For those of you that don’t know, I just got a new job.
My senior year of undergrad, I decided to jump in to the work force, and send out a bunch of applications, and not apply to grad school. For someone who always has a plan and needs to stay five steps ahead, this was incredibly scary.
I was looking to work as a social media or marketing manager within higher education. They had quickly become my two loves in college, based on my spectacular experience as an RA for two years, and working as a Social Media/Web Development Intern my senior year. I didn’t want to delay working by going to grad school just yet, so I scoured the internet for job openings that fit my fairly specific ideal job description. Eventually, I began to hear back from a few, but not many. I was incredibly fortunate to earn one on campus interview, and from there, I landed the job.
I just started working as the Web and Social Media Coordinator on June 17th (and yes I celebrated my month-aversary) and I had my own expectations for the job, including:
- Manage the website
- Edit the website when there are errors
- Redesign/reformat the website where needed
- Maintain Social Media Accounts
- Investigate new forms of Social Media
- Maintain any other form of online media marketing
Not too insane I don’t think, right? That’s just based on my title alone, not even the job description that was given to me when I was applying.
Within my first month of working, I quickly learned that I really didn’t do many of the seemingly obvious things I should be responsible for. The website was maintained entirely by our Webmaster, which is all fine and dandy when it comes to back-end coding (a skill that I lack), but when it comes to front end design and content? Nuh-uh. That’s my job.
When I finally met the webmaster, it was awful. I hated the idea of this guy in my head, and when I met him, we got along fine. How can I hate the one person in the office that I can make sarcastic remarks to and laugh with? Thanks a lot, Webmaster.
Pushing our (mutually agreed upon) good personal relationship aside, it still came down to the fact that I had nearly zero responsibilities without access to our website. This was a tough battle, which is still ongoing, but I’m inching my way forward, winning small battles here and there. If I had any sense of pop culture or American history, I would make a reference to it right now. Someone help me out here.
After just about two months working the job, my responsibilities are still drastically different than my job description and the expectations I had when I walked in the door on day one. I’ve earned the added responsibility of:
- Graphics (which I am not very good at)
- Proofreading
- Maintaining Social Media Accounts
- Being my boss’ liaison to ask the Webmaster to do things
- Teaching other departments how to make Facebook groups (which I love!)
- Updating 10% of the website
So, as you can see, the “Web” in my title has faded into the background, but I am determined to earn that admin access!
Credits
Webmaster —- Don’t give up on your dream, and play nice.
My Job Description —- Be flexible and put a smile on!