I once turned down a content designer job because I didn’t know what it was

When I graduated college, I thought the jobs would just cascade into my inbox because I had a resume with a bit of experience and a college degree. But it was 2010, and things weren’t going to be that easy.

In fact, I didn’t get a job in my intended career path right away. I went on my own journey and ended up working a few restaurant jobs, learned a little about food, and proceeded to enjoy the hell out of a city I dreamed about since college.

Because I worked evening jobs, I was able to freelance during the day and still job search fora content role that would be fulfilling. I wanted to do something meaningful with words, but I wasn’t sure just what yet. Journalism bored me (I learned this after a semester dedicated to it), content writing felt numbing, and content marketing seemed enjoyable but felt kind of deceiving.

So instead of staying where I was, I ended up jumping ship to San Diego for a multitude of reasons and began the search in a new market.

Then one day in May of 2016, I got an email from a recruiter about a job opportunity for XYZ (company name purposely omitted) in San Francisco—a Content Writer role. Because the job was content-based and dealt heavily with language, it immediately piqued my interest.

Here’s an abbreviated version of the original job description the recruiter sent me:

• Plan and write content for mobile (including UI labels, emails, in-app notifications, and contextual help)
  • Utilize customer data insights and storytelling to create a personalized app experience
  • Collaborate with design partners to influence page layout, interactions, and visual design
  • Coordinate content with Product, UX, and Engineering teams to ensure an end-to-end experience
  • Maintain the content in multiple languages — and sometimes multiple versions to meet different countries’ requirements
  • Assist language validator during user acceptance testing on translated content

And the skills they were looking for:

• 3 to 5 years of professional writing experience, with 3 years writing mobile content, preferably for interactive user experiences
• A clear understanding of how to utilize a user-centered design process to drive decision-making regarding content
• Experience using mobile app content as an engagement tool that transforms customer relationships
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in English, Journalism, Communications, or related field

With all of this in mind, I took the chance to interview because…why not? Looking at this job description, I thought I knew what they wanted and I believed some of what they were asking for was within my capabilities. The listicle life wasn’t something I was really enamored with, and this opportunity could be the next step in my career.

After pleasantries and a bit of back and forth, I had a Skype call scheduled with some team members to better understand the job, its responsibilities, and the team dynamic. But after these conversations, I thought that the job just wasn’t for me for a handful of reasons.

So I passed on the opportunity, and it was only until recently that I realized I missed an early chance at getting into content design.

Why I didn’t take the job immediately

The back-and-forth interviewing process takes a while, not to mention the interview prep involved ahead of time. So why wasn’t this job something I wanted, especially if the role was pretty much that of a content designer (and I’m now a content designer)?

I distinctly remember going through the series of Skype calls and listened when they said I would work on labels in a form, on a specific mobile screen, with the intent of getting people through an arduous process and on to the next screen until they reached success.

This pitch gave me pause—to me, this was not my idea of writing content. When I saw a job titled “Content Writer,” I thought I was going to be doing something more in line with building the brand, expanding their reach, and working on content for either SEO purposes or their company knowledge base. I wasn’t ready to nitpick one- or two-word labels on a screen and call it a job well done.

Ever since starting my professional career, I’ve been chasing a particular dream. I have wanted to create words that have meaning behind them. In short, words that matter. Too many times I’ve gone and created near-nonsense just for some clicks and better search rankings. But I wanted something that was impactful, not just words that appear on a page/screen/mobile device of your choosing.

So due to my lack of understanding what content design is, in addition to what the interviewers were telling me, I didn’t feel confident about this role, especially for a contract job located in another city (before the remote work days). I wasn’t sold that this was something I wanted to do.

I get it, though: telling someone what content design is is hard—I struggle to tell my friends and family what I do every day. So I’m not envious of the job the recruiters have before them. Telling a candidate that they’ll be working on words on each screen or step in a process doesn’t sound “sexy” or exciting. Telling them they’ll have to follow a style guide and create patterns and argue about the use of an ampersand sounds exhausting. And telling them that this type of job is fulfilling is even harder.

So what happened?

After I got off the call, I took a pause to think about whether the job was worth another move. Reworking the words on a mobile screen just to get conversions wasn’t a selling point for me—it sounded downright boring.

So I politely passed on the role, and continued working at my other full time job. I was writing, learning a bit about development, and honing my SEO skills in the meantime. I was happy to keep plugging along.

But content design was after me (or so it seems).

Approximately two years and one month later, a different recruiter sent me an email with an opportunity for a “Digital Content Writer.” Only after a few back-and-forth emails did I realize it was for the same job that was pitched to me before (just this time, from a different recruiter). I replied:

“Upon looking into the role (and my inbox) further, I realize that I have been interviewed for this role previously. And unfortunately, the interview process confirmed that this role was not a good fit for me.”

It’s awfully weird how the world works, though, because now here I am doing content design full-time, kicking off my career in 2019. Life is weird.

What changed from then to now

Between then and when I started my career as a content designer, I learned a lot. Specifically, I learned about what I didn’t want to do:

• I didn’t want to create content solely to deceive—think things like the early Buzzfeed articles with clickbait-y titles and obscure images with annotation on them. These gave the wrong impression and not only frustrated users, but caused a lack of trust in a business or website.
• I also didn’t want to create content that didn’t have meaning (listicles, slideshows, and other formats). With SEO being all the rage, many companies were looking for content solely to meet their SEO goals. It didn’t have to be good, it just had to help them rank better, and this made me think less of my work.
• And I didn’t want to work without a purpose. Too long I had worked jobs just to make rent and feel like I could get by for another month without being passionate about what I was doing on a daily basis. It was filling a need, but it wasn’t fulfilling to me.

On this self-discovery journey, what I did find out is that I wanted to do something that was purposeful, intentional, and always helped someone do whatever they set out to do. Which is how, in a roundabout way, I found out about content design.

How I ended up getting my current role

Unfortunately, there wasn’t another email from a recruiter pitching me on a content design job again. I had to go and put boots on the ground.

I applied for a content design job back in 2019. Actually, my first application was a little late (they filled the spot before I could get in), so I was deferred to another company. But ultimately I ended back at the same company, which was probably for the better.

After a series of Zoom and in-person interviews, I was brought in for a portfolio review where I had the opportunity to run through a number of pieces I worked on. It allowed me to show that I had worked on content, knew how to support it with visuals, but showed my general lack of UX principles. Despite all this, I was still accepted for the role but in a more junior position.

I started off working on our design system and usage guidelines for components, and really the rest is history. I’ve had the chance to take on many different tasks as a content designer. I’ve been on products I didn’t think I’d ever work on, and I’ve gotten stuck in positions I never thought I’d have to work myself out of. But it’s taught me a lot about pushing forward and always pushing yourself.

My four-plus years is a long-winded story full of ups and downs, design challenges, filling in the lorem ipsum, and fighting for my seat at the table. I don’t need to bore you (or reiterate) the challenges of being a content designer on a small content design team at a major company—that’s for another post.

And now, I’m here writing this blog and realizing that I could have gotten into content design a whole lot earlier than I did. I was kind of lamenting the fact that this position could have been mine earlier in my career. And then I would have more experience under my belt.

But you know what? I wouldn’t change a damn thing about it.

By waiting to find content design on my own, I was able to understand more about what I wanted out of a career in working with words. Without that time, I wouldn’t have been able to understand that I don’t want to write any ledes or create 15 different article titles to AB test for a chumbucket slideshow featured on Facebook.

So I did I miss the boat? I don’t actually think so—the boat came back around for another voyage and I had to buy a ticket for the journey. I was initially standing on the dock, humming and hawing, but I got a second chance at taking a trip to content design island.