The Journey of Reinventing Oneself -Featuring Mary MenchΓ³n
If I had to sum up my career in one word, it would be βmetamorphosisβ.
While creating my professional path, I also followed a journey where I reinvented myself several times. From trying a totally different and daunting language such as Chinese, to moving abroad and making a career switch to the Marketing & Communications industry.
But being honest, I am not the only one.
There are so many brave people that one day decided to make a change in their lives. Sometimes, those changes are small and you donβt really see them at first sight. But some changes are huge.
Todayβs article has my very first collaboration with a very brave professional: Mary MenchΓ³n. She is now a Digital Marketer & Product Manager that started her career path in the Tourism industry.
We met several years ago, and I always found her professional growth very inspiring. When I first met her, she was working for a company in the food industry in the Operations Department. But her professional background started in the Tourism industry. (Just like me!).
We had a lovely chat about our professional paths, and I am very grateful that she agreed to feature my blog!
I hope you enjoy this article as much as we did chatting and sharing our professional ambitions and changes!
A CAREER FULL OF INTERNATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES AND CHANGES
As mentioned before, Mary started in the Tourism Industry as a Tourist Entertainer. She then made one of those brave and big chances that I talked about before, and moved to Ireland in order to improve her English. She worked there as a Front Desk receptionist.
Then, she had the huge opportunity to live in South Africa for a whole year thanks to an internship program she was granted by TourSpain (Spanish Secretariat for Tourism). There, her main duty was promoting Spain as a tourist destination.
When she came back, she then worked for a while promoting her homeland Region as a tourist destination in other Spanish Counties (and vice versa). Later, she joined the residential industry by promoting residential houses and golf courses under the Client Payment division, achieving the role as Manager of her team.
All that, before making a huge career change again. This time, in the Food Industry. Where she worked in the Operations Department for more than 8 years.
This is when she decided to take a break.
She needed to redirect herself.
βFor me, when I took the decision of leaving the company I had been working for more than 8 years, it proved to be one of the most challenging decisions of my career. But I had to. Even taking that decision consciously was difficult as I had no idea what my next step would be.
But I strongly believe that if you donβt see yourself in a role or you donβt feel you are aligned with the values of a certain position or a company, it is not a bad thing to stop, take a step out and change.β
She remained unemployed for almost two years. However, she didnβt stop doing things and educating herself:
She took the first two levels of Professional Course in Bakery. And later, she went back to the Tourism Industry again, being part of the Murcia Region Institute of Tourism (now the Regional Ministry) for almost 3 years as Product Manager.
This last role allowed her to discover even more the marketing industry and the huge advantages that it brings when reaching the customersβ mind.
And then⦠Covid19 pandemic started.
βSadly, my contract as Product Manager was for a certain amount of time and it finished 3 weeks after we were home in lockdown in Spain, which has been a total game changer for everybody in the tourism industry.
This new global situation has been a turnover for people and companies and has also proved that the digital world canβt be separated from the company brand and its activities which gave me the idea to start with this new journey.β
REBRANDING ONESELF
I think that changes make us grow.
When facing a new challenge, we step out of our comfort zone and start thinking in a totally different way that we werenβt used to. We develop skills that, otherwise, we wouldnβt have the opportunity to do so.
However, I also believe that this can be such a challenging issue when it comes to branding our professional career or our personal brand.
Nowadays, the job market is much more fierce than even. Crisis after crisis, the roles are evolving. Companies require more. The competence is also very hard to compete with. (Not to mention the huge changes that the Covid19 situation has brought anywhere in the world!).
So having that in mind, itβs quite hard when you start from scratch in a new role or field, and have to stand out from other people that worked in that industry for more years than you. Above all if that industry suffers from a highly negative impact due to a global pandemic that is bringing so many chaos worldwide!
This is something that I had very clear when I decided to make my own career change. So, I really wanted to know how Mary faced this challenge and how she decided to rebrand herself and translate that ongoing professional β and personal! β metamorphosis to her personal brand.
Her response was clear: Linkedin.
βFirst, I started by doing subtle changes to my profile, to see how these were working. And I started to make new connections step by step.
I am not the type of person who uses these new connections to sell myself, in fact, if you check my list of contacts, they come from different backgrounds.
I believe more that everybody, no matter where they come from, deserves an opportunity to be part of your network. Maybe one day they can help me or I can help them. So I like to stick to this philosophy.β
This philosophy was also included in her personal brand: βI like to get different points of views which help me enrich my knowledge.β
She also educated herself by taking courses aboud Personal Brand and how to promote it on Linkedin.
Actually, this is when she saw the real potential that Digital Marketing had and how other Spanish tourist places were using it to position themselves as safe destinations during the rise of the global pandemic.
βThis new global situation has been a turnover for people and companies and has also proved that the digital world canβt be separated from the company brand and its activities which gave me the idea to start with this new journeyβ, stated Mary about it.
And I totally agree with her.
BEING TRUE TO YOURSELF
I believe that when we step out of our comfort zone, we are taking a two-edged sword. On one hand, we are trying our best to be true to ourselves. This is why we make some life-changing choices.
And, on the other hand, this is when we face so many challenges that will surely transform us totally.
So, I just had this interesting thought: when you look back to the beginning of your professional path, you just realize that in order to be true to yourself, you developed some changes that made you no longer the same person that you were at the start.
Our wrong and good choices, our mistakes and right guesses, all of this are part of the metamorphosis that we live in.
And this is something that Mary also experienced:
βIt is good to challenge oneself from time to time and so thereβs no harm in trying new things because we all change and evolve and we need to adapt. Iβm not the same person I was when I finished my Degree in Tourism and what I need to be happy, both personally and professionally, has changed too.β
However, we might also face the misunderstanding of some people around us. Maybe because the idea seems quite difficult at first sight, or just because they do not have the same urge of change as we do.
βSome of the people that are close to me told me that I was literally crazy, that leaving a company after so many years and with a permanent contract was going to be the worst decision of my careerβ, said Mary when I asked if she had received discouraging words from her inner circle, βThese are the type of words that really hurt but also encourage you to stick to your decision.β
Fortunately, she also received very positive thoughts and encouragement from other people around her, like the advice that one of her friends gave: βYou have to find out how much energy you need to make this changeβ.
And this is something so true: we must think very carefully the next steps to follow. And be ready for both positive and negative comments from those around us. Regarding this point of view, Mary also stated something that really resonates with me as well:
βNo matter what decision you take, it is not going to like everybody, even those who know you well, but in the end, it is you who is taking the leap of faith so stick to it, even if some people donβt understand it.β
PIECES OF ADVICE
I was curious to know what advice she would give to those that β just like me and her we did once β were looking for an entry-level role in a new field after a career change, and are facing the lack of experience as one of the main handicaps when applying for those roles.
Mary wanted to share with all of us the same answer that she received from one of her teachers, when she made the same question in a Digital Marketing MBA webinar:
βStart by applying what you have learnt with a small project like creating your own website where you can use your new gained skills.β In other words: βBe curious, keep an open eye and mind. Learn from what others are doing.β
Being proactive is essential when facing these changes. We need to create our own opportunities.
However, starting from scratch can be a little bit difficult if you donβt have a clear guidance in your early steps of this new career path.
And itβs a fact that we only learn some lessons on the hard way: by facing the consequences of our mistakes or bad decisions.
This is why I also wanted to know if there was any advice that Mary would love to have learnt before she started her career change.
The thoughts that she shared with me were so true and valuable, that I decided to finish this article with her own words. Because itβs something that I actually experimented several times.
And I would have loved to hear as well from the very first beginning of my professional endeavour:
βI would have loved somebody to tell me that there is not a right or a wrong path and that things are never as easy as we planned they would be. But it can be very rewarding despite the difficulties.
βTrial-errorβ. Itβs as simple as that. Make mistakes if you need to, because they will lead you to the path that will make you happy, eventually.
Everybody has a different way of doing things because we are all different, so explore yours.β
Thank you SO MUCH Mary, for your incredible help and collaboration with My Little Branding Blog! π¦
If you liked my article, feel free to like, share or comment below!
π¦ Thank you for reading! π¦
