And now for something completely different

Like a blog post! Kidding, but I have neglected my poor blog for far too long. What happened to my new year’s resolution of blogging every other day?

Maybe it’s because I’ve been very busy, and I want to relax when I come home. I started a new job a couple of weeks ago. I needed a kick, because staying with a company purely because you don’t want 2 jobs of less than a year of your resume is just plain stupid, and there are lots of good jobs out there. I love learning and I love knowledge, whether that’s being taught or teaching, and I got stuck in a lot of ifs and buts and maybes that weren’t what I wanted.

I’ve been asked a few times, how come you’re so lucky with getting jobs in this kind of market? The answer is, my luck comes from having decent experience in a niche but up-and-coming area, and also from the fact that a hobby I started at random almost ten years ago happened to be focused around a set of essential web skills. So, sorry, there’s no magic formula, and trust me, I’m still learning what I want (though I have a far better idea of what that is compared to when I first graduated).

Right now, what I want is what I’ve got. A job that’s only a 15-20 minute walk away, surrounded by geeks, lots to learn, lots to do, surrounded by people who make sensible decisions and suggestions, and for more money. My official job title is SEO and Social Media Marketing Executive, which basically means working with the company’s Twitter account, develop a Facebook page and build up a fanbase, write blog posts, research stuff and make SEO suggestions. Most of these things I’ve never done in a corporate environment, so it’s been really interesting and I’m lucky to have this opportunity as most businesses tend to be either a) scared of social media b) planning to use it but not got very far and don’t have a strategy c) tried it for a bit and didn’t put much effort in. I definitely see this as an area that’s going to develop massively as brands get more competitive, and I totally expect that in five years’ time at most, this is going to be a commonplace consultancy/implementation job.

Tonight the company was up for a local business award. It was a fairly fancy black tie affair, there was a sit-down meal and I got to talk to some lovely people. The girl I sat next to was my age, and had graduated the same time as me, but instead of even looking to compete for a job, had set up her own company with a friend. It was pretty inspiring being there, because although the speeches were tedious and the videos slightly cheesy, it’s easy to miss out on things people have achieved and what’s going on in the community. I learned some new things and there was free food and drink, so it’s all good.

I finally managed to book my summer holiday today. I say ‘summer’, we’re going in mid-September but it might be a little cooler then so fingers crossed. Joe, Tabi and Kevin are coming with me, and we’re going to Greece, Croatia and Italy – there should be tons of photo opps and plenty of sea-related stuff so I’m looking forward to it! I should come back with at least 400-500 new photos for the gallery. I’ve already started buying a few things to take – working on the basis that if I buy a few things at a time it’ll burn less of a hole in my pocket, and also that they’ll have stopped selling summer clothes by late August. So far I’ve bought a black two in one dress that doubles as a skirt and some red and white stripy flip flops. I need to do some paid writing and buy some things from Amazon!

Finally, I installed WordPress 3.0. I did wait a bit, nothing seems to be broken, but I’m still holding my breath. If you notice anything broken, please leave a comment. I’m also considering attending the UK’s WordCamp, but I don’t really want to go on my own and don’t know who I could rope in to go with me, so we’ll see what happens.

For now, I’ll leave you with a few questions: what are your summer plans? what’s the most expensive thing you’ve bought so far this year? have you stuck to any new year’s resolutions that you made?