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Burned out by the industry? Switching to a different field?
Apologies if this isn’t the right place for this… but I would love to know if other people feel the same way.
I’ve been a social media manager for over 4 years. I recently left one agency and joined a new one (right before the holidays) so it’s been a little weird. My second day I was given full ownership of an account (with over 65K followers) without having met the client or knowing much about them at all. My new team requires me to post manually on this account and I made a mistake today. I missed a post this morning and ended up posting the evening’s post this morning instead. I quickly fixed it but my team lead just texted me about it. I actually have never made a mistake like this in my 4 years of social media management so I feel pretty stupid but also just like … it’s Christmas Eve and I’m working and I don’t know anything about the account or clients and I’m trying my best with what I’ve been given. My eyes must have missed the post in the content calendar but again it’s a new setup for me because I’m brand new. I’m trying
not to feel bad about it but I’m freaking out.I want to preface this by saying my last agency was AWFUL and made me feel bad about myself everyday. I was so excited to get out but now that I’m at a new agency… I think I just hate social media. I think this industry is just too much for me to care about at this point. The joy of it is gone and it just feels so burdensome like what am I even doing?? What does anyone get out of this? I feel like it’s an endless cycle of shit that you can never get right and it’s so exhausting. I’ve never once felt like I completed a task or like cleared my to-do list for the day because it’s endless community managing, coming up with new ideas, making videos, or graphics, or trying to explain what the new trend is. I’m just so exhausted and think I need to make an exit from the industry. I’ve been thinking since early this year that I’m just done with it but this for some reason feels like my breaking point ?
I know it’s silly and it doesn’t matter but I’m already thinking of leaving this new job to find what makes me happy. Not to mention I don’t really vibe with any one on the team … the vibes are just so weird.
Has anyone made the leap from social media manager to marketing or copywriting or something similar?? I would love some advice!
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I don’t have any great suggestions unfortunately, but manage a couple social media channels as part of my communications job, and I am feeling really burnt out on it. I now see social media as a giant friggin scam, it makes me feel depressed to look at, and I think I would seriously delete Insta and fb if it weren’t for my job. Sorry, that’s not much help
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First, I’ll start off by saying that yes, you can absolutely use your transferable skills to go into copywriting, VA work, or something new entirely if that’s really what you want to do. There is no reason to stay somewhere you are unhappy long term.
But second, I really want to stress that your current and past employer sounds poorly managed at best. I run a social media agency, and a new strategist wouldn’t get their own accounts for several weeks, and even then it would be underneath someone who is highly trained who is reviewing every single thing. Also, unless it’s video content like reels & TikToks AND you are scheduled to be the one working weekends, there is no reason for you to be working on Christmas Eve.
Like in their first week, my new employees are learning our SOP, shadowing, & creating dummy content. They’re nowhere near clients.
So do what your heart wants, but just know that there are places you can be supported in this industry if it’s something you’re passionate about.
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OP this sounds like another poorly managed agency (and there’s A LOT of them), but I totally respect that you’re burnt out.
As many have said there is tons of transferable skills if you want to leave social media specifically. I don’t think anyone would blame you for it as there’s still a lot of developing that needs to be done within the industry and we’re a ways off yet.
In the in term figure out what you like to do and why you like it, this might help you figure out your next move/transition.
Best of luck, sorry for the shitty agencies.
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It’s completely normal to feel burned out. You see how the “sausage is made” and that you are essentially feeding people’s addictions and/or trying to extract money from them. Most companies don’t value the persistence and creativity needed to generate content every day. You only hear when you mess up and not the 99% of the time when things are going well.
Those who get how social (more accurately: paid or curated) media works are also bound to get depressed about how the infotainment industry and politicians use it to divide us. So, it’s depressing on a personal as well as on an existential level. It doesn’t really do shit for personal growth or benefit society in a meaningful way, so why spend so much time staring at a screen?
I wouldn’t be surprised if future historians classify social media work as a form of psychological abuse, though I doubt people will ever be able to completely deprogram from the feeds in order to see the game they are in.
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I did in-house SEO and copy writing for 8 years and felt really burnt out with the field/industry, especially over the last four years. I left and switched to construction management and haven’t looked back since I made the change 5 years ago (coming up on 6).
I feel like social media and marketing in general can burn people out fairly easy.
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I was made redundant from the same position as you are in a agency during covid. Went self employed doing the same, was really hating it and didn’t know what to do. Took a job doing communications for a NHS trust and it’s honestly much better fit for me. I’m constantly busy, it’s really hard right now and I took a pay cut and not management. But I don’t have the same work related anxiety and don’t fear working. Communications has the skill set I was doing a few years ago; PR, web and social media management, have transferred across, just a different way of thinking with different KPIs.
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I have no advice, but just letting you know that I feel you. Agency work is HARD work. I’ve been working in an agency for 5 years now and I dread working every day. It used to be so fun when I first started – I loved making cute graphics or coming up with fun ways to tie clients products in for those silly holidays.. but that faded quick and now posting is what I dread the most. I haven’t used my personal Facebook or Instagram since 2018 because it stresses me out so much at work. And I always apply to other industries and never get a response because I feel I’m not taken seriously due to being a social media manager. Hang in there and happy holidays!
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I freelance and don’t take clients that suck. Rachel Pedersen has a free course on how to get started. But I still feel done with social… I’ve thought about writing, SEO, ads, website creation, course creation, etc. ??♀️
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