Don’t Read This, It’s Full of Bad Advice
Think being helpful, busy, and passionate is enough to grow your community career? Think again. This post is packed with terrible advice that keeps early-career community managers stuck, overlooked, and underpaid.
If you're in your community career and hoping to grow into a strategic, respected professional… this post is definitely not for you.
So if you’re trying to stay undervalued, confused, and doing work no one quite understands... here’s your playbook.
❌ “You’re too early in your career to lead anything.”
Leadership is for later. Right now, your job is to quietly execute what you’re told.
No ideas. No initiatives. Definitely no strategy.
Just wait until someone says you’re ready. Eventually. Maybe.
❌ “Just do what other communities are doing.”
No need to understand your audience. Just copy someone else’s Discord structure, Slack prompts, or event calendar and assume it’ll work the same for your space.
Someone else's SaaS founder welcome flow? Perfect for your beginner artist community.
Originality is overrated. Context is irrelevant. Just clone and hope.
❌ “If you’re passionate enough, the pay doesn’t matter.”
You love community, right? That should be payment enough.
Sure, your rent went up and you’re working late every night, but the impact you’re making is priceless. And unpaid. But mostly priceless.
❌ “Host more events! Post more content! Do more!”
If your calendar isn’t bursting at the seams with events that no one asked for, and your content queue isn’t overflowing with “thoughtful” posts you’re forcing out at 11pm, what are you even doing?
Momentum = motion, right? Doesn’t matter where it leads.
Just stay busy and hope it turns into impact.
❌ “Make yourself the face of the community.”
This is your moment. Feature yourself in every update. Host every event. Respond to every thread. Insert your personality into every corner of the space.
Because obviously, being the main character will make the community feel more connected.
To… you. Specifically.
❌ “This career has no real progression, start looking elsewhere.”
It’s just vibes and feelings, right? You won’t find growth here. No one really becomes a “senior” community manager unless they’re… what, 40?
So if you care about growth, salary, or actual recognition, best to jump ship to something more “serious.” Like marketing. Or ops. Or anything else people understand.
❌ “The more effort you put into a post, the better it’ll perform.”
Spend hours crafting the perfect 14 paragraph “discussion starter” with three emojis, a CTA, and deep personal insight. Then post it and watch… silence.
Meanwhile, someone else drops a one line poll and it explodes.
But hey, you worked hard. That’s what counts.
❌ “Be grateful you even have a community role.”
You got the job. That’s the win. Don’t ruin it by asking for things like clear goals, useful tools, better support, or (God forbid) a raise.
Just smile, take on whatever’s thrown at you, and enjoy your mysterious, ever changing pile of tasks.
Remember: You’re lucky to be here.
❌ “Your job is to keep the community ‘happy.’”
You’re basically a human mood board.
Forget metrics, growth, or long term outcomes, just make sure everyone’s having a good time and no one ever disagrees.
It’s basically therapy, but for free.
Get the 30-Day To Your Community Management Role, a free step-by-step guide to help you grow your career starting this month.
AND free training!
💬 And if you want personalized support, feedback, or help applying these steps to your situation, book a free personal guidence chat