Where’s Waldo – or rather Where’s Sarah #mynewjob

With 18 hours until I start my new job (the nerves are kicking in), I think it is now time for me to share with you where you’ll be able to find me starting Monday morning.

A number of you already know because either  a) you are a good detective or b) you have run into me at an event and I have shared the news with you.

Tomorrow I will start my new role as Social Media Specialist with the London Convention Centre.

I look forward to taking on this new role and cannot wait to get to know everyone a the London Convention Centre.

My primary responsibilities will be to manage website content (I’ll do my best not to break the website Echidna!), including the LCC blog, and to manage all social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter).

I will fulfill other duties outside of these, but these will be my main responsibilities and the things you see me doing.

 

Here are all of the links:

London Convention Centre Website

London Convention Centre Blog

London Convention Centre Fan Page (Facebook)

London Convention Centre Group (Linked In)

London Convention Centre Twitter Account (@LondConvCentre)

 

I expect the number of fans, group members and followers to shoot up in the next week because all of you are going to follow me at work right? 

 

Feel free to send me a message to say hi, or to ask questions or make comments.

If you have any suggestions for content that you would like to see discussed on the LCC blog or on any of the social media platforms, feel free to send me a message via the @LondConvCentre twitter account or through my personal @Sadie_Liz account and I will see what I can do to address the topics that you suggest when possible.

Also if you have any favourite resources for any of the following feel free to send them my way, I would love to see them.

– Social Media or Social Media Metrics

– Emerging Technologies

– Conferences/Trade Shows

– Event Planning

– Presenting

– Business Meetings

– Wedding Planning

– Anything else you enjoy

 

Working at the LCC will mean that I am spending my days in London; this will allow me to attend more events and participate in more things happening in the London community. I have already started attending Geek Dinner (#gdldn) and I have joined Emerging Leaders. I look forward to getting involved in more things, including working with the Chamber again, and getting involved with the IABC and other community groups.

Hopefully being in London on a daily basis will allow me to continue to get to know the people I have met over the last couple of months (and maybe years for some) and meet even more great people in the London community.

I look forward to being a part of the London professional community!

Don’t be shy, if you see me in person or online, say hi!

 

 

I really hate being unemployed

I really hate being unemployed …

 

 

 

 

 

 

… so it’s probably a good thing that as of August 15th I will be employed!

 

I won’t share all of the details yet, as I am not sure if  I am able to. I will though say that I have been interviewing for a job in here in London ON. After two rounds of interviews over the last two weeks, I received a call this morning offering me the position. By 1:00 p.m. this afternoon I was at my new place of employment reviewing and eventually signing my contract and receiving some information on my new role.

My start date is August 15th, so on the 15th there will be a blog post (or maybe two, one here and one from my new job) letting you all know where I am and what I am doing.

I will say that this is a full-time, permanent position (providing I make it through probation, but I don’t see that being a problem), that is in my field and here in the London area.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me on my quest to find employment, it has meant a lot. The 3 year process to finding a permanent position was tough and having people to help my keep my spirits up was invaluable to me. A lot of people told me many times along the way that I should give up on London and move to a bigger city. I am glad that I did not though, because this area is my home and it is where I want to be. I look forward to being part of the London working community with all of the brilliant minds who are also working, or searching for work.

Thank you all for your support to this point, I look forward to being more involved in the London community as I take on my new role.

 

The Salary Question

Last week I blogged about an interview I had, well I made it to the second round. Based on what they told me the interview process will likely only be two rounds. I assume it is down to myself and likely 1-5 other candidates.

I am going into this interview fairly confident. I know my stuff, I am smart, talented and extremely hardworking, they would be lucky to have me.

There is one question I am dreading though; it is the question I always dread and stumble on.

The salary question; “How much are you hoping to earn?” “What do you think a fair salary would be?”

I hate that question with a passion, especially when I am going in blind.

When the job posting has no salary range attached to it and they’ve offered no information of that sort, it’s a crapshoot on what to say.

I don’t want to go too high because that could decrease my chances of getting the job. At the same time I do not want to go too low and totally undercut what I could be making.

I have an idea of what I would like to make and what I think I am worth, but I hate vocalizing that. Also do I give a range or a hard number?

I love the work I do, I love the profession I chose and would rather money not get in the way of me getting or doing a job. At the same time though, money is a necessary evil in life, I need it to pay my bills, pay off my debt and pay for the wardrobe I began purchasing for these interviews and hopefully this job.

I’m just uncomfortable with the asking for money ‘thing’. I know it is ridiculous and it is part of life but money talk has made me uncomfortable for as long as I can remember, I think because it was usually the source of family blowouts growing up and honestly still is to this day.

I like to think I have a good relationship with money, but it has some dark history that comes along with it.

Does anyone else hate this question or am I alone in wishing this question would not come up in interviews?

My Dream Job

The phrase “dream job” has for some reason always thrown me for a loop. People ask me what my dream job is and I blank, or ramble on in a wishy-washy kind of manner.

I don’t know why defining my dream job trips me up so much. Maybe I’m afraid if say it out loud someone will take it from me, which is ridiculous because if I don’t say it out loud, no one is taking it from me, but I am keeping it from myself.

I think part of it is that I often been told that my dreams are unrealistic or childish.  For a decade now (since high school) my focus has been on finding a career and job that I love. I do not want to be one of those miserable people who dreads going to work on a daily basis and who lets their dislike of their job negatively impact every other aspect of their life. I want a job that makes me happy, but others have told me that I need a job that makes me financially stable. I don’t see why I can’t have both.

I want to be the person that looks forward to waking up each morning and going to work. I want to be the person who can’t help but brag about how great their jobs is. I want to enjoy the work that I do and feel like it is making a difference or helping someone else to be or do the best they can.

That’s what I love about technology, it has the potential to help people be or do the best they can. Technology has the power to bridge gaps and connect people in ways previously inconceivable. It is not the technology itself though, it is how people use the technology that gives it power.

I’ve had a computer in my house my entire life. I’m 26 (almost 27), so I’m not part of the generation where this fact would be the norm. My grade 8 graduation class prediction (by my class) was that I would be a computer programmer.

Well that didn’t happen, I fell in love with media and journalism in high school and followed that path to Brock University where I studied Popular Culture. While I was at Brock I met a 3M Award winning Professor named Barry Joe who taught classes on Computer Mediated Communications, which in 2003 was something still relatively new. It may not have new, but it was still somewhat ‘niche’ it hadn’t grabbed a hold of the mass market yet.

These classes combined the two things I loved the most, technology and communications. This was the path I saw my career heading down, I wanted a career in digital communications. During my post-secondary career, at both Brock and Fanshawe I was an advocate for Virtual Educational Environments. I believed that digital communications in an educational setting helped to elevate the academic experience. The traditional education model was Professors Lecturing or Dictating information to their students. Digital environments helped to collapse the educational hierarchy and allowed students to take control over the direction of their education. Digital environments offered students freedom, which gave them the confidence (often through anonymity) to ask questions and present ideas that they were otherwise hesitant to verbalize in a real life classroom

So what is my dream job?

Social Media Coordinator for the Toronto Blue Jays would be great, but since that probably isn’t in the cards (at least not yet) my dream job is:

• A job where I can help others (or a company/organization) achieve their communications goals through the use of technology (website, social media), and possibly traditional communications.

Arguably that would be an ideal position for me, but I wouldn’t mind a position that included that either or that included any/all of the following:

• Communications Planning
• Social Media Planning
• Writing/Researching/Interviewing
• Web Content Management
• Event Planning
• Graphic Design
• Client Relations/Facilitation
• Media Relation

In additional to these things I would really like to work with a company/organization that has a strong corporate culture. By that I mean work within a company where people know each other, interact with each other, help and support each other.  A place where people yes get their work done and are professional, but also know how to laugh and have fun. A company that is not only engaged internally, but engaged externally in  community initiatives or projects. A place that encourage continuous growth and development.

So if you know of any jobs that fit this description please feel free to comment below. Or if you have a job like this available, I’m your girl!