It's been a while since I last blogged - a bit of this and a bit of that contributing to a generally busy time period over the last month or so.
Work has been hectic, but in a good way. I think a lot of the drive to blog came from trying to engage people at in a more social-media friendly environment, and it's been largely successful in my corner of the social media sphere (or at least I'd like to think it has). I hosted my mother who was visiting from Canada for a week at the beginning of September, and it was nice to take a break from the web and reconnect with family and friends on this side of the ocean. I celebrated getting a year older, and borrowing a great tradition from my stepfather I thought I'd share some birthday wisdom - this time from a work and SEM perspective.
1. Engagement is key. When you fail to engage with your peers, you might as well forget about getting better at what you do.
2. Try not to get caught up in the high school stuff - concentrate on being an adult. While I'm far removed from some of the mudslinging that has gone on in the industry recently, I've been actively trying to keep an arm's length away because I feel that getting into it and picking fights is going to make the wrong name for myself.
3. Stand up for morals and ethics in SEM, but don't push too hard or you'll get burned badly. Adopting a holier-than-thou approach and taking the weight of a company or the industry's integrity on your shoulders will see you collapse. This doesn't mean do away with ethics altogether, but you are only responsible for your own integrity - you can't make people good or responsible or morally accountable, no matter how hard you try.
4. Get out there. Stop thinking that you're too young, you don't have a Y chromosome, or you're in the wrong country. As much as you can, participate and share - people are held back by thinking they got in the game too late way too often. This was a lesson learned quite recently, and one that I hope to expand upon before my next birthday wisdom post comes along.
5. Learn. Learn. Learn. As an industry, we are constantly changing. As people, we also forget that education and improvement doesn't stop with letters after your name or keeping with a particular job field. Even if it doesn't make sense to your job, why are you not spending at least an hour a week learning something new? One of the most rewarding times for me over the past year has been attending a weekly class which does not relate in any way to my job, but has been incredibly fulfilling from a personal perspective. Oddly, it's made me see things in my job which I couldn't have seen had I not taken the class. Funny how these things work out, isn't it?
I think a lot of the list overlaps on itself; learning, confidence and engagement. It's been a very interesting year, and as I start the march towards my next year, I hope that it's as fulfilling as the last year has been, professionally and personally.
