Why I quit an amazing SEO job
At the beginning of this week, I did the hardest thing ever: I quit a new, amazing job that I was good at.
I started working at DAZN as an SEO Specialist on the 6th of January 2020. And whatever got thrown at me, I could do - I obviously needed help with some tasks, as I’d never dealt with an app or with the News section - but was able to figure it out quickly or ask the right questions.
The company itself is amazing - it’s the “Netflix of live sports” as it’s called on a regular basis. Look it up! It had an outstanding growth and it was available in 9 regions when I started and soon will be available worldwide. The main London office is based in WeWork Hammersmith, and the building is as amazing as you’d thing a WeWork building is.
The people are amazing - I’ve been sharing a pod space with the Paid Search Team and the Head of SEO and all of them seem lovely humans that I’m glad to have met, albeit briefly. The Head of SEO, my boss, has been supportive, helpful, trusting - he never micromanaged me and always made me feel like he trusts my input, my workload, and my skills. He was always showing me things that he knew I didn’t have experience in, but still let me figure stuff out on my own (which I love). I can’t believe that in two short months I’ve learned so much - I’ve learned how to use Google Play Console, AppStore Connect, and AppAnnie for App performance analysis, I’m now more confident in using and checking hreflang tags, I can create a PowerPoint/Google Slides presentations and present it via an online call, I’ve gained way more Excel skills, I know how to use Ahrefs, I understand Structured Data more, I’ve become a more calm and centred person, I have much more confidence in myself and my skills.
So after all this positive experiences, why did I quit?
In short: it wasn’t the right time for this job. And it took every ounce of my being to recognise this early and make the toughest decision of my life.
My plan for 2020 was to become an expert in a part of SEO that I do - any part - and start doing studies and research on it and present my findings at a conference by the end of the year/beginning of 2021. Since I’ve been working in e-commerce for the past 3 years, I feel like I need to specialise in this first for a few more years, and then expand my knowledge and tackle owning the Top Stories section (if that doesn’t even change by the time I’m ready!). I also think I need to do more hands-on tasks at this point in my life.
So, unfortunately, I had to leave this amazing opportunity, as I felt that on one hand, it would make me stray from my original plan. On the other hand, I knew it would propel both my skillset and my CV into new heights, but I also knew that having that tiny doubt in my head wouldn’t make it worthwhile for any of us. I’m going to mostly go back to my old job, but this time as an SEO-only person, and I’ll also be helping someone who owns a handmade accessories website fix her issues (and her issues start at http instead of https...)
I’ll always be grateful to DAZN and especially to my manager, and I really hope that our paths will cross again in the future and work together again. And I’m sure we’ll meet at one of the LondonSEO Meetups!