Starting a new job

Today is day 6. I already LOVE my new boss. She is very supportive, she is knowledgable, she defers to me when it comes to SEO because it's a new area for her to learn. We had a most positive 1:1 meeting yesterday, which made me feel very happy to be there.

I also know a lot more than I think I do, and have a lot to offer this company. I am providing suggestions for how to develop the corporate blog that I think will make it a success. I am very excited about being on this super important project! Some company members don't understand the point of a blog and have expressed skepticism. But when done correctly, with a strategy in place, it can actually drive revenue for a company. I know this from having had five years of content marketing experience and from having studied blog development best practices. I know a lot about this topic and have read a ton about successful blog strategy.

I have had very positive meetings so far with each team member. My boss wanted me to arrange about 15 separate "meet and greet" meetings with various team members and company staff that I will be working with. While I don't completely yet understand their roles and exactly what their involvement is on the marketing side, I understand the bigger picture and am truly excited to be a part of the marketing team!

They also do not have a CRO expert on staff (conversion rate optimization), and I've taken a certification course in CRO. They all are telling me that the conversion rate is low for their paid advertisements. So, I feel I have some valuable input to offer here on how to improve and increase the conversion rate on the website, which will increase revenue for the company.

I feel I can really add value in my position and become an asset to this company. The only thing is, is that it's a large corporation with many opinions and hoops to go through to get changes to the website approved. That's OK.

Also, it's pretty darned nice to be on the other side for once, meaning I am the client working with an external agency, providing the requirements for the agency's recommendations. I've been on the agency side of things for a long time (four years), so it's really great to be on the other side of the conversation now. I get to be the one to judge the agency's recommendations and strategies, I get to be the one to provide the agency with our internal requirements and to evaluate the agency's work. How awesome is that! When on the agency side, it's so much more stressful because you are catering to your clients and you want to make your clients happy with the results. So I finally get to be the client! Hooray!

Not only that, but I get to work closely on the blog with my counterpart who lives in Amsterdam but who is English, and another team member is from Australia. I love this.. it's a global company so I get to work with members from all over the world. How awesome!

I think I am really going to enjoy this position, beyond my wildest imagination. I know it's still really early in my tenure, but so far so good, and I am excited. I haven't been this excited about a job in YEARS.

All positives! Very happy for you

Thank you!

I ran up against a couple of the downsides of my new job.

Getting myself set up with all the tools and systems I need in order to do my job has been a headache and chore. I am still not set up with the tools I need after a full week of work. I am having to ask many different people for help.

Then, on top of it, the younger people in my department who all site nearby my desk are all VERY LOUD. They talk in very loud voices, laughing and talking at length and I cannot concentrate with that level of noise! It's very annoying and thoughtless in my opinion. At least try to keep it down to a dull roar! UGH.

They had a happy hour after work yesterday. I heard them talking about it openly in the office this week. but I figured I wasn't invited because I'm the freelancer and I never received an email invite. Then, last minute my colleague tells me of course you're invited... so I said I had plans and I left at 5. He told me there will be many others in the future that I can join. I didn't feel like joining this one.

Noise cancelling headphones? Are those allowed?


You could give it a try for the next happy hour if you feel like it. Check it out and see how it makes you feel. My work place does those on Fridays. I usually don’t go for several reasons. But I go to other gatherings. Pick and choose what suits you. Those things aren’t required and is entirely everyone’s personal choice. And you’ve been there only one week. It’s ok to not partake in events yet

I bought noise cancelling headphones... they were not cheap!!! But I got a good pair, I think.

I will join the next happy hour, but I will only have 1 drink so that I don't make a fool of myself. I want to socialize with people and get to know them better.

There are SO many meetings in my new job. Yesterday I had 6 meetings!!!! And, no one is really prepping me for them, so I am going into them rather blind and have to wing it when I am called upon. I don't like winging it, but I also don't want to ask every time there's a meeting what I should. be prepping. But I likely will start asking more.

My boss told me earlier this week that her goal is to hire me on full time in six months, so that was very positive to hear.

I also handed in in-depth holiday keyword research to about 30 people who were in our holiday planning meeting the other day. I felt my spreadsheet looked kind of messy, but my colleague said it was good to send, so I trusted his judgement and sent it out as is. It has lots of comments in the sheet that both he and I had added.

It's harder being a freelancer needing to prove myself every day so that I can be hired in six months. It's a bit stressful, and I suffer from worry enough as it is. I just want to be stellar in my role, stand out and make an impact. I will get there.

I am having to challenge and push back on the external digital agency regarding their work. I found some of their work to be mediocre, at best, and not up to my standards. I also found some of their work to be missing some key elements. I brought this to my boss's attention, and she says it is fine for me to send it back to the agency to redo the work.

I also am finding that the senior strategist at this agency, who is a male, is giving ME some pushback, as well as my more junior male colleague. I am senior to both of them, and have far more years of niche industry experience. I am really sick and tired of dealing with men in my field who cannot respect a woman who has more knowledge and experience than they do. I don't know what it is that I do wrong to not earn their respect and it bothers me.

I mentioned a strategy to my junior colleague that I want to implement. He challenged me by posing a concern regarding this strategy. I did not have the words in the moment, to support it, so a day later, I sent him a detailed email outlining the strategy more, supporting it with evidence and then telling him if he has any other concerns, to please let me know. I also said that I would bring this strategy to our boss for discussion, which I did, and she LOVES my idea. My idea can potentially drive significantly more traffic AND revenue to the website. My junior colleague never replied to my email.

So, I don't know what's really going on here. Do these two males have big egos? And they don't like having a female above them telling them what is what? Or, maybe I rub them the wrong way with my approach.

I have dealt with tons of male sexism in my industry over the years. In one company, I worked with an all male team, and was spoken down to by one of my male colleagues.

UGh. It can really suck being a female in the work environment sometimes. I have to learn a better way to communicate my ideas so that I am inclusive of my male colleagues and don't alienate them, while also showing that I know what I am talking about and gaining their respect.

It's hard.

It’s hard. Team work is hard no matter how you slice it.

I think maybe try to focus your mind on the quality of work and working as a team. Like keep that on the front of your mind: what’s better for the company and how to work as a team. I’d try to not let my mind go too deep into you being senior and superior in your experience and knowledge and them being juniors and less knowledgeable. Even if it’s absolutely the case, if you start focusing on it in your mind in first weeks of work it would add to your stress and will affect your attitude about these people.

I know easier said than done. In my next life I’ll be independently wealthy and will not need to work at all lol Spend our whole lives working like work horses. Isn’t it something.

Good luck with your new venture - you got this.
I am home job searching currently so I know how roller coaster - ish the whole process can be. In my mind at this point I think it is preferable to go thru some uncomfortability at the start than going out and searching again. Best to you ~

LOL. Me too. I would love to. be independently wealthy so I didn't have to work!

Teamwork IS hard. Everyone wants their opinions heard, everyone wants their input to count and everyone wants their to share in decision-making.

I only get an attitude when more junior team members than me feel the need to tell me what's what and override things I say or put forward.

Two more junior males did this to me this week. One in a team meeting, and the other, over email, with several others involved To me they seem full of ego.

I was unemployed from Jan - July this year, so I know your pain. It's hard to be unemployed. Then again, once the warm weather hit, I took myself to the beach a lot and enjoyed some of my time off, despite the stress of it all. You have to give yourself permission to take breaks and to watch over your mental health. Best wishes to you as well, and thank you!

Boy ARE YOU right about taking good breaks. Thanks for the reminder about the beach. I haven't been in too many days. I am in FLa US> where are you?

I’m in the northeast US. Yes breaks are necessary!!!

So, I am proposing a massive site-wide change on the New Balance website that could/will significantly raise both site traffic and revenue from the search engines. It's a massive project. I am pulling together a powerpoint presentation to present my business case for this change to the higher ups that would have a say in the decision.

I am excited AND nervous. It's a massive undertaking, and it would get me hired, if I succeed. And I strongly believe this tactic and change will make a huge difference. Nike, their trop competitor, has this tactic in place on their website, and they own the majority of the market share in the Google search engine. This change I am proposing would give New Balance far greater visibility in Google, and a far larger share of the search market. Right now, their visibility is only at 11%, and Nike is like at 60% or more.

I also had a status update meeting with these two ego-filled men I've mentioned who have been trying to challenge me. I did well and I am proud of myself for it. I did my due diligence research to back up my stance and I presented my data in yesterday's meeting to the group. I think I proved and supported my point effectively because I got the group to support me in wanting more of something that was lacking in their work for the company blog. So, yay for me! I stood my ground, being the most senior member on that team aside from the agency Director who is in charge of the agency's team. He was on yesterday's call listening in.

I had brought the issue to the Director's attention with his more junior team member who had disrespected and disregarded my professional input and opinion on the blog strategy the other day. I met with the the Director 1:1 on Wed and expressed my concerns and stance. I told him that I have 11 years of SEO experience and 5 years of content marketing experience, and was blunt and said that I know what I am talking about. I also requested that if his more junior team member needs to disagree with me, that we take the conversatIon offline for further discussion, and to not disagree with me openly on team calls. That's what I felt was disrespectful. I am, after all, more senior to this team member. He has only 3 years of dedicated SEO experience, yet he carries a Senior SEO Strategist title. I have 8 more years of industry experience than he does. I do view him as far more junior, but I respect his input as well. And that's fine. He will have good insights and great experience to offer, but in the end, I expect him to defer to my judgement, given that 1) I am the client, and the agency should adjust strategy if need be and if I make that request, and 2) I am more senior.

I am not full of ego - it's the opposite. Yet, when dealing with egotistical men in the workplace, and in my particular industry, I have found that it's important for me to stand my ground, support my stance with data and evidence, and to exert my authority as a female leader in a way that shows I have confidence.

And I think I accomplished that very effectively in yesterday's status call with this group. My boss was also on the call.

It’s important to stand your ground but be mindful re complaining about colleagues that early on the job. It hasn’t even been a month. Even if your bosses are receptive, they’ll take a note that you aren’t a team player and complain so early on. I am not saying you are wrong, just be mindful how it looks.

Maybe you could speak to the guy directly how you two could discuss disagreements in the future. Like going off line. Maybe building good rapport with him will pay off.

And even if he and all the rest of them are all inferior to you, he holds a senior strategist position. Even if he sucks and is inexperienced, your bosses apparently value him and his job. I’d be careful bringing up how long he’s been doing something. They might not care about it

Again not saying you are wrong. Just be careful creating a reputation for yourself that you can’t get along with people. You might be better exerting your authority by demonstrating quality of your work, which you have been doing

Well, the difference is that this guy I complained about is in the EXTERNAL AGENCY and NOT within my OWN COMPANY. My company hired THEM, and we PAY THEM for their services. So, I felt it was within my rights to go to this guy's boss and let him know that as the CLIENT, I felt I was treated disrespectfully.

There's a HUGE DIFFERENCE between going to MY BOSS about an INTERNAL COLLEAGUE and going to the agency's boss to let him know that I didn't appreciate the disregard of my professional input and opinion on a client call.

The agency MJUST be mindful of how their employees speak with us on the phone and in client calls and they MUST be respectful of our opinions and input.

I also highly DOUBT that the agency director brought this to my boss's attention. He likely does not want to shed a spotlight on it. And I told him that I did not bring it to my own boss's attention internally.

Oh I see. I thought the guy works for NB and you’d want to be careful if you eventually want to be hired by NB. I am glad to be wrong on all accounts in regards to this situation. I’d not want you to get a bad rep in a new place. Hopefully everyone was receptive to your criticism and will adjust accordingly

Yeah. I would not say a single thing if it were a NB employee!!! That would be a no-no if I want to get hired. So yeah, it was just with the agency, and that’s it.