My "New" Job

As of tomorrow I will have officially been at my “new” job for 2 months.  I can hardly believe it has been that long already!

I must say, that during my time in law school and for the whole time  I was looking for a job, I never actually thought I would end up back in academia.  I figured that I would end up at a law firm and be practicing law.  But looking back, I always loved academia.  I remember countless times thinking I would kill for a position like Dean of Admissions or Dean of Students, because it would be a position in which I could help students and it would be so much fun!

Well someone out there must have been listening to my inner thoughts as opposed to my expressions of wanting a law firm job, because the job I landed was a job in academia, a job helping students, a job in a field I had desired to be in.

I started my job as Director of Admissions and Marketing on November 9, 2011.  At first I was doing a lot of stuff I had not done before and I was frustrated because I was not getting the hang of things as fast as I thought I should.  I was doing a lot of marketing which I knew was part of my job but had not expected to be such a big part of my job.  Marketing was foreign to me – even as a business major, my emphasis had been finance.  I took a grand total of 2 marketing classes in my life.  I was overwhelmed and started to doubt myself.

After a conversation with my mom about my frustrations, she reminded me that it was a brand new thing and I needed to take the time to learn it, not just expect to hit the ground running.  This helped a bit, but I still felt like I should be better at what I was doing.  As the weeks progressed and I finished the books I was reading to help me with the marketing, I started playing with the platform, and that is when things finally started to sink it – I needed to play with it, not just read about it.

At about the time that I finally began to understand the marketing stuff, I went to lunch with my boss.  He told me I was doing a great job, exactly what they wanted in fact.  This was a huge morale booster and a bit of validation.  Tackling some of these foreign things did not seem so hard anymore, because I had reassurance that I was going in the right direction.

Over the last couple of weeks things have just constantly improved.  I feel more comfortable in my environment and with my bosses.  I have a grip on some of the marketing things I thought I would never understand.  I am being given new projects including designing curriculum for a new program.  I am interviewing and admitting new students for the spring semester.  Things are really starting to take-off and it is incredibly exciting.

To top it all off, just before Christmas, I got my business cards!

Starting a new job and becoming comfortable with it takes gumption … and time!