In her talk, Laurah Mwirichia shares valuable insights on advancing in a content design career, and emphasizing the development of technical and strategic skills.
Meet our speaker
In this Perspectives Conf talk, Laurah, a senior content designer, shares her insights on leveling up in a content design career, with a focus on the transition from mid-level to senior roles. She emphasizes the importance of developing both technical and strategic skills, such as cross-functional collaboration, storytelling, and simplifying complex ideas. Laurah highlights the key roles of sponsors, advocates, and mentors in career growth, and recommends creating a networking map that categorizes professional relationships to help identify areas in need of strengthening.
To advance in one's career, Laurah suggests gathering data on accomplishments, building a strong networking base, setting goals, strategizing, and taking action. This involves identifying problem statements, exploring potential solutions, and prioritizing ideas based on factors such as finances, time, career impact, and personal happiness. Laurah shares her own experience in creating a new role within a company to address a specific need, underscoring the importance of visualizing the desired outcome and selling the vision to others.
Finally, Laurah emphasizes the importance of continuous learning, mentorship, and advocating for junior designers throughout one's career. She advises updating social media profiles to open oneself up to new opportunities, connecting with new colleagues, and exploring whether management is the right path.
Quotes from the talk
"You can say something like: in my current role, I'm unable to practice the full scope of work I'm capable of.
"This impacts my learning, my happiness and my ability to grow my career. So there you have your whole problem statement.
"We know what's wrong, we know what you're struggling with. We can start finding solutions to some of these issues."
[16:00]
"And then from there, once you have your game plan commit, commit, commit, come up with timelines, come up with outcomes, come up with potential blocks, come up with your own expectations.
"So maybe you can say something like, I'm going to set a meeting every couple weeks, right? Every week or two with an advocate, a mentor or a sponsor to grow those relationships. You really want to set expectations for yourself that you can start working towards.
[17:42]
About Perspectives Conf
This talk is part of Track #2 - Growing into a senior content role of the 2022 edition of our conference.
Perspectives Conf is the world’s first event specifically focused on the careers side of content. It’s been carefully curated to help people at all levels navigate the many facets of working in content – from being the first content person to hiring and growing a team.
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