Instant Insights

This year marks the 30th anniversary of my working in the ‘internet’ industry. Although at the time I got involved in my first web-related project, I wasn’t aware that the internet would spawn a whole new way of working and living for just about every person on earth. Certainly, I didn’t think the next 30 years of my career would be devoted to it. In fact, in 1993, I had barely heard about the World Wide Web browser that Tim Berners-Lee created. 

An ‘Internet Tech’ Career Path: Dumb Luck or Planned Destiny?

Thirty years ago, I was working as a software engineer and a systems analyst for an IT consulting company. Much of what we did was custom software development in nature and usually operations related. For instance, an early project I was given was to develop an inventory control software system for a consumer packaged goods company.  

I was called into my supervisor’s office and put on a new and very vague project.  

“Rick, a steel company just acquired another steel company. One company runs on Windows, the other on Macintosh. You need to figure out how these systems can speak to each other. They don’t want to invest in a new infrastructure.”  That’s it. That’s all I had to go on.  

Some of my peers from the mid-90s dropped out of the industry, while others, like me, remained. For those of us who made a career out of internet tech, was it dumb luck to be in the right place at the right time? That was probably part of it. I suppose just about anyone could have been given that steel company assignment. Was it the internet itself that fascinated me? After all, it drove me back to school to get my MBA in marketing. Or was it something else? I think the root of it was my desire to use technology to solve business problems, and in particular, marketing and sales problems. To me, the internet was like a creative canvas. You could quite possibly create just about any type of solution using web technology. And if there’s no current solution, just wait, because surely someone else will be able to invent the next big thing.  

Seven Traits of Successful Digital Marketers

One of the things that I like to do these days is to teach or mentor young professionals. I’ve had a chance to do this through guest lecturing at local universities, as well as through the mentoring program at our agency. Many of the people I connect with want to learn the “secrets” to a successful tech career. They will ask me to teach them about digital technology. One of the first things we talk about is the key to success and longevity for digital marketers has nothing to do with digital marketing technology. Rather, I believe there are seven life skills, that if mastered correctly, can lead to a successful career in marketing technology. Here are the lessons I’ve learned over the past 30 years. 

1. Problem-solving

I believe the ability to apply technology to solve problems is an art, not a science … the science comes in after you know the solution and you get into execution. And the best thing is that a problem-solving approach can be learned. You don’t need to know code to imagine, dream, talk to people, brainstorm in the shower, or look outside the industry for analogous examples and inspiration. 

2. Continuous Learning 

Waiting for someone else to figure something out won’t build your personal knowledge base. It also won’t earn long-term respect or trust — in any corporation. But most importantly, without a concerted effort to keep learning about what’s new, you will eventually turn into a generalist. There is no place in today’s hyper-competitive internet economy for a pure generalist. That is not to say that I don’t strongly believe in working toward a “T-Shaped” career approach, one where you become an expert in one thing, but then expand your knowledge base across several different areas. 

5. Become an Expert 

Earlier, I mentioned I don’t think anyone can know everything. But that doesn’t mean you can’t try to be an expert in a certain area. A true generalist approach won’t work. For example, I went to school for a marketing-focused MBA. I’ve worked at a marketing agency for 23 years. I’ve probably been in hundreds of conversations about brand strategy. But I am NOT ever going to pretend that I’m a brand strategist. Likewise, just because a creative director has sat in a room to discuss digital media or a landing page strategy, that doesn’t mean that he or she is an expert in those areas. To do that requires extra effort, studying time, and hands-on experience. 

6. Get Your Hands Dirty 

To the point of becoming an expert, in the internet industry, you learn by doing. Period. As a career progresses, delegation becomes critical to focus on the big picture. But walking away from hands-on work 100% isn’t an option. The internet industry changes too fast and you can become obsolete in a hurry. Find ways to get your hands dirty to keep learning how things get made. Manage a project. Write some code. Talk to industry startups. Get demos from industry-leading platforms. Or ask the young professionals who are passionate about a space (see #3 above) to show you. Even today, I always have one or two small projects that I manage directly — I’ve learned a ton through that approach. 

7. Be Patient 

My former manager, one of the founders of Brunner, once told me, “Rick, the company will never be where you think it should be. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t keep pushing it. But just be a little patient while you do.” That simple piece of advice kept me from leaving the agency out of frustration 20 years ago. Instead, I directed my frustration internally and found different ways to advance Brunner and our collective skill set. The same can be said about career advancement. I guarantee that those who follow this advice, and the other advice above, then the right people will notice. 

As we enter the next chapter of the internet — one of machine learning and artificial intelligence — I’ve been thinking a lot about the overall state of the industry and the people who work in it every day. Sadly (or fortunately depending on how I wake up every morning), I will be in the fourth quarter of my career during this next technological revolution. Ultimately, who knows how this will turn out, or what the effects on the digital industry will be. The execution aspects of the industry will certainly change and might even replace quite a few jobs. And that’s not even thinking about the changes to the business and financial models of the industry. But I can predict one thing with relative confidence: those who take the seven principles above to heart will be more than just fine. 

---