortcut to having to send a résumé or host it somewhere. That way someone who wants to check whether you're legit can see you on there. You don't have to have much there for it to feel like enough.
Beyond that...I don't know, I've been freelancing for a long time without doing more than that, getting contract gigs by responding to listings and via referrals from friends and colleagues. I do editorial and WordPress work, so I'm in a bit of a different set of fields, but if anything, the people looking for contractors in my fields are more online and it hasn't mattered.
It's largely still possible to do good work and let that speak for itself.
posted by limeonaire at 2:36 PM on November 20
Beyond that...I don't know, I've been freelancing for a long time without doing more than that, getting contract gigs by responding to listings and via referrals from friends and colleagues. I do editorial and WordPress work, so I'm in a bit of a different set of fields, but if anything, the people looking for contractors in my fields are more online and it hasn't mattered.
It's largely still possible to do good work and let that speak for itself.
posted by limeonaire at 2:36 PM on November 20
On the one hand, ESL teachers for public schools are in high demand in many places, and it requires zero social media presence whatsoever. There are (potentially) many great things about it.
On the other hand, very few teachers would describe their job as one where you show up for work and go home at the end of the day, and even more so in the early years.
posted by Salamandrous at 5:34 PM on November 20 [1 favorite]
On the other hand, very few teachers would describe their job as one where you show up for work and go home at the end of the day, and even more so in the early years.
posted by Salamandrous at 5:34 PM on November 20 [1 favorite]
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posted by Kitteh at 8:10 AM on November 20 [3 favorites]