One of my clearest memories of early days at Buffer was when our cofounder Leo told me that working at a startup means I can expect my job to change every six months or so. He happened to tell me this right after my job had changed. :)
It was a really fun thought: Wow, I get the chance to learn something new every few months!
It was also a bit scary: But what if I like what I’m doing?
And no, this is not my way of hinting to the team that change is coming, that we’re going to stuff everyone’s jobs in a hat and draw them randomly. Not to worry! Instead, what I find most interesting here is reflecting on the way things were then (two to three years ago) and how we’ve evolved since.
When was the last time your job changed?
For me, it was about 18 months ago, when I went from a full-stack marketer to a marketing manager. Before then, I had changed jobs every six months or so, either in significant ways (going from blogger to product marketer) or subtle ones (adding social media manager to my blogging duties).
One of the key elements of the “every-six-months” mantra was that this is the way of life at a startup.
So … Is Buffer still a startup?
There are lots of ways to look at that question: how long Buffer has been around, what we try to achieve with growth rates and resources, the other companies and industries we associate ourselves with. For what it’s worth, one of my clearest indicators of “startup or not” is in how I introduce myself to others. Now, I tell people that I lead the marketing team for a tech company. I used to call us a tech startup.
It’s probably just semantics, but it does point to this larger shift within our team toward stability, toward process, toward our oft-referenced, somewhat-joking expression of “growing up.”
Here’s the fun thing, though: I believe we can grow up without losing our startup sensibilities.
Case in point, several folks on our marketing team will change their jobs in the coming weeks.
- Bonnie is taking on social media management and bufferchat, and giving away Reply
- Brian is giving away social media to put more effort toward video, podcast, and digital marketing
- Arielle is giving away bufferchat to focus more energy on the upcoming Buffer conference
- Alfred is beginning the shift from pure content to content & digital, including the letting go of Medium
- Hailley is leading our future-of-work marketing, with a deep T shape on PR and Open blog content
What excites me about this is that we’re able to tweak the team to find the perfect combination of work and joy. And it doesn’t matter too much whether we call ourselves a startup or a grownup. Want a different seat? Let me know. Want your seat to change every six months? Happy to talk it through.
When it comes to startups, companies, and change, maybe it’s less about being either/or and more about both/and.
Let’s explore!
