Alexa Graham had long dabbled in video editing for fun, whether it was cutting One Direction clips together or creating movie trailer-style Marvel videos. Her fan content creation was just a hobby, until one Marvel TikTok edit landed her a job.

Graham, 26, had been working as a student advisor at Westcliff University in Irvine, California, when she first posted the video complete with dramatic fade-ins, carefully timed action sequences and the constant echo of Kendrick Lamar's "DNA." in the background.

"This edit took 20ish hours so if you could take a second to watch I'd really appreciate it," Graham said at the beginning of the 2021 TikTok.

As of July 2024, the edit has 2.5 million views with just over 400,000 likes. It was because of that edit, and the attention it received, that Graham was offered a job as a contractor for New Rockstars in 2021, a YouTube channel that focuses on Marvel, among other franchises.

Graham called the start of her professional editing career "a gift from God."

"I was too scared to pursue film school or leave my job to try and get into editing," Graham tells CNBC Make It. "So, He's like, 'Here, I'm going to hand it to you on silver platter.'"

Graham has secured other editing roles since then, but she's not the only person who's pivoted her fan-driven hobby into full-time work.

Emily Levine is the executive vice president of recruiting firm Career Group Companies, where she has recruited for clients in New York and Los Angeles. Even with the rise of artificial intelligence, "it's really hard to compete with the creative aspect of someone's mind," she says, which actually gives job seekers an advantage.

"I think if somebody is a really good editor or really good content creator, digital marketer, those are people's ideas versus math, versus writing a simple paragraph with ChatGPT," Levine says. "People have the ability to be storytellers and I think that goes hand in hand with the fandom and sharing a perspective or a story."

Levine says those skills are "super transferrable" and can be applied to multiple industries.

Here are three pieces of advice for folks looking to transform their fan skills into professional assets.

Own your interests

Cailey Merulla, 23, is aware of how people view fans, but rather than shying away from her interests, she places them front and center. Her LinkedIn page is a mélange of posts related to her work at an ad agency, her YouTube channel, which chronicles moments in her K-pop fan journey, and her work as social media editor for EnVi Media, a "fan-project turned media company."

Her YouTube channel is what helped her secure a job at Impactable B2B Ad Agency, where she is now the head of the content. When she applied, she included a video that did well, just as an example of skills she could transfer, Merulla says. But recruiters went through the rest of her channel.

"They said that they watched a couple other videos on my channel," Merulla says. "They found that I had the skills, but they also learned my personality and they liked that I had passion for something outside of that, but I can still transfer it to what I'm doing professionally."

If you're worried that your experience as a fan might be met with skepticism during an interview, Levine suggests calling out those potential doubts early on. Once you've acknowledged that there might be preconceived notions about being a fan, you can start highlighting all the tangible skills you've gained.

Levine has worked with folks who are switching careers to something that seems completely unrelated, like going from nannying to becoming an executive assistant. She told them they can say something like, "I know that some people may feel this way about this profession. I really want to take the time to highlight not only what I learned but the recognition I'm getting from it so far."

That kind of preface signals to recruiters "that you have that self-awareness and that you're able to relate to them," she adds, after which you can explain the benefits of that experience and underscore the positives.

Highlight results

Davonna Gilpin, 32, never thought the work she did as a fan could ever translate to a job. As a fan of boy bands and K-pop groups, like NLT and Wonder Girls, she spent years planning fan events, organizing Myspace campaigns and bolstering trends on a very nascent Twitter, now known as X.

But when she started her career in insurance in 2016, she dialed back her work as a fan. As Gilpin volunteered her time outside of the job she described as making her feel "so miserable" to help record labels track fan engagement, one of her friends told her that people are paid to do that sort of work.

"I was like, 'Wait, what?'" Gilpin says.

She quit her insurance job and began to consider social media marketing as a possible career. After freelancing, she went on to land jobs at creative agencies, where she has since managed the social media strategy for clients like Amazon Music and Levi's.

Gilpin, who is also deputy editor at EnVi Media, credits her unique perspective as a fan to her success, but she also recommends folks drive home that experience with quantitative results.

Don't rattle off that type of data in an interview, Levine says, but instead list those metrics on a resume or within your portfolio. Gilpin suggests tracking in-app insights for platforms like X and Instagram to understand who's viewed your posts and the rate of engagement.

"Numbers are always going to be your best friend," Gilpin says. "So, if you have a social media account that has 10,000 followers, make sure you note that you grew that account from scratch to 10,000 followers."

In an interview, Levine says it's a good idea to have work samples ready to go, just in case you have time to walk the recruiter through examples of your experience.

Emphasize your professionalism

If you're searching for a job that might be directly related to your interests as a fan, make sure it's clear that you're motivated by the position, not the opportunity to gain access to the subject of your fandom. Be mindful of the content you share and post, Levine says, because if you do have a bigger following, "that lives on the internet typically forever."

Fans looking to transfer their skills should offer a "sneak peek" into how fans think, Gilpin says, but make sure it circles back to the company or role you're applying for. If you know how to analyze the demographics of an audience because of work you did as a fan, articulate how those analytical skills can produce results at your job, for example.

At the end of day, Gilpin says, fandom is full of passionate folks who "just really want to see successful results and they want to see people win." Emphasizing that mindset is everything.

"That's all anyone wants in a corporate situation or in a job, they want to know that you want to win," she says. "You want to help the company be successful."

As for Graham, she's winding down her video editing career to return to school and study medical imaging. Even though she discovered she didn't want to edit as a job, she still believes that fans add a unique element to professional endeavors.

"Creativity and passion is something that you can't teach," she says.

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