One week down

I've finished my first week of school er... work. The timing of this job felt a lot like school, and since the dress code is different (Snowbound was business casual, Bulldog is "No Swimsuits") I had to do some back-to-work clothes shopping. We did this as a family last week, just cruised up to the Round Rock Outlets. Mia and I were both in need of some new athletic and everyday shoes (and have been for a while) and I needed more than one pair of jeans that really fit.
We ended up getting new shoes, some Nike's for both of us -- which we are breaking in now for our trip to Disney -- and some everyday work shoes (that aren't athletic shoes) for me. Mia and I both got some pants as well, and Ethan got a Buzz Lightyear costume for Halloween.

In the end, shopping for clothes is always expensive but we did better at the outlets than we would have anywhere else so we can't complain. They are all things we've been putting off buying for a while, it's our own fault for not spreading out the purchases.

But, enough of the boring stuff. Let's talk about my job.

While my official title is Campaign Manager, that's a fancy title for Project Manager. I keep the pieces moving, preparing for the inevitable launch and trying to make sure that we have as much done as possible before our clients open them up to the world. This is a role I've had before. The daily insanity is similar to what I remember. However, I do have two distinct advantages coming into this role.

1. I understand the marketing. I get what we do, the messaging, the landing pages, the automation, the emails, the marketing side of things I've been doing at Snowbound for 3.5 years. (Also, I really enjoy this kind of stuff.)

2. I understand the chaos. I'm not trying to figure out what Bulldog does while also trying to learn how to juggle projects and keep clients happy. I have a foundation for both of these as well.

But, like I said, this is just a foundation. I still have to learn the intracacies of how Bulldog goes about their process. I still have to learn how to handle my particular clients, and I have plenty to learn about Webinars.

Actually, part of why I took this job (besides not getting an offer for the other one :p ) was so that I could learn more about Webinars. Video is exploding as an online medium and I want to try and get ahead of that wave. This knowledge will definitely be useful to me in future positions.

Bulldog is still a small company. Which means they face an interesting challenge. Any loss of staff makes a big impact on the allocation of resources and work. But, they are also growing so hiring new people means getting them up to speed. Typically for a Campaign Manager they spend a month in training/shadowing on the accounts that will become their clients before getting introduced and taking over the work.

On my first day I was introduced to a client that I'll be taking from one of the CMs that is leaving (I'm pretty much replacing her spot, though they have hired 1 more CM so net gain of 1). In the first week, I have been introduced to 2 more clients, and will be in the kick-off meeting for a brand-spanking-new client next week.  In other words, my training period has been cut a little short. While that makes me a bit nervous, I'm also glad they have confidence that I am able to jump right in and start contributing. This is smart because asking the experienced campaign managers to shoulder too much work will only serve to burn them out, leaving more holes.  (Which no one wants.)

I'll keep you posted on how things progress at Bulldog. But, at the moment, I'm confident that I've found a good place for me to be here in Austin.