These career-transition blog posts seem to have a certain structure to them:
- High-minded statement about the industry, life, careers, challenges, fulfillment, etc.
- Something about how much the author has always admired a person and/or a company.
- The reveal: Hey! Guess what? I’m going to work for that company!
- Job description that highlights all the awesome stuff and ignores the mundane, and generally gives a sense that this new job is not only the best job ever in the history of jobs, but ultimately preferable to being a rock star, racing car driver, astronaut or independently wealthy.
- Brief statement about how the author’s current job is awesome and how he or she loves it and is of course highly successful there, but the new job is just that little bit awesomer.
- Onward, to the future!
You’ve already seen the title, so I’m going to skip to #3:
Hey, guess what? I’m going to Radian6, as Director of Social Strategy. I’ll be working with Radian6 customers to understand how social media in general and Radian6 in particular integrate within the enterprise. It’s a natural evolution of the work I did as Social Media Manager for SAS, and what I’ve learned working with clients at New Marketing Labs. Plus, you know, I did write a book about enterprise social media strategy.
And, as a bonus, I’ll be working with Amber Naslund, who has been not only a friend but also an exemplar of the right way to walk the talk, social media-wise. I can’t count the number of times I have referred to her and the community team at Radian6 when seeking real-world examples of effective community engagement for business.
I’ve had the chance over the last few weeks to speak with and meet quite a few of my future colleagues, and have been universally impressed. I saw them in action last week in Boston, at Radian6’s first-ever user conference. Not only was there a great vibe among Radian6 staff and customers, plus a lot of buzz about the Salesforce.com acquisition and announcements of new Radian6 features, but it was just a really fun, informative, worthwhile conference. I’ve been to a lot of social media conferences and a lot of user group events, and this one set a new standard for integrating what the customer wants to learn with what the company wants to share. And I still hate that I missed the party.
I’ve had quite an experience at New Marketing Labs and learned a lot. There are some great folks there and I will miss them. It was a great opportunity and I wouldn’t have missed it.
And now…
Onward, to the future!
image by NASA