Summary

Kim, a Marketing Lead at Decentraland, shares her experience of balancing motherhood with a career in the metaverse, highlighting the flexibility and social aspects of web3 work environments.

Abstract

The article delves into Kim's journey as she navigates the challenges of being a full-time mother and a professional in the web3 space. As the Marketing Lead at Decentraland, she discusses how the metaverse has provided her with unique opportunities to maintain a work-life balance, allowing her to engage in social activities and professional growth while caring for her children. Kim's transition from traditional advertising to web3 began during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading her to discover NFTs and eventually take on a pivotal role in Decentraland's marketing efforts. The flexibility of her role in a web3 organization enables her to manage her time effectively, participate in her children's lives, and maintain a social life within the virtual world, which she describes as both therapeutic and fulfilling.

Opinions

Kim values the ability to work flexible hours, which allows her to volunteer at her daughter's school and catch up on work later, a setup that would be difficult with traditional office hours.
She appreciates the social interactions within Decentraland, where she can engage with the community and enjoy leisure activities, such as dancing, without the need for physical presence.
Kim sees Decentraland as a platform that offers a blend of socializing, learning, and building a digital identity, which can be distinct from one's real-life identity.
She recommends that parents looking to enter the web3 space should leverage their existing skills, network effectively, and be open to new opportunities, as the web3 job market can offer a more favorable work-life balance.
Kim emphasizes the importance of showcasing skills on social media and being receptive to unexpected connections

Motherhood and the Metaverse

Decentraland’s Marketing Lead, Kim, shares how she successfully balances work, life and motherhood in the web3 space.

Written By: Astroporcelain

Parenting is hard. Rewarding but hard. You are required to be a jack of all trades (cooking, cleaning, caring, providing financially) but a master of none (there is just never enough time in a day to hone one task) and you are constantly in your head about how much more you think you should be doing since you can’t get to it all today (I do this all the time).

But with such sacrifice, and varying degrees of imposter syndrome, comes the small wins in life such as hanging out with friends in Decentraland. Social excursions without the kids tagging along become few and far between, sometimes to the point where you rarely get to leave the house at all.

Kim, the Marketing Lead at Decentraland, has come across a similar experience as a full-time mom and full-time working professional. She shares her experience juggling these roles and how she embraces motherhood in the metaverse.

Listening to MissOCoolGirls twitter space | Source: Kim Currier

New Beginnings

Much of Kim’s career entailed working for traditional advertising agencies. She first encountered NFTs in 2021 after her brother introduced her to Top Shot, officially licensed digital NBA collectables. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Kim decided to leave her agency job to become a stay-at-home mom due to daycare closures.

“While I enjoyed the extra time with my daughter (while also being pregnant with my son), I craved mental stimulation,” Kim says. “As a remedy for this, I dove into NFT collecting and kickstarted a freelance career in marketing and project management. My journey took an unexpected turn when I connected with an artist launching a PFP project. For a year, I led the project management and marketing side of things, during which we created Decentraland wearables for our community and sparked conversations with the Decentraland team.”

It was here that Kim learnt about Decentraland as a metaverse platform and its budding community. Whilst on a Discord server, she noticed a post about the team wanting to expand their marketing department. She didn’t hesitate to DM the team. Kim was successfully selected as part of the pool of potential candidates and after many interview rounds and project tests, she was onboarded to the team as social media manager in September 2022. “Over time, I took on more responsibilities outside of just social,” Kim explains. “Now, I am the Marketing Lead, overseeing all of our marketing and communication efforts. While I never expected to be working in the ‘new tech’ industry, I’m so excited about this space and am glad I trusted myself with each pivot in my career.”

Kim at the House of Tang stage during DCLMF23 | Source: Kim Currier

Work-life Balance

Working for a web3-type organization such as Decentraland has given Kim the freedom to curate and plan her life more effectively as both a mom and a working professional. “I typically have meetings from about 6 am to 10 am and my husband covers ‘the morning shift’ with our kids,” she says. “After that, I get my work done as needed with the flexibility to live my life. Some days that means I stay at my desk and crank all day while the kids are at school. Other days that means I can volunteer in my daughter’s classroom during the day and catch up with work at night, which would be so difficult if I had to go to an office and work traditional hours. Flexibility in working hours is a requirement for me as I explore roles at this stage of my life.”

Another major benefit to her current role is her ability to still be social even without having to physically be in an office with her colleagues. “I love jumping in World and seeing how the community is engaging with the platform and one another. It’s a very different type of role for me as a marketer to be able to be a part of their experience with the platform,” Kim says.

Decentraland also gives Kim a chance to blow off some steam and socialise in an out-of-work setting. “Juggling work-from-home and parenting limits my social outings, but I love to go out and dance! Having a space to ‘get dressed up’ and show off some moves (which are way better in Decentraland than IRL) after putting the kids to bed is my secret social remedy,” she says. “It’s hard being a parent and putting many of your favorite social activities on the back burner for a bit, but jumping in and seeing other parents hanging out or even participating with their kids makes me so happy. I love that Decentraland makes it possible to blend parenthood with some well-deserved fun.”

First Timers

For parents wanting to get started in Decentraland but are not too sure how, Kim offers some words of advice. “As parents, we are always weighing up the cost of our time and understanding the commitment we are agreeing to. Jumping into Decentraland for me is a way to check off multiple boxes at once, without any future commitments. I get to fill my social bucket, learn something new, and build my digital identity, which may differ from my IRL identity.”

Making a career move can also be daunting, especially when you are a parent. However, exploring opportunities in the web3 job market may offer you a better work-life balance that Kim seems to have found. She recommends first identifying skills that seamlessly transfer from your current role and then updating your resume to emphasize those adaptable experiences. Next, follow and connect with companies you’re interested in and engage with their brands. “Don’t just try to pitch them your work,” she says. “If you don’t already, share your skills and showcase your work on social media, especially Twitter and LinkedIn. Demonstrate what you can do without the sales pitch. As people start to learn what your areas of expertise are, they will keep you in mind as roles come up. Also, let your network know you are open to new opportunities. The more people that can identify a good fit and recommend you, the better. And just go for it! Career moves happen all the time in web3. Be open to the random DM, take that call with a friend of a friend. You never know what can come from it given how fast this space moves.”