Well, it's finally happened. After dozens of phone chats, interviews, internet research, pro and con charts, negotiations and deep, deep contemplation, I have finally made a career move, and a major one, at that. I am officially and happily employed with JXT Consulting in North Sydney, as Social Media and Communications Specialist! Ya-HOO! (er, sorry, Yahoo! 7, I decided not to go with you, despite the beautiful views and fantastic harbour location).
I am so, SO excited to get on board! My new job doesn't start until 5 October, so I have some time to prepare. And prepare I most certainly will. I'm spending heaps of time online these days, just listening to conversations on twitter, reading articles on social media platforms, social media marketing, SEO, FBML, etc. My job will be essentially to sell social media to recruitment companies. How perfect is that!? I've just spent the past 4 months as a recruiter dying to get into the social media space, and along comes an opportunity for me to just that, allowing me to utilise my recruitment experience, to boot!
Let me back up for a minute. I had initially signed a contract with Ability People in Sydney CBD, where I was to be trained and mentored into a recruiter, eventually opening up my own division in the social media/digital media arena. In addition, I would act as Communications/Marketing Manager across all of their locations, including their UK sites. Very cool! I'd set them up on facebook, twitter, etc and implement a social recruiting strategy for the company itself, as well. In my work at Sherborne, I had become increasingly interested in the ways in which social media could be used by recruiters to find talent; after all, candidates these days are more likely than not to turn to facebook first when looking for a job.
Anyway, so I was fully on board with Ability People, anxious to start and ready to go, when I received a phone call from JXT. They had found my resume on linkme.com.au (the SECOND time now that I have successfully landed a full time job via this website, without having to apply or even express interest--incredible!) and they wanted me to come in and have a chat. At first I was hesitant, as I was already settled into the idea of working for Ability People, but when he said the words "social media," my ears really perked up. I heard him out, and agreed to go in and chat. To be honest, I was astounded that were jobs out there in social media (which I love) for someone as junior as myself. I knew that there were social media specialists (in fact, I single handedly placed one at BUPA healthcare while I was at Sherborne; you're welcome, Cara!!), but I had never considered myself social-media-savvy enough to actually do it myself. I subscribe to all the social media RSS feeds, read blogs and tweet about social media, but I haven't actually implemented a real SM campaign before, aside from Sherborne's lame facebook and twitter pages, which I never had time to monitor/build upon during my time there.
So I went to North Sydney on a Monday afternoon, had a chat with the Sales Manager and the BDM, met the developers and even the CEO. It's a small office, with a small team, but everyone was fantastically friendly. JXT provides technology solutions for recruiters, implementing SEO and SMO strategies for recruitment companies. SMO--social media optimisation--is where I come in. I'll be "selling" the social media side of things to clients, both new and old, implementing SM strategies (facebook, twitter, blogs, etc), monitoring their online presence for a few months, then educating them on how to best maintain and build upon that online community. I also get to do a fair bit of copywriting, so the $20G I spent on my masters degree (Journo & Comm) isn't completely gone to waste! I also get to do a fair bit of traveling around Sydney, and thus will be given a company car. Hasta la vista, public transportation! And hello, Sydney roads. LEFT is RIGHT...LEFT is RIGHT...LEFT is RIGHT....
So I interviewed Monday arvo, was offered the job Tuesday morning, took Wednesday to think about it, and sent through the signed contract on Thursday. Oh, and they're sponsoring me! Australians are stuck with me for at LEAST another four years :)
All in all, I'm a very happy little vegemite :) I cannot WAIT to get on board with JXT, and really show them what I'm made of. I've said it before, and I'll say it again....
World, watch out!!
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