Have you ever felt out of your depth, like a fraud, and just guessed/bullshitted your way through the situation, petrified that at any time, someone was going to call you on it? - Mike-Cannon Brookes
A great way to personalize conversations is to first be vulnerable yourself. Mind you, being vulnerable and invading privacy are two separate things. By being vulnerable, you are not entirely blurring the lines between whatâs personal and whatâs private. If youâre empathetic and open about certain aspects of your life, there are chances that others will be too. But you have to realize that this cannot be forced; people donât have to open up to you if they donât want to. The good thing is that anything that people say will be a result of choice and not an invasion of their privacy. In todayâs world, people understand the difference. At the same time, it's important to define and set boundaries in a community to ensure the quality of conversations before-hand. Too little privacy and too much equates to a double-edged sword but you need to be able to encourage mutual conversation and tread the beautiful space that lies in between.
In 2018, I took a Udacity course in front-end web development and found the community managers to be stellar advocates who were really motivating. I was looking to break into tech, and got inspired and started applying for community-type jobs as a result. I landed my first gig at Khan Academy, where I led and managed volunteer groups for a year before moving onto Quora to oversee writer and power user programs, and am now doing the same at Retool. - Alina Din, Community Manager at Retool