It’s 2006. I’m taking my first steps at France Telecom (Equant). I admire my team—they are experienced, certified, and fluent in multiple languages: French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, German, and Japanese. They are wonderful, supportive, and encouraging.
Eager to give back, I wonder: How can I give back? How can I say thanks?
Then the opportunity arose: we would work on a new product—DSL (yes, it’s 2006 😊). I decided to write a guide about the technology and the way of working (WoW). I shared it with my colleagues and manager, and they loved it! A week later, my manager included it in one of the trainings, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁?
• Due to my research and the quality of the Content, I became the virtual Subject Matter Expert (SME) for DSL within the team (not bad for a newbie).
• My guide evolved into part of a training package, earning recognition from a wider audience.
• It helped me a lot in my self-awareness journey. I like to produce Content!
𝗟𝗼𝗻𝗴-𝗧𝗲𝗿𝗺 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁
In the long term, here’s what I learned and would advise the community:
𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Producing and presenting Content has become my primary way of contributing to the community and thanking all my colleagues who have supported me throughout my career.
𝗘𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝘂𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: I became known for producing Content, and I started to focus on this track and widen my content writeup, which helped to shape my digital identity.
𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗘𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀: I dedicated time to content creation alongside my job. This helped me throughout my career and enabled me to provide numerous training classes, multiple training packs, and webinars over the years.
𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗦𝘂𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁: Creating Content helps you master what you document.
𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗪𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: Getting used to producing Content makes you comfortable with Technical Writing such as HLD, Solution description, RFX, RFX Response, etc. Unfortunately, many professionals overlook this skill.
𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁: Publicly sharing Content helps break the ice and build preliminary customer trust. Many times, I’ve met customers who were already following my webinars, which has always facilitated my work.
𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 are the perfect ingredients for content creation, but I’ll save that for my next post 😊
Do you create Content? If so, how has it impacted your career? I’d love to hear your thoughts!