My Digital Career – Day Three
Second Day at Moo HQ
The order of play for today’s My Digital Career was to focus on recent graduates and their progression into working in social and digital media. This is perhaps the most pertinent session for a lot of the attendees still in that post-graduate funk of not knowing exactly where to turn.
Charlie Southwell, Director – Transmute
We met Charlie’s (@CharlieSaidThat) business partner Tiffany St James on the first day of My Digital Career. Charlie claims that he fell into working in digital media, however, it is clear that his tenacity and drive to succeed have fuelled his success to date.
Charlie Said what??
Charlie was introduced to his, Transmute business partner by Steve Ward of Cloud Nine Recruitment. This shows that networks not only get you jobs but may lead to new businesses and wholy bespoke opportunities.
[bctt tweet=”Be tenacious and stick at what you’re doing -continue to do it at 100% and you’ll get noticed. @CharlieSaidThat”]
In setting the business with Tiffany Charlie’s managed to carve out a career that suits him down to the ground. He follows his own work ethos which means that when he’s at work he can focus on 110 percent. He’s a big advocate of continual learning and adaptability. I talked to Charlie after his presentation where he told me about a client but wanted to advertise within SnapChat. With platforms like SnapChat that are so new we have to keep rolling with the punches. Snapchat is so new that even SnapChat don’t have a formalised way to approach them for advertising. It’s stories like this that will make working in digital media continually exciting.
Rachel Kneen, Social Media Manager – 02 Telefonica
Cloud Nine Recruitment helped Rachel (@RachelKneen) get her first role working in an agency. A few career steps later and Rachel is now the Social Media Manager for O2. She had enjoyed her career working in agencies and hadn’t been expecting to make the change in house but the perfect opportunity arose.
Social Media is all about cats
[bctt tweet=”If you can pick something and you know what you want, go for it and go all the way (@RachelKneen)”]
The change to working in house at O2 means that she now sees a different side of social media campaigns and gets to enjoy a larger budget. One of the most enjoyable things about working in-house is that you get to see campaigns from start to finish.
It must be great to have an idea, or be involved in a concept from start and see all the way through to launch. Rachel showed was a video of her campaigns. There was only one real word that could be used to describe what she does, “cool”!
Ben Fox, Social Media Strategist – 33
Ben was apologetic about his humble beginnings(@bnfx). Ben comes from Walthamstow in East London best known as the stomping ground of the 90s band East-17. Ben was the first person in his family to go to university and came away the 2:2. I don’t think there’s any reason to apologise for that, many people go to university and fail or dropout!
With Inspector Gadget’s Coat
His work with 33 is unique to all other Social media panellists that presented during this week. His role was to change the perception of his clients in order that they get the right kind of people and the right mix of people to apply for opportunities. One of his clients is an investment bank so graduate and job seekers looking for a career in finance know to apply to them. A perception shift was required to encourage other talented applicants for the non finance roles.
[bctt tweet=”Try and enjoy the interview experience, even if you don’t get the job you want first time round @bnfx”]
I like this as a twist on how social media can be important. This is different to the B2C and B2B models, this is B2HR really. Career in digital and social media is really a career working with people. Its how you connect and engage with these people that set you apart.
Tenacity
The willingness to keep going was a strong theme in today’s panel and along with the desire to learn and the power of networking will be high on my list of takeaways from this week at My Digital Career.
Bring on Day 4!
K*
