Previously I spoke about the feelings and situations that lead me to quit my supermarket job before securing something else. I just wanted out, and I was confident that I would quickly find something relevant to me. This is the next step in my journey, after accepting my new job I would soon learn that it had a completely different focus from what I desired and potentially even from what was advertised.

I wanted to work in a marketing or communications capacity and I loved the idea of working with not-for-profits. After months of no success, a vacancy at a small community organisation popped up for a Marketing and Administration Officer. I had seen the job posting for this place, let’s call it Company A, and had written it off mentally. I knew people who worked there previously, despite being a great place for voluntary projects, it had a bad reputation with its paid workers.

Somehow, against my initial suspicions, I applied for the role and later got a job offer at Company A. What changed? There were two main factors I believe; the first was I was much more desperate for work now, secondly, I spoke to one of the committee members personally who told me I would be able to develop my marketing skills there. There were signs (almost immediately) that this was not going to happen, despite this it took me about 9 months to understand that this was not benefitting my career aspirations nor myself personally.

• The first sign was that during the interview the manager pretty much brushed aside my portfolio of social media content and focussed on the admin side. I didn’t feel like that was a problem, as I imagined at least half of my hours would be spent administrating community programs, calling people, and making spreadsheets. Administration at Company A was all those things, but it was also being the sole person running around like a headless chicken when things went awry (and they almost always did).  You know whenever a hiring table asks you if you have ‘any further questions?’ This would have been the best time to voice my concerns; is my content creation work not up to standard? What is the percentage of marketing work versus administration work at this place? Any question might have given me a glimpse of what I was looking for. Instead I simply said nothing.
  
• Secondly when it came time to sign my contract the words “Marketing” had been removed from my job title. It came about a month into the role and I was the one who wrote most of my responsibilities. The finance person made me feel rushed because I had already been working for a month without a contract. It wasn’t my fault that the contract was late, still, I was willing to give Company A the benefit of the doubt. Writing your own contract seems pretty cool; it made me feel like I was part of this cool new startup where projects would just grow organically and roles would shift and change as the situation needed. Another possibility is that Company A had no real idea what my role was and made me write my own one out. I had my doubts about the whole contract, even a month in, I knew how much of a chore it would be to schedule a meeting with my manager and the committee to discuss my concerns. So I decided to keep them to myself. It surprises me now that in all my discussions with the various committee members, work relating to marketing and where I wanted to go in terms of career rarely came up. I had many opportunities to see that there was no space for what I imagined the job to be, but I didn’t take heed.
  
• The last sign was when I began to sit in on committee meetings, I discovered that the whole marketing issue had been an ongoing problem for a long time. They previously had dedicated marketing roles and even got a quote from a professional marketing service which they deemed unsuitable. They had shifted their strategy, it seemed just before I came on board, away from marketing and content creation. Any social media collateral needed in the future would be handled by a particular volunteer. Wasn’t that my whole role? I tried my best to wriggle in on any kind of marketing-based discussion. I was involved in filming and editing some of our video content and was even put in charge of the marketing and social media team for the organisation. However many of my efforts that I tried to contribute to this team were not acknowledged and I was always made to feel like I had other bigger administration tasks to worry about.

If I could go back in time 2 years, I would stop myself at each of those 3 points and make myself answer the question: ‘Am I really going to get what I think I am out of this job?’. Because I never got it, and simply in terms of career progression there was no reason for me to continue being at this place. After the third sign, I felt extremely disheartened and knowing that my marketing dreams were not being considered seriously affected my motivation and drive to work. During my time there I applied for some other marketing roles, and in some ways blame my decision to join Company A for my lack of newer, relevant experience in the field.

I eventually overcame my slump and confided in myself that I could still make something out of this job. I stopped looking at the job in terms of direct career progression and believed there were still many broad lessons that could be learnt. I could work there for 1 or 2 years and gain some valuable experience in project administration. It would make me a more well-rounded professional and I was ready to continue on for the rest of the year with this mindset. However things continued to develop negatively for me and I was put in some situations that seriously made me reconsider my place at Company A. These situations plus the points I have already mentioned would finally tip the scales and lead me to quit this job too.