From Content Creator to Career: What Au Pairs Learned at Our "Content to Career" Webinar
APW’s own Emily Farthing and Siena Rampulla have built careers in content creation, photography, marketing, and social media. Recently, they held a webinar with au pairs to share practical advice on turning creative skills into future career opportunities.
The Content to Career webinar was designed for au pairs thinking about what comes after their program year. Emily and Siena shared real examples, helpful tools, and steps attendees can start taking now.
Watch the Full "Content to Career" Webinar
Wondering what it’s all about? Check out our recap below, or watch the full recording (including the Q&A!) here: https://hubs.la/Q04qCJ2X0
Why Content Creation Is a Real Career Path for Au Pairs
Being an au pair puts you in a unique position. You are living in a new country, experiencing a different culture, meeting people from around the world, and having experiences that many people only dream about!
All of those experiences can become meaningful content. Not only that, but it’s also an opportunity to grow as a content creator in a low-pressure environment. If you are already creating content about your life in the United States, then this is a great time to build content skills, an audience, and a portfolio before you monetize.
This means that you get a full year to:
Get comfortable on camera without any pressure to perform.
Experiment with formats on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
Learn what your audience actually responds to.
Push past the "cringe" phase every creator has to get through.
By the time you're ready to earn from your content, you'll already know what works!
Note: Au pairs are in the U.S. on a J-1 visa, and the program comes with strict rules about outside income. The webinar encouraged attendees to build their audience and skills during their program year, then explore monetization after returning home.
Two Paths to a Career in Content
Once you return to your home country, there are two main career paths you can explore
1. Becoming a Content Creator
This path focuses on building your own personal brand and audience. Over time, creators may earn income through opportunities such as brand partnerships, sponsored content, affiliate marketing, platform programs, products, or services.
During the webinar, Emily and Siena walked through how to find your "North Star" (the “why” behind your content) and how platforms like Facebook and TikTok have their own built-in ways to pay creators for consistent posting.
2. Becoming a Social Media Manager
Not everyone wants to be the face of their own brand, and that's completely fine. Social media management allows you to use many of the same creative skills while building content for a business, organization, or client. The webinar covered two common ways to work as a social media manager: working in-house as part of a company’s marketing team or freelancing and managing accounts for multiple clients.
From Followers to Brand Deals: Media Kits and Pitching
Once you're ready to work with brands, you need a media kit, which is essentially a content creator's resume. It typically includes your engagement rate, audience demographics, and reach.
This webinar also covered how to actually reach out to brands. Instead of sending the same message to every company, start by identifying brands you already know and enjoy. Follow them, interact genuinely with their content, and pay attention to the types of creators they work with. When you are ready to send a pitch, personalize it. Mention something specific that you like about the company and explain how your content could connect with its audience.
Standing Out in a Crowded Space
One question came up more than once during the Q&A: Is the content creation space already too crowded?
Our webinar hosts Emily and Siena honest answer was yes. Yes, there are many creators. But there are also millions of people consuming content every day. There is still space for new voices, stories, and perspectives.
Here are a few ways au pairs can stand out:
Share what is unique about you. Your language, culture, personality, interests, and experiences all shape your perspective.
Tell stories. Do not only share what happened. Give people a reason to care about the experience.
Use your location. Your city, neighborhood, travels, and everyday activities can all become content.
Provide value. Share advice, recommendations, lessons, or information that people will want to save.
Post consistently. Continue creating even when a video does not receive many views or likes.
Whether content creation becomes your next career or simply a fun skill you picked up along the way, your au pair year is giving you more material, and more opportunity, than you may realize. Keep filming, keep showing up, and we'll see you at the next webinar!
What's Next: From Au Pair to What's Next
The webinar ended with a preview of another important topic: what happens when your au pair year ends and it is time to return home?
Our next free webinar, "From Au Pair to What's Next: Your Career, Your Feelings, Your Future," is happening September 17th at 2pm EST / 11am PST. This session will cover:
How to prepare for the emotional journey home.
What reverse culture shock is and how to manage it.
How to turn your au pair experience into career opportunities.
Practical steps for planning your next chapter.
Your au pair year has helped you build confidence, independence, communication skills, and cultural awareness. This webinar will help you recognize those skills and carry them forward.
A Little Something Extra
As a thank-you for being part of the Au Pair Weekend community, we're offering $25 off any in-person Au Pair Weekend course with the code “CONTENT25”! This special discount code is valid through September 1, 2026, on all in-person courses.
So many au pairs don’t realize their experiences can turn into real careers. It's wild how valuable those skills can be later on. Plus, for anyone interested in gaming, check out this breeding calculator resource for some fun insights too. palworld
This title really hit home for me! It reminded me of when I was first starting out as a freelance writer a few years ago. I felt so overwhelmed by all the different platforms and the pressure to constantly create "engaging" content. I remember attending a similar workshop, and the speaker talked about how important it was to define your niche and build a consistent brand voice, not just churn out whatever was trending https://www.anu.edu.au/ It was a lightbulb moment for me. Before that, I was just flailing, trying to be everything to everyone. Learning to focus on what I was passionate about and what I was good at, and then finding ways to monetize that expertise, completely shifted my…
This post title really brought back a memory! A few years ago, I had a friend visiting from Germany, and we decided to do a "tourist in our own city" weekend. We visited all the classic spots, ate at a diner that's been there forever, and even caught a baseball game https://www.utas.edu.au/ It was so much fun to see our familiar surroundings through her eyes and to actively seek out those quintessential American experiences we often take for granted. It made me realize how much there is to appreciate right in our own backyard, and how valuable it is to share that with someone from a different culture. It’s a wonderful way to connect and learn.
I played Block Blast while my camping hammock finished drying after being washed. It was ready to pack away by the time I ended my game.