Well, the title says it all. It's ridiculous that this is even a thing - and I see rants about it all on Linkedin (mostly from disgruntled marketing folks). But somehow founders/small businesses seem to think it's a normal thing for one person to be able to juggle content marketing, marketing ops, performance marketing/lead gen?! And thanks to AI, expectations are going to get even more unrealistic. While AI can automate a lot of functions, there's bound to be friction and a whole lot of gaps to fill before marketing automation will become seamless.

But for those who're managing to pull this off - especially in companies that have very lean budgets - how do you do it while keeping your sanity intact?!

Pretty much the title

I graduated with a Comp Sci degree but spent the first 2 years after college running a successful YouTube channel. I opted to find other work as it wasn’t enjoyable and I wasn’t a fan of the fluctuation pay each month.

Job markets bad and a gap in tech is hard to overcome. I’ve been working on projects and estimate it will take me about 6 months to have any chance at landing a job in my field of study.

In the meantime, I applied for a job at a smaller company who became impressed by my social media growth. They instead offered me the role of Marketing Coordinator, and now I’m managing their marketing campaigns, including social media and Google ads.

I’ve been 100% self-taught. And any task they give me I’m pretty much learning on the spot. I’m thrilled at the opportunity I have, but now I’m wondering where it could take me. Anyone have success stories in a marketing career without any college education? What’s your current role right now?

I (24f) have been in marketing for two years since I graduated from school. In my first role, my main responsibilities were all things social media and the quarterly newsletter. I worked 8 AM - 5 PM and always found myself out of things to do by 1 or 2 PM, sometimes sooner depending on the time of the year. I’d find ways to fill my time by asking if anyone had anything for me to work on, and when that didn’t work, watching tutorials on how to use different software systems and new marketing techniques, trends, organizing files, etc. There’s nothing I hate more than being bored at work; if I have to work 40 hours a week to get a paycheck, I at least want to feel like I’m actually WORKING, not just sitting at a desk, trying to look productive.

I got laid off from that job and was lucky enough to find another marketing role within a couple months with the same hours. At this new role, I’m even more bored than I was at my last job. It doesn’t help that my boss has no structure to how he gets things done; there’s no project management system, I get left out of emails, and the file explorer is an absolute disorganized nightmare, etc. Today, my boss gave me ONE TASK for the ENTIRE DAY. What on earth am I supposed to until 5?! I just feel like I’m constantly bored at work, no matter what I do. I’ll ask my boss if there’s anything I need to work on before a meeting, and he’ll either say no, or give me a task that takes 5 minutes tops. I’ll ask if he needs help with anything, and he says no. He was going to teach me how to access the website to upload some photos, but ended up doing it himself “because he got carried away.”

I’ve only been at this job for a month, but I feel like I’m going crazy. While I had more to do at my previous job, I would still be bored by the afternoon. I feel so under-stimulated and bored at work, and honestly unfulfilled. I don’t know if I just made the wrong career choice for myself (which I’m starting to believe it’s the case, as I’m considering changing careers and going to esthetician school) or what, but I’m tired of googling “things to do when bored at work” only to STILL be bored at work! I know I should talk to my boss about this, so if anyone has any advice for that, I’d appreciate it. I’m not good at confrontation.

Is this normal in the marketing field? What do other marketing teams look like? At both jobs, it was literally just me and my boss doing all the marketing, so I have no experience working with a team of more than two people, which honestly really sucks. I’d love to be on a full team where people can bounce ideas off of each other. Is it different working for an agency rather than in-house? I was at my last job for two years, and this one for a month, so I’m trying to give it the benefit of the doubt, but I’m having a really hard time seeing a future in marketing.

Hey folks,

I recently got laid off and have been trying to figure out my next move. Honestly, I feel really lost.

I have experience in growth marketing at startups (paid ads, A/B testing, lifecycle marketing, app store optimization). I also have a background in web development and can code, which has helped me dive into website optimization and work closely with product and design teams. I like being a generalist who can flex across channels and help wherever there’s a gap.

But I’m struggling because most job postings want specialists like SEO experts, media buyers, or email marketers. Startups also tend to expect you to "just know" things without much mentorship or support. I’ve realized I do best with some guidance and collaboration.

I’ve thought about pivoting into a few things:

• Freelance web development
• Freelance marketing
• Solutions engineering
• Salesforce architect work (I like building flows and systems)

But building a portfolio feels overwhelming. And with so many paths I could take, it’s hard to choose.

Feels like a very Gen Z problem. I want to do everything and also feel stuck doing nothing.

If anyone’s gone through something similar, I’d love to hear:

• How did you figure out what to pursue
• Did freelancing help or make it worse
• How do you package yourself as a generalist when everyone’s hiring specialists

Just needed to vent a little. Thanks for reading ❤️

Let I thought AI was getting better, an example of a few in the last few days:

A marketing company with an AI woman looking at a clipboard, she had three huge bones protruding from the back of her hand and freakishly long fingers.

A custom door company that couldn’t be bothered to show their own custom doors, and instead had AI slop that even had a gap at the bottom of the entry door wide enough for a family of raccoons to get in.

A casino that looks like they’re showcasing a wax exhibit they have by the craps table.

I would never, never buy. You know how marketing is really works, it’s about showing authenticity, trust in your brand, that you are the real deal and you value the customer.

This is all so not that. Marketers, those who use AI, do better.

Im struggling with this at my current in house digital marketing job (I'm the only one on the team lol) where my higher ups ONLY want to do things that create results.

However, sometimes I think its okay to put effort in towards brand awareness especially when consumers are flooded with ads all day every day. I want to post things like our community involvement, fun facts about what we sell, etc.

I mean OBVIOUSLY we want results, thats the end goal. but its getting exhausting only directing time and energy towards ads and results.

This job has me doubting my own ability due to so many of my ideas being shut down due to it "not capable of generating enough results".

Am I thinking about this all wrong?!

Is it just me, or are employers becoming more picky and demanding than ever in this job market?

I’ve been in the industry for 12 years. It used to be that having a strong portfolio and a solid resume was enough to land an interview. They’d see my style, versatility, and experience… then the interview would fill in the rest.

Now? I’m creating custom portfolios tailored to each role, tweaking my resume for every application, writing case studies, and sometimes even doing a mock project before I’ve spoken to anyone on the team.

I’m used to landing interviews, even with larger companies. And smaller teams were usually excited to have someone with my background in the mix. But recently, a recruiter reached out about a freelance opportunity with a photography studio. It’s a super small brand on a tight budget so in my mind I’m like okay I have bandwidth to help these guys out. But NOPE lol. I sent over some relevant samples for this project along with case studies thinking this will suffice either you like my style or not I clearly have the experience for this job lol. The hiring manager keeps pushing back and wanting more before even hopping on a call. This is for a freelance project not a full time role btw. Now he’s asking for a detailed, visual PDF presentations from every candidate just to maybe get to the interview round. The recruiter keeps coming back with more requests. This isn’t uncommon lately.

I’m just sitting here thinking… for this budget? How picky can you be? Times have definitely changed.

I also created a full mock project recently for a full time role I was excited about I put a lot of love into it for them to call and tell me the job role is no longer priority (:

Is anyone else experiencing this?

What were the best methods for you to find your clients that you started working with for freelance digital marketing?

I haven’t found up work or Fiverr very useful since there are tons of people commenting on every request for very little money.

I have 7 years of performance marketing experience, and I’ve done some freelancing by getting clients through connections but it’s not reliable.

Even short projects e.g. set up your ads accounts and structure, bit of hand holding are good with me, not necessarily looking foryear long work.

Hi everyone,

I really need some urgent help or insight from anyone who has dealt with a similar situation.

On Friday, June 27, 2025, I launched a LinkedIn Ads campaign with a budget of $250 USD, as I’ve done in the past with no issues. The campaign was scheduled to run until July 10 and targeted website visits, with everything set up as usual.

But on Saturday, June 28, I received a message saying the campaign was paused due to budget limits. When I checked, I was shocked to see a charge of $14,905.94 USD for only 430 clicks — that’s more than $34 per click, which is completely insane and way out of my reach financially.

I immediately contacted LinkedIn support (after waiting in a long queue), and the only answer I got was that the campaign had been “set with a lifetime budget of $250,000 USD.” I have no idea how that could’ve happened, because:

I’m 100% sure I entered $250;

The interface doesn’t even allow you to select “perpetuity” or anything that resembles an unlimited timeframe;

I tried replicating the same steps and noticed some strange behaviors on the platform that make me think it could be a bug or system error.

Support said they’d follow up by email, but honestly, I left the chat with more confusion than clarity. I’ve asked for clarification and, if necessary, a refund or adjustment — but I haven’t received any resolution yet.

Has anyone experienced something like this before?

Is there any way to fix this before I get charged that amount?

For context: I simply cannot afford to pay that kind of money. I'm not trying to avoid responsibility if it turns out to be my mistake — but even then, I believe LinkedIn should have some kind of alert or validation system in place to prevent such extreme budget setups.

Any advice, experience or support would mean a lot. 🙏

Thanks in advance.

https://preview.redd.it/k4di205g0baf1.jpg?width=1239&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=197c4651bd4093f4e465e2470aa106172f9849c4

Like the title says - if you’ve had both agency and in-house experience, what’s something you learned that in-house marketers should know? What do you wish in-house marketers would understand?

Hey everyone, I recently joined a startup agency as a copywriting intern. It’s a small team, not many big clients, and most projects have low budgets — so we mostly work with stock videos/images. I’m expected to handle social media calendars, write salesy copy, and ghostwrite LinkedIn posts for founders.

I don’t have a writing background (I’m an MBA in Marketing) — learned copywriting through mentors. But lately, I’m feeling really stuck. My ideas don’t get executed, the environment feels creatively limiting, and my manager says I “lack structure,” but doesn’t explain what that means.

Honestly, I’m just fed up and confused. Is this normal in the beginning, or am I doing something wrong?

When I search for my brand name; all websites that get shown link to my website.

However my own website doesn't get listed in the Top 20!

So the only way to rank is to pay Google Ads to rank for my brand name.

I just had a call with Google Ads rep who suggested me to further increase my ad budget to help me with sales.

Out of all keywords that Google is ranking me for, only my brand name (exact match) is getting me sales.

It seems that Google is intentionally blocking my website from ranking so that I spend more on ads.

I don’t have colleagues of the same level doing the same things as me. I’ve only ever worked under the same manager in my career life (excluding a job i left after 3 months cuz it wasnt what i wanted), so I don’t really have a benchmark.

Context - I’m working as a marketing specialist (market intangible products) Handling branding areas for SEA region

From social media strategy planning and execution (including tasking and approving/ checking creative briefs), to branding campaigns planning & execution, brand collaborations, offline events, influencer marketing etc

We have agency for offline event booth design/ execution and influencer marketing, but the influencer brief and strategy comes from me.

Happy Friday y'all! I've been at my current job for almost four years, and the work I'm doing is starting to feel stagnant. It's a nonprofit and I've worked my way up from a coordinator to a manager. We have an outside agency that handles our paid campaigns and social media management; I've tried to negotiate with my boss to hand me some of the agency's responsibilities (like running our social channels/paid social campaigns), but he won't budge.

Currently I run the content on our website, organize the launches of our products, handle creating internal marketing artwork for the other departments, create, publish, and organize the PR for the company, I'm the liaison for marketing assets with external stakeholders, handle the overall budgeting and finalized reporting of products, & create/publish all email marketing campaigns - to name a few of my responsibilities. I'm really eager to leave the nonprofit sector and move into a for-profit company, and because my current company is so small I feel like I wear a lot of hats. Sort of jack of all trades but master of none deal.

The jobs I'm currently interested in have a lot of paid marketing aspects to them, but I feel I don't have a lot of experience in that realm. And I'm sort of stuck at my current job since my boss won't budget to give me responsibilities that the agency handles. How can I gain experience with paid digital marketing outside of my current job?

I'm actively working on certifications - I just earned a Digital Advertising certification from HubSpot - and I'm learning Figma because I enjoy creating content as well. Any other suggestions? TIA!

I’ve been getting second thoughts about why I chose marketing as a career Mainly because: 1- A big part of it feels like social media noise and shallow content, especially digital marketing which is what I do and honestly seems to be the main direction ahead 2- The salaries are low and the competition is too much Even when you work hard and gain real skill, there’s always someone with the same qualifications willing to take much less (at least in my country)

I genuinely enjoy the growth side, performance, and analysis that’s where I feel I actually add value But it’s hard to ignore this constant thoughts that I’m not doing meaningful work… sometimes I honestly just feel like a clown.. Has anyone gone through this phase before? If you ended up changing your path, what made you decide and was it worth it?

For me, the biggest issue is clients who don’t understand that marketing is an investment and should be treated as a fixed expense, just like rent or utilities. Without marketing, there are no customers. Without customers, there is no business.

The worst part is that many want to pay next to nothing (sometimes less than minimum wage) and expect a full team: social media management, ad creation, website, design, content... all included. There's a real lack of understanding of the true value of this work.

What has your experience been like with this kind of client?

Hi, I would like to know if people still create lead magnets and is it working? And also do you create lead magnets just to collect email addresses?

Is creating a right lead magnets hard? Can you suggest me any courses or videos to look into?

I've been wondering, if you had to choose one email marketing platform to stick with for the rest of 2025, what would it be? What's the reason?

Are you making every single decision off heatmaps, survey responses, etc.?

Or do you still trust your guts for things like creatives and copy?

Has anyone ever made a wild creative call and had it actually pan out?