Judged By My Diplomacy, But Hired for My Efficacy? I Need Help.

Hi everyone, to keep my professional career as anonymous as possible I came from a non-traditional career route. I got a B.A. and worked at a content mill for five years. That gave me some experience in social media marketing. Since then, I have had several unsuccessful marketing jobs that have resulted in me being laid off or fired. I am currently working part time marketing for a place, in-house.

This position was advertised as me owning all aspects of marketing but it doesn’t feel that way at all. My bosses expect me to fill in the shoes of their marketing processes and are rarely open to new ideas. I once tried to streamline the process by even putting multiple Word documents into one spreadsheet and they were pissed. I tried to suggest email segmentation and they were not for it. Changes in content style. No. Shooting photos differently. Modernizing reels. Posting less and focusing on quality. No. So I tread lightly. But then I’m thrown these ideas from my bosses, I do them, and we don’t get the results they want to see.

How the fuck am I supposed to use this experience to grow in marketing when I have no KPIs or measurable goals to show for it? Is this normal? Is marketing more of a diplomacy job than an assistance job? How the fuck can I market my experience to my next employer when all I can say is, “I made shitty content that didn’t make my bosses mad.” Does anyone have tips and is this a normal part of marketing? Any advice helps. Again, I have rarely been around marketing people (I’ve been in-house a lot) and am less familiar with the cultural ins-and-outs.