Potential downside of community building (CB): Slower professional development if working alone --> I’d recommend CB teams, training and/or mentorship
I feel like I learned a lot in my past 1.5 years as full-time community builder , but one major downside was working mostly alone without a “co-founder”, proper training or an “incubator” (as start-ups often have), and while I did have some advice & support from CEA and fellow professional CBs, I could have learned a lot faster if I had a co-founder, more training or more mentorship. I also initially underestimated the complexity of CB strategy (there are infinite possible projects and no-one really knows what works best for your specific group..) and the importance of mentorship. Now that I’m more aware of that, however, I found it not too difficult to get high-quality feedback from senior EA CBs.
For people starting out in Community Building, I’d recommend ideally having 2-3 committed people running a group rather than just one, or else maybe “interning” at an established group beforehand to learn faster and getting good mentorship right from the start.
Potential downside of community building (CB): Slower professional development if working alone --> I’d recommend CB teams, training and/or mentorship
I feel like I learned a lot in my past 1.5 years as full-time community builder , but one major downside was working mostly alone without a “co-founder”, proper training or an “incubator” (as start-ups often have), and while I did have some advice & support from CEA and fellow professional CBs, I could have learned a lot faster if I had a co-founder, more training or more mentorship. I also initially underestimated the complexity of CB strategy (there are infinite possible projects and no-one really knows what works best for your specific group..) and the importance of mentorship. Now that I’m more aware of that, however, I found it not too difficult to get high-quality feedback from senior EA CBs.
For people starting out in Community Building, I’d recommend ideally having 2-3 committed people running a group rather than just one, or else maybe “interning” at an established group beforehand to learn faster and getting good mentorship right from the start.