The only one of your species
When you are the only one of your species in a group, it can be empowering, but also quite lonely…
Having worked in many places where I was the only content person on a team or the only one in the entire company, I felt quite confident to make all the decisions and rules as I saw fit. No one was there to tell me any differently or to challenge my choices. My managers often had no clue what I actually did. They trusted me to do the work and were happy to have someone with writing skills to focus on that part of the process.
Being in complete control of your work and all the decisions may sound like a dream to some, but it can get quite lonely being the only one who understands what you do and what you need. No one speaks your language, and no one feels your pain.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have some people to share your work-life with?
A few years ago, I found myself with a choice — continue to be the only fish in the pond or seek out a different, bigger pond with more fish. Being alone in an echo chamber reinforces what you’re doing, but it doesn’t help open the way you think. I felt like being alone for too long had stunted my growth. How could I evolve and grow all by myself? The prospect of finding my people (fish?) was pretty exciting.
Was switching jobs the only way to connect to my species mates? No. I could join some craft-focused groups or meetups, but I honestly didn’t know where to start. I was in some Linkedin groups but those mostly felt like places for new content people getting their first jobs. I didn’t really know where to go.
I started looking for that bigger pond and interviewed with Atlassian in 2019. I was giddy when two of the people who interviewed me were content designers themselves! I was curious to know what it was like to have people to work with who were like me, who had similar experiences and challenges, who knew the joy of taking something complex and helping people understand it. I craved a place where people saw value in talking about the choice of a single word at length and how that was actually time well spent. I realized that I needed to be around my own species.
I was fortunate that my time in the pond by myself didn’t make me seem ill-equipped to join other fish and learn new fishy things. The team saw the potential in giving this fish a chance. I was offered a job working for Atlassian on the Confluence product team. I dove headfirst into the content design Slack channels and into the content design rituals where it was just content people nerding out about words and standards. I basked in the glow of set processes for stand-ups with Designers and Content Designers on my team, for getting content reviewed by other Content Designers, and for adding and updating content into the product documentation. I didn’t have to create those processes in this new place. Someone else had thought about all that stuff before I joined — I didn’t have to recreate the wheel again. I felt heard, seen, embraced!
The path I took to find my species is just one way — you may be quite comfortable in your company and not want to move to a new one. Are there other ways to connect with your species? You bet.
It turns out content people gather in many places — online communities like Write the Docs and Content + UX, conferences like Button and Confab, and professional associations like the Society of Technical Communication. Since many groups have Slack workspaces, you can easily join the conversation without having to leave the comfort of your “office” or have to actually meet people face-to-face. For many of us introverts, gathering the nerve to go to an in-person meetup can be a bit daunting.
Connecting with others in the content species is valuable, it can do wonders for you both socially and professionally — you just have to take the first step.
