How Sliding Into DMs Got Me My Job

The story of how I got my present social media contracting gig is one that wouldn’t have been thought of decades ago. I got it by DMing Rachel Strella, the owner of #Strella Social Media.

In the fall of 2022, I was rejected from a social media job — and by that, I mean I was ghosted. The company never even gave me an interview. So, I felt a little disappointed about not getting a chance at the social media job I was looking forward to.

Soon after, I was in my Social Media Strategy class at Shippensburg University when Rachel Strella, founder and CEO of #Strella, and Laney Goff, Executive VP, were guest presenters that day.

My class experienced Rachel’s and Laney’s talk via a recording from their live presentation to an earlier class. The focus was on live tweeting, and we were asked to live tweet as we watched the recording. I noticed Rachel was liking all of my tweets and even retweeted one. I thought it was awesome how active and hands-on she was.

By the end of the talk, I knew #Strella was where I wanted to be. Rachel and Laney practiced everything they presented. That was what I was looking for in a job. I knew I wanted to reach out to them, but my professor shut off the screen before I could get their contact information. And so I began to look for their information myself.