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07 August 2017 Alex

From Hollywood to Robin Hood, LAX to CMS - my first month at Senior

alexHello! I’m Alex and I’ve just started as an account manager here at Senior. My life has been a whirlwind for the past few years and I can already tell that the whirlwind won’t stop anytime soon – and I’m certainly not complaining.

I’ve just had a great 4 years studying International Business that has given me the platform to create many meaningful and self-improving opportunities. My time at University was crazy; from intense short courses in Austria at the end of year 1, to interviewing for and receiving a research scholarship from Nottingham Trent in the summer of year 2, followed by two separate three-month internships in Los Angeles at an advertising agency and a six month stint in sales at The Kia Oval in London. My final year at Uni was as difficult as it was fun; a highlight was being awarded scholarship to attend a case competition at ICHEC Management School in Brussels where my team finished 2nd in a KPMG challenge. I returned to The Oval from March onwards while completing my degree before being lucky enough to be offered the position at Senior!

Week 1 - California to Nottingham, waves to web

I couldn’t say what the best thing about my first week at Senior was; I felt at home from minute one and confident that it was going to be a great place and role for me to work. The team were so friendly and I quickly discovered that everyone was uber-efficient across disciplines and that communication would be easy - exactly what I wanted as an account manager! We love meetings – but only the productive type; I have witnessed scenarios in the past where I believe too many meetings reduce productivity, but here at Senior the meetings are so organised that they allow us to support one-another and really streamline actions.  I was straight away given responsibility for a host of clients and even started my first full project and, whilst I was very much thrown in at the deep end, I found it extremely exciting. It was great to learn that I didn’t even have to ask for support as people were always on hand to help. This, the atmosphere and close-knit team here at Senior assisted me in picking up invaluable knowledge during my first week. (Note: that first project is now looking great!)

Week 2 - Getting on the front foot

My plan for the 2nd week was to:

1) Build trust and relationships with my clients and ensure that their projects are running smoothly
2) Learn as much as I could about Senior and why their client-base choose to work with us

Week 2 didn’t waste any time allowing me to satisfy plan objective ‘1’ let me tell you; projects well and truly started to open up and as agency work dictates I got stuck in! Again, the team were amazing in providing me with the support or answers I needed to firefight issues, push projects through the studio, and quote clients on potential future works. For Senior’s part, we are so well positioned to help membership organisations; we know the pain points, we know the demand and attention that is needed to satisfy their memberbase and ultimately, through skill, software, and approach, Senior has the capabilities and experience to excel at serving these organisations. I learnt how River is ever-improving; it is updated frequently (every two weeks to be exact) and uses actual client feedback within its updates.

Week 3 - Opening my account with my first 4

Alex working hard.My first 2 weeks had been so fast-moving that week 3 felt like I was now fully integrated into Senior! Of course I was still learning everyday but client meetings were being arranged, work was progressing, I had my first chance to witness hiccups and road blocks. The challenge now was less getting used to my surroundings and more questions like ‘how can I get the best for this project?’ and ‘what do I think would improve the project to satisfy its purpose?’ I was definitely looking forward to having the responsibility to answer them. Now I had a good sense of how Senior operated I had time to reflect on its similarities with where I had worked in America. I have more responsibility here but the agency environment, the freedom for creativity and ideas, and the encouragement to make the role my own all reinforced why I had targeted a career in this sector.

Week 4 - Perfecting the technique

By week 4 I felt like an account manager. I’d absorbed more than the 4 weeks knowledge I had; I was switching between clients, organising and creating, supporting current projects and looking forward to new ones. The friendliness and helpfulness of both colleagues and clients helped with this, but the biggest obstacle I began to conquer was River itself. I realised it is so intuitive and simple that I could quickly learn how sites worked, I could see how suitable its modules are for membership organisations and just how many different problems a single module can solve. Membership organisations need River to be fast, secure and customisable; it truly is and this makes my job easier! A momentous occasion for me was my first client meeting which lasted for 3 hours and was both exciting and productive. It’s great that River is so easy to use that clients feel comfortable and knowledgeable enough to explore the admin areas of sites themselves. This understanding means there is more time for us to chat about exciting future projects. We looked at some new objectives and learned that a single River module could be used to deliver exactly what they want but for multiple purposes.

So it’s been all go here over the past 4 weeks. There’s always so much to do, and lots of creative projects you can sink your teeth into. I’m looking forward to meeting more of my clients, so here’s to the next 4 weeks and beyond!

Alex my first month at Senior

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